CircleNet Obitalk special

[Sam_from_CircleNet]

Hello Obi users!
With the current changes going on in the free and low cost DID world we thought now would be a great time to release a new Obi only offer.

1. CircleNet will provide a DID from our current stock in a location near you. We do not promise any particular number or offer portability. We will bill $1 per month for this DID and $0.002 per minute for each inbound call. Yep you read that right $1 per month.

2. CircleNet will not provide voicemail on the $1 DIDs.

3. CircleNet will give users taking us up on this offer $6 in free credit.

4. This is a special type of account reserved for Obihai devices. CircleNet may block non Obihai devices from connecting to these accounts.

5. CircleNet WILL provide 911 service for these DIDs.

Want it? I thought so! Click here to sign up
http://www.circlenet.us/Obi_special.html

[Taoman]

1. CircleNet will provide a DID from our current stock in a location near you. We do not promise any particular number or offer portability. We will bill $1 per month for this DID and $0.002 per minute for each inbound call. Yep you read that right $1 per month.

2. CircleNet will not provide voicemail on the $1 DIDs.

3. CircleNet will give users taking us up on this offer $6 in free credit.

4. This is a special type of account reserved for Obihai devices. CircleNet may block non Obihai devices from connecting to these accounts.

5. CircleNet WILL provide 911 service for these DIDs.

Looks like a great deal, Sam, especially considering E911 is included. I do have a few questions.

1)Is the local DID number randomly assigned or can the subscriber choose from a list of numbers?

2)Do you support the forwarding of your DIDs via SIP URI at no additional charge?

3)You said this offer is for OBi "devices" only. Does that restriction apply to softphones also?

4)How many POPs do you have and where are they located?

Thanks.


Edit: I see this is one detail you omitted from your post:

Notes: For the time being CircleNet is absorbing all of the local communication and e911 tax for these DIDs. We expect that to change in the next few months and we will begin to pass these taxes through to customers.

[Sam_from_CircleNet]

Taoman,
Thanks we think it's a great deal and let me see if I can answer your questions below.

1. We pick the number randomly from whatever area that we have DIDs that is closest to the customers signup address. If you wanted a DID in a different area email us first at sales@ and we'll look, no promises however.

2. Yes we do support that at no charge, you can configure an external SIP URI as a destination.

3. If the softphone connects directly to us via SIP and it's an Obi package we won't block  it. Also if the application connects to your hardware Obi device to send/receive calls that would work as well.
I'm not sure if the Obi Softphone app does this based on what I'm reading here. (https://www.obitalk.com/info/faq/OBiTALK-sec/What-is-softphone). We don't have a lot of experience (read next to zero) providing technical support for the Obi softphone app however so we might refer you back to the forum if we aren't able to provide technical support.

4. We currently have pops in Kansas City, Atlanta, California and London. You can ping them here
atl.circlenet.us
mci.circlenet.us
fmt.circlenet.us
lnd.circlenet.us


Sam

[lrosenman]

could we connect a OBI *AND* an Asterisk server to the same DID?

[SteveInWA]

could we connect a OBI *AND* an Asterisk server to the same DID?

What part of "This is a special type of account reserved for Obihai devices. CircleNet may block non Obihai devices from connecting to these accounts." was unclear?

[Sam_from_CircleNet]

Our intention is to support Obi devices only on this plan. At the moment it's on the honor system if you
were to connect other devices. Nothing we've put in place yet technically prevents that.

You could try and attach an asterisk server to this account, it might work but we would not support it.
Also we MIGHT change things in the future in ways that would make the asterisk connection not work.

Notice how my statements above are qualified? That's intentional :-)
Sam

On update I wanted to mention.
You said "Could we connect an Obi and an Asterisk Server to the same DID". There is one supported way we could set this up on the plan. You could connect the Obi via SIP and then set an alternate destination via SIP URI for the failover to the asterisk server. That would be a scenario that we would support.

Sam

[TonyTib]

Sam,

What is the status of California DID's?  (IIRC, CA's wackiness had caused problems in the past).

Thanks,
Tony

[LTN1]

The offer to sign up (via the initial link) for OBi customers didn't place any restrictions on state of residence. After signing up though, I browsed the web site a bit more and saw that CircleNet is restricting CA customers. Not sure if it applies to this signup--so a clarification would be nice.

BTW, I signed up two days ago but it says that the account will be required to be verified manually--giving an estimate of 12 to 24 hours. It has been far beyond that time and the account is still not manually verified.

Not good service so far. I'm getting flashbacks of the one-man operation of Ryan Tilton and the failed Vestalink promises.

[vtsnaab]

Hi Sam !!
My partner has been using your service for over a year with no problems a'tall - and I must affirm here that you were always reachable and willing to help during the time we got the service.

My gut feeling regarding the entry above complaining about a lag in the response is to think it is most likely that you have a zillion requests right now because your service is THAT good.

As to comparing CircleNet to vestalink - that is a low blow IMO; and if anyone looks back at all the horrid problems folks had with that service that got posted here - and then tries to find complaints about your service - I suspect they will see right away that there is no comparison possible in services, support or pricing.

Anyhow, I don't have a DID with you and will be shorn of the IPKall one I've been using soon - so I'd like to grab this not only to replace it, but as an opportunity to support your service in exchange for your generous offerings.

Only one question:
Is it possible to get this offer WITHOUT the 911 included, as we do not need it ??

Thanks Sam, and Best Wishes to You and Yours.

[Sam_from_CircleNet]

Sorry it's been a while since I've posted we've been very busy here but I did want to take a minute to respond to each of you.

TonYTib,
Nope, I wish we were able to but at the moment the tax environment is a mess. We'd have to expend so  much time and resources with compliance that it doesn't make business sense. On a secondary personal note here, the enforcement/tax folks seem down right hostile to business.

LTN1,
Sorry about that, we received HUNDREDS of bogus signups and we do our best to validate each one. We are a small two person shop, we aren't one of the big players and we don't claim to be. If you can email support@ with your info I'll see what happened to your account

**Edited, I broke my own personal rule and mentioned company names of larger VOIP providers, I took them out ** Sam

Vtsnaab,
Thanks!!!!  Reviews like that are what we live for. Now on to your question. I'd love to if the FCC would let me. They specifically say that we can not do that.

Here is their VOIP E911 guide.
https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/voip-and-911-service

The very first rule states that we must "Automatically provide 911 service to all customers as a standard, mandatory feature. VoIP providers may not allow customers to "opt-out" of 911 service.". So I can't offer an opt-out.

If the rule changes I'd love to do it and no I don't know how others are.

Sam

[LTN1]

LTN1,
Sorry about that, we received HUNDREDS of bogus signups and we do our best to validate each one. We are a small two person shop, we aren't one of the big players and we don't claim to be. If you can email support@ with your info I'll see what happened to your account

**Edited, I broke my own personal rule and mentioned company names of larger VOIP providers, I took them out ** Sam

Kind of lost interest after two weeks. Most businesses fail not for a lack of a great idea but often for poor administration.

[vtsnaab]

Thanks for the thanks Sam.
It is always a pleasure doing business with you.

As a 20+ year operator of a small business, I have always been thankful for clients who understand that what they do not get in a huge rush from small operators is usually more than made up for by the quality & value of what they get when it comes through.

As a happy user of CircleNet I can honestly attest to the fact that the above idea certainly applies.