Forwarding Google Voice numbers
scott818:
Quote from: SteveInWA on April 07, 2016, 02:47:11 am
No, that won't work with Google Voice. You'll need to use a SIP VoIP service provider instead.
OK, thanks for clarifying that.
If I understand correctly, I would need to purchase two DID numbers to use as "public" numbers (0001 and 0002). Calls to those numbers can then be forwarded to the 0000 number. But what kind of service would I need for the main 0000 number? There are going to be times when I want to call out as 0001 and 0002, so I assume I would need a service that let's me set the outgoing caller ID to the respective number.
I want to do this as cheap as possible.
SteveInWA:
There are probably several different ways to create a system that behaves as you wish. Perhaps others will chime in here with other approaches. You can do this for a small monthly charge. There's a monthly fee to host each DID, and then you can either pay per minute for inbound and/or outbound calls, or you can buy a monthly "bucket" of minutes, depending on your call volume.
I have the most experience with Callcentric, so I'll describe a setup using their service. You can probably create similar solutions using voip.ms or Anveo, or some other provider.
There are some techniques that involve creating call forwarding rules within the OBis, but I prefer to do this at the service provider level instead.
Using Callcentric, for example, you need to adjust how you look at things, vs. the specific way you described the forwarding. You'd have one account, with three different DIDs, and one shared voicemail box. All inbound calls to any of the three numbers will ring whichever SP1-SP4 slots you set up on each OBi, and, if unanswered, will all simply go to the one VM box, no forwarding from one DID to the other needed. Outbound calls from each SP can be configured to display whichever of your three DIDs' caller IDs you wish.
You can either port your existing Google Voice numbers out to Callcentric or get new DIDs; your choice. Porting a number out of GV costs $3.00 to "unlock" the number for porting. This fee is basically an anti-fraud protection for you, the GV user, to prevent people from stealing your numbers. Callcentric is running a promotion to port in numbers for free.
If you want to use two separate physical telephone lines, you can program the OBi 202's SPs to ring line 1 or line 2 as needed.
For example:
SP1: use 0001 for outbound calls; ring line 1 for inbound calls to 0001
SP2: use 0002 for outbound calls; ring line 2 for inbound calls to 0002
SP3: use 0001 or 0002 (pick one) for outbound calls, ring line 2 for 0000
You'd then use Callcentric's "Call treatments" to define how long to ring, and when to go to VM, etc. You would create a separate "extension" to configure each DID on each SP of each OBi. Each extension consists of a user ID and SIP password. With Callcentric, you have one primary user ID (your 11-digit Callcentric account number, starting with 1777), followed by a 3-digit extension number, like this: 17772771234101. This allows you to control which extension rings under which conditions.
All calls, from or to any of the three DIDs share the same calling rates and per-minute or monthly bucket plan charges, so there is no need to pay for three different monthly plans. VM is free.
scott818:
Thanks for the helpful post, Steve. It's making sense now.
I have two more questions:
1. Can a Callcentric DID number be linked to Google Voice as a forwarding number, or will Google reject it?
2. This last question pertains to the OBi200/202 devices. I've searched around but can't find any info on this: is it possible to link multiple 200/202 units together and access each unit's SPn profile from a single telephone?
For example, if I have two OBi200 devices, both connected to the same router, and both units have services configured on all of their SP slots (8 services total), is it possible to use, let's say, the second OBi200 device's SP2 Service from a telephone that's connected to the PHONE1 port of the first OBi200?
SteveInWA:
Quote from: scott818 on April 07, 2016, 11:35:43 am
Thanks for the helpful post, Steve. It's making sense now.
I have two more questions:
1. Can a Callcentric DID number be linked to Google Voice as a forwarding number, or will Google reject it?
Yes, you can forward a Google Voice number to a Callcentric DID number. In fact, that is exactly what a lot of us do, so that we can enjoy the added benefit of caller ID name (CNAM) provided by Callcentric. Note that, to prevent abuse, you can no longer sign up for a new Google Voice number by submitting a VoIP number as your forwarding phone, but, once you do have a Google Voice number, you can add VoIP numbers as forwarding phones. Of course, just to be perfectly clear, when I say yes, you can use a VoIP DID, what I mean is, you can forward to the 10-digit PSTN telephone number, not a SIP URI, such as 1777123456@in.callcentric.com.
Quote
2. This last question pertains to the OBi200/202 devices. I've searched around but can't find any info on this: is it possible to link multiple 200/202 units together and access each unit's SPn profile from a single telephone?
For example, if I have two OBi200 devices, both connected to the same router, and both units have services configured on all of their SP slots (8 services total), is it possible to use, let's say, the second OBi200 device's SP2 Service from a telephone that's connected to the PHONE1 port of the first OBi200?
It is possible to forward, or "fork" calls from a SP on one OBi to a SP on another OBi. You can also call one OBi from another OBi via their OBi numbers (9-digit number on the bottom of the box), or set up extensions or speed dials. Doing exactly what you propose is a little more complex, as it involves using the very poorly-documented "auto attendant" feature of the OBis, whereby you call into the OBi, and access its auto attendant, and then place an outbound call.
If you decide to use Callcentric, and you just have a maximum of four different DIDs, it's easier to do all the configuration on the Callcentric dashboard, and configure each OBi to use all four DIDs. Anything more than that will require building digit maps on each OBi.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[*] Previous page