I was with Vestalink for 4 years using an Obitalk 100. Phone service was okay, and I was paying about $37.50/year for a two year contract, which isn't bad considering E911 is included. But, there is no customer service, period, and the service was declining including the loss of the android app caller (called 'something cloud', I forget). Also, what was once unlimited became a metered monthly minute service - still not a deal killer. The final straw for me was the spam calls. The website interface shows a spam filter, which can be switched on, but it provided no apparent relief. Was getting hit with spam calls two and three times a day. It was a daily task to go to the website and block calls; I think I had about a 1000 numbers blocked when I recently left. When I looked at the portal it said the new price was going up to about $42.50 a year. Maybe they thought to get away with this because it supports the old Obitalk hardware? Okay, I'm done, but I really want that number - I've used it for lots of things. So, my adventure began ...
First, I bought an Obitalk 200 (before the recent price increase!) because I saw Google was changing something on their site and the old Obi devices would stop working. I see now there are ways aroung that, but I'm happy with my Obi 200 since it reliably send faxes (will faxes never die!). Next I read the OBItalk FAQ (
http://www.obihai.com/porttutorial ) about porting to Google Voice which recommends using a cheap prepaid account to get the number to a mobile carrier which is the only type of carrier GV supports for porting. Bought a prepaid Tmobile SIM on Amazon for $9.99, found a compatible unlocked phone to support the SIM, and activated the account asking for a port of the Vestalink number (vestalink account is the 10 digit phone number, PIN is blank). Amazingly it ported in one day! Google accepts ports from Tmobile, so I started the port process on GV (must go to the legacy interface). So, GV port request asks for the account number and a PIN. Saw online that a prepaid Tmobile account number is the phone number. Not sure about the PIN. Didn't remember ever creating a PIN, but I did create a password, so I put that in the PIN box. Wrong! Waited for a day and nothing happened. Did some more reading and found out that 1) Tmobile prepaid account is 1+phone number (11 digits, not 10), and 2), you must call Tmobile customer support to get a 6 digit PIN, since it apparently never surfaces in the online activation process - although I saw something to the affect that it is automatically generated from a portion of the MEI number - whatever. Next problem was that customer service could not generate a new pin because there was a port out request. Cancelled the port out request on Google, waited to see a email verification, called Tmobile back, and, voila, got an account PIN! Tmobile support was great, by the way. Now I started the porting process again with Google and, golly gee, with the right info, the port was complete within 24 hours!
So now I'm using an OBI200 with Google Voice and I still have my old number! The porting process cost about $40 altogether - $10 for Tmobile SIM, $10 minimum Tmobile account charging fee, and $20 for the Google porting fee. And it may cost more if you have to find an unlocked phone for the SIM (cheapest are the BLU phones on Amazon).
So, to sum up, Google Voice quality is better and I only spend $25 a year for Anveo E911 (which I have more faith in than Vestalink). It worries me that OBI is getting acquired, and I may have another journey in the upcoming days, but hey, that's just business as usual in the fast paced world of unfettered capitalism. Hope this helps with anyone wanting to port out from Vestalink. Porting is possible, and fairly quick, if you just dot the i's and cross the t's.