Obi200 porting landline to Google Voice
SteveInWA:
Every couple of years, a newcomer shows up, posts a bunch of flames about Google, Obihai, and Google Voice, tells everyone to only configure their devices locally, spreads various "fake news", etc.
None of that stuff is accurate, and it just misleads other users, reflecting a personal bias that is not supported by the facts.
Google has been investing a huge amount of money and staff resources over the past couple of years, to update and improve the entire Google Voice ecosystem. The entire back-end infrastructure is being replaced with newer technology, better and more direct connections to carrier partners, improved number portability, improved desktop and mobile apps, and, yes, direct cooperation with Polycom to provide robust device support. The recent and ongoing conversion from XMPP to SIP is one major example of Google's ongoing and future commitment to the platform.
The new Google Voice back-end consolidates all of their other offerings onto one hardware and network platform. It now supports:
Google Voice on desktop/laptop computer web browsersGoogle Voice on Android and iOS appsGoogle Voice on all current Polycom devicesGoogle Voice on soon-to-be-released next-gen Polycom devicesGoogle Hangouts clients on desktop or mobile devicesProject FiGoogle Fiber Phone
Unlike the past, infamously reversed decision to end Google Voice support on OBi devices, Google really is going to shut down the XMPP servers this time. A bug was uncovered during the shutdown that has paused the process, until it can be resolved, but it will continue eventually; there are a lot (hundreds) of older XMPP servers wasting electricity, until they can be shut down and/or re-purposed.
As you can see, this is a major investment in current and future offerings, and it is not going away. There are tens of millions of users of Google Voice and its related offerings.
Furthermore, as I've posted in the past, the Obihai/Polycom merger is being specifically leveraged to migrate the Obihai remote deployment and device management platform to Polycom VoIP products. This isn't something that will be abandoned as a result of a merger.
Lest the trolls accuse me of being a "shill", I do not work for, nor do I receive any compensation for, my efforts to support Google Voice and to support it on Polycom devices. I also use and recommend other ITSPs. I have direct, frequent contact, under Non-Disclosure Agreements, with both Google Voice and Polycom staff. I leverage these contacts to solve problems, again, with no personal compensation, other than the satisfaction that I've helped some folks use the technology. I've been doing this since the service was first introduced, and my track record has resulted in the trust the two companies place in interacting with me. At the moment, for example, I'm beta testing a future product under NDA, specifically looking for any compatibility and UI/UX issues.
I don't care if people use Google Voice or not, and I am the first to recommend when Google Voice is an unwise choice. Cloud-based telephony, be it from Cisco, Avaya, Polycom, Microsoft Skype for Business, Dialpad, Ringcentral, Nextiva, Phonepower, Comcast or Google, is the future. If individual users don't want to embrace that, they're free to manage and use their ATAs locally, using a "DIY" ITSP, just as they did with the first Cisco ATAs many years ago. Google Voice is a cloud-based solution, not a bare-bones SIP ITSP, and it will never be designed for local management.
lrosenman:
Thank You SteveInWa. That post confirms my IT Gut feeling that Google Voice is here to stay, and for *MY* purposes is a great service.
A_Friend:
Quote from: SteveInWA on July 12, 2018, 05:27:50 pm
Every couple of years, a newcomer shows up, posts a bunch of flames about Google, Obihai, and Google Voice, tells everyone to only configure their devices locally, spreads various "fake news", etc.
None of that stuff is accurate, and it just misleads other users, reflecting a personal bias that is not supported by the facts.
Yes, I'm a newcomer. I only registered with this website on May 9, 2012. Six years and two months ago.
The fact I only show up when I'm having problems, and I haven't been here in years, is testimony to the stability of the Obihai & Google Voice platform all that time.
IF the darned portal, and the new firmware, had behaved in any expected way, I'd have been quite pleased with it. But it didn't. It ruined everything and fought me every step of the way in reinstalling my backed up voice services, Auto Attendant prompts, and speed dials (I have a lot of speed dials). Obi Expert didn't work, and even the UI couldn't cleanly reinstall my backupaa.dat by itself with 5898EX. Both of these things are clearly a mix of severe bugginess and deficiency. Plus the issue of a voip.ms profile with G729 codec stopping working in the new firmware.
As you're such a proponent of the platform, I do hope you have some ability to pass along bug reports to the engineers and lobby for improvements in the interface. As of right now, in my experience (and I do have experience with multiple system platforms), it ain't working right, especially for updating a fully-fleshed out existing Obi installation.
All I should have had to do was register my device with the portal, and it should have updated my Google Voice installation, and uploaded my other settings so I could access them through ObiExpert. That's not what it did. It dropped me in a 3-day fight to restore my Obi200 and Obi202 after the portal ruined them, some directly and some by forcing me to factory reset in order to get Google Voice working. If I hadn't found XML Notepad to be able to make tailored versions of my backup file (including one with just the speed dials), I'd still be struggling.
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