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Obi200 porting landline to Google Voice

Started by titustroy, July 10, 2018, 03:45:12 PM

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titustroy

I know this has probably been asked a million times but this is my first time using a phone service outside of my cable company and I want to make sure I'm doing it correctly (I'm in NYC)...I read the instructions online about porting my landline number to a cell phone first and then Google Voice but I currently do not have a cell phone

https://www.obitalk.com/info/tutorials/porttutorial

can I just buy any cheap pre-paid phone from Best Buy, Walmart etc and it will work or does it need to be a specific type?...so even if I buy the cheapest phone possible it'll work fine?...how many minutes do I need to put on it to play it safe?...anyone have any links to some cheap burner phones that would work well for this

thanks for any help


A_Friend

Faced with this same problem, I decided to port my phone number to a paid voip service, so I'd have a little more assurance of ownership.  Not that I don't trust Google Voice, but it's free and not guaranteed to stick around.  And, if they ever decide to end that experiment (I mean, what is the business model for GV, anyway?  I don't see where they get much of a revenue stream from it, and it has to cost money to give away free phone calls.  At some point, one of the number crunchers is going to recommend dropping it, and they are a for-profit entity.), I'll still have my original landline.

As a result, all calls to my old landline phone number(s) ring directly to my Obi202, and I use my Google Voice number for outgoing calls.  So, I essentially have two lines, one I use primarily for outgoing and one for incoming.  As a bonus, I actually forward my incoming GV calls to the landline number, so anyone who dials that number back still comes in on my incoming line.  (As a bonus, I also managed a 4-way conference call once using the Obi202!)

I'm using Callcentric for one number and voip.ms for the other.  Each company's offerings have strength.  I find voip.ms charges a little less (and if you don't get a lot of incoming calls, you can park your DID there for $1/month and just pay for usage, and their flat rate deal isn't bad, either), but Callcentric gives out free DIDs.  I use one of the latter with their free incoming fax service.  I use another (I have two paid accounts with them) as a dial-in number for AutoAttendant from my cell phone (very useful for when you don't have a wifi connection or want to use your data). 

So, you should look into the commercial voip world, check out the features and reviews of a few services and see if you're willing to pay for at least part of your telephone service.  You'll need one anyway, if you want to keep 911 service, and you do want to keep 911 service.

drgeoff

Quote from: A_Friend on July 12, 2018, 01:32:07 AM
I mean, what is the business model for GV, anyway?  I don't see where they get much of a revenue stream from it, and it has to cost money to give away free phone calls.
Just like any other telco or cable company, GV receives a termination fee for incoming calls to GV numbers. Unlike other telcos and cable companies GV has no "last mile" costs and has a much less costly switching system than the myriad of LOs constrained to be within a limited distance of end users.

I'm not saying that GV directly covers its costs, just that they may not be as much as you think.

A_Friend

#4
Quote from: drgeoff on July 12, 2018, 03:37:43 AM
I'm not saying that GV directly covers its costs, just that they may not be as much as you think.

I'm pretty sure it costs them SOMETHING to offer the service.  There's no advertising, so that doesn't contribute to their income.  Even if somehow they turn a modest profit, someday someone might decide it's not a worthwhile line of business compared to whatever it is they decide their core business is, and poof!, it'll be gone.  TANSTAAFL, you know?

Meanwhile, it's great while it lasts, and I intend to use it to the last drop.  It just doesn't seem prudent to plan on depending on it.

lrosenman

I've been using GoogleVoice for >5+ years.  I don't think it will go away.  My opinion, of course.   

A_Friend

#6
Quote from: lrosenman on July 12, 2018, 11:51:13 AM
I've been using GoogleVoice for >5+ years.  I don't think it will go away.  My opinion, of course.  

I'm an early adopter, as well.  Eight and a half years since I got Google Voice.  (Back then, you had to be invited.)  Six and a half years now since I bought my first Obi100.  If you're being honest, you must have heard the two or three times we heard they were considering dropping the service in that time?

Six and a half years is a long time for a free phone line.  I'm grateful for it, but not presumptuous.  I certainly don't believe that Google owes me anything going forward.   Hey, I'm an old systems guy.  "Plan ahead for failure, have a fall back system, and a contingency plan."

Besides, you need 911.  It's only $1.50 a month, and you can play with the cool features of another VoIP provider.

lrosenman

I have 911 via a $1.49/mo Vitelity DID off my Asterisk server.

I have the GV (formerly a sprint integration, then ported to GV) line pointed at my Obi and my t-mobile cell.  I'm fairly certain, with Google investing time and money in the SIP conversion, they don't intend to have it go away.

(I actually have a GV line for my wife as well, old Sprint number for her ported into GV).

To each his/her own.

A_Friend

Quote from: lrosenman on July 12, 2018, 02:11:30 PM
... they don't intend to have it go away.

I agree.  At this point in time, they don't intend to have it go away.  But now is now, not the future.

What happens when they're involved in a corporate merger?  I'm not sure who they would merge with, or why, but corporate consolidation is all the rage, and profit is the name of that game.

There is absolutely no reason not to buy an Obihai device today and enjoy free phone service via Google Voice while you can.  The beauty of Obihai is that you're not limited to one provider.  There are at least a half dozen good ones that people swear by, all very cost effective, and some you can set up in minutes.

The only issue is, what happens to your DID?  It takes a few days to port it somewhere, and if your current carrier goes away, you may not be able to recover it.  I've had two low-cost MVNOs go down the drain on us, STI Mobile and PTel (aka Platinum Tel).  We lost both numbers.  So, these things happen.


lrosenman

IF they were to discontinue the service, I'm sure Google, being as large as they are, would do the right thing and give notice.  They aren't exactly a fly-by-night organization with no resources.

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 browsers
  • Google Voice on Android and iOS apps
  • Google Voice on all current Polycom devices
  • Google Voice on soon-to-be-released next-gen Polycom devices
  • Google Hangouts clients on desktop or mobile devices
  • Project Fi
  • Google 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

#12
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.