Obi202 + Google Voice = Broken. Will it ever be fixed?

[managerharry]

I've posted about this problem previously but it's been 6 months and I wanted to check and see if the outlook has changed and in the meantime what had been a minor annoyance (dead air when answering incoming calls) has become a major problem.

I'm using Google Voice with my Obi202 device, a configuration that worked solidly with few issues for years.  Around May of this year service has begun to seriously deteriorate to the point that it is becoming unusable.  I have two primary issues:

1. When receiving an inbound call I answer on the phone connected to my Obi202 and receive only dead air. The caller can't hear me and I can't hear them.  If the call is from my doorbell system and it is dead air I also can't buzz in using the usual number key.  Generally my cell (which gets GV calls as well) will continue to ring and if I'm fast enough I can pickup on the cell and it works.  This used to happen a handful of times a week but it now happens multiple times per day.

2. I'm on a call chatting with someone and I get the call waiting beep so I hit the flash button to switch over to the new call, this works and I can talk to the new caller but when I hit flash to switch back to the original call I get loud static that does not go away until I hang up.  This happens pretty consistently, probably 90% of the time.

I receive a high volume of calls and these two issues have begun to make my phone interactions very frustrating.

Things I have tried:
Completely resetting my Obi202 and reconfiguring Google Voice.  No change.  Buying a new Obi202 and setting it up with Google Voice.  Still experienced the same problems so I returned it and kept my old 202.

Is there a solution on the horizon?  I don't see how Polycom can continue marketing the 202 with the Google Voice logo when it has such serious problems.  If you are a very casual user of the product with Google Voice you might not notice it, but using it everyday it with a lot of calls the problems become apparent very fast.


Hardware Details:
Obi 202 Hardware Version 1.4
Firmware 3.2.2 (Build: 5898EX)
Router Asus RT-AC86U with SIP Passthrough Disabled

[ubergoober]

For what it's worth, I am running the same hardware version and same firmware load that you cite and have never experienced either problem you describe.  I've been using this device before and after the google changes and only had one small problem because I wasn't allowing Obi to update my device automatically.  I'm a comcast customer and formerly used an Asus Router with Merlin Firmware, but recently upgraded to a netgear orbi, which is working well.

You're in a tough spot because OBI support is essentially non-existent.  You've bought a device, from which they derive no further revenue and for which they have zero incentive to help you with, so you have to make a decision about how much Free is costing you.

Try subscribing your SP2 -4 to another service like Flow route and spend a small amount of money to test their services.  If stable, you can choose whether or not it makes sense to port your number away from Google.  If not stable, I'd be looking into your network connection.

My 2 cents.

Tom

[colinsantos1007]

Whenever I get a call waiting beep and switch to the other caller, and switch back to the first caller, I only get loud static if I have called that person using a speed dial number. My solution was dialing their actual number rather than dialing their speed dial number.