How to dial from cell phone / none obi land line to obi phone

[aslank]

Hi guys, i am sorry, perhaps i am stupid, but i have searched entire forum i could not find the answer.
I have setup OBI and can call from it no problem, i can call none obi landline, cell phone and international calls.

But i can't figure out how to make a call to obi phone from none obi, like cell phone and none obi landline.
Say my OBI number is: 767891234, what sequence of numbers i should dial from my cell number to call obi  phone.

thank you in advance
alex

[SteveInWA]

Hi guys, i am sorry, perhaps i am stupid, but i have searched entire forum i could not find the answer.
I have setup OBI and can call from it no problem, i can call none obi landline, cell phone and international calls.

But i can't figure out how to make a call to obi phone from none obi, like cell phone and none obi landline.
Say my OBI number is: 767891234, what sequence of numbers i should dial from my cell number to call obi  phone.

thank you in advance
alex

But i can't figure out how....

And, I can't figure out how you think the OBi devices work.  You need to subscribe to some form of VoIP telephone service to make and receive telephone calls, either Google Voice, or a SIP VoIP provider like Callcentric, Anveo, voip.ms, Phonepower, etc.  All the device can do by itself, is to call other OBiTALK devices over the OBiTALK private network.

[aslank]

thank you for reply, please assume i am not that smart.  How do i subscribe to voip telephone services?
I am reading now on how to keep your old landline phone number, which guides thru the proceed of obtaining sim card from tmobile and some further steps to complete it.  If i complete  these steps, will it do the trick, if not can you please give steps on how to subscibe to voip.  Once again i am not really smart in this.
thannk you

[aslank]

by the way, i have google voice setup, put $50 to make international calls, but i can't see settings there that would allow for incoming calls for none obi phones

[SteveInWA]

OBiTALK devices are not as simple as a magicJack or phone service from your cable company.  If you don't have basic technical skills and the ability to understand setup procedures, then this might not be the best solution for you.

There is a gigantic, years-long discussion on porting in land line numbers to Google Voice, on this forum.

In summary:

• OBiTALK devices are "Analog Telephone Adapters", or ATAs.  These devices use the Internet to connect to Internet Telephone Service Providers (ITSPs).  So, you need the hardware (OBiTALK product) and the service.
• For service, you can use Google Voice, or you can purchase service by the minute or by the month from one of the companies I mentioned earlier.
• Google Voice is not as simple as a "free telephone company".  It is a powerful call forwarding and message management system.  Again, if you are not comfortable setting things up on a web browser, then this is not for you.
• Read through the Google Voice help pages to learn more about the service:  https://support.google.com/voice/#topic=1707989
• To use an existing Google Voice phone number with an OBITALK device, you will sign into your Google account in a browser tab and sign into the OBiTALK web portal in another tab, add the OBiTALK device to your dashboard, then configure it to use your Google account.

[aslank]

thank you very much, i really do appreciate your patience.
I followed your instructions on setting up google voice, did claim number.  Now i can call that number from my cell which forwards calls to obi telephone. This is awesome and exactly what i wanted.
My only question here, when i go with the "keep your existing number setup"  (say i completed it) my assumption here that it will replace the number that i just claimed (perhaps poor choice of word, but that what system told me), is that right?

Once again thank you for helping me with the first step (ability to call from cell to obi)
Second step would going thru with keep existing phone number, assuming it will replace the number that is given to me just now.

[SteveInWA]

I think you are saying that you now have an OBiTALK device successfully setup to both make and receive telephone calls using Google Voice, right?  If not, post any issues you have with that.

Next:

Google Voice always requires that you first sign up for one of Google's free inbound phone numbers.  It sounds like you've done that.  If so, then you can port in a mobile phone number.  If/when you have successfully done that, then the freebie Google Voice number will change to a "death row", pending-deletion status.  The ported-in number will become "primary", as the number used for caller ID on outbound calls.  The freebie number will be removed automatically in 90 days, unless you want to keep both numbers.  If you want to keep the freebie number AND a ported-in number, you need to pay a second $20 fee.  Most people just let the freebie number expire, but that's up to you.

Read and follow the tutorial here:  https://www.obitalk.com/info/tutorials/porttutorial

Note:  You should wait a full week after porting a landline number to T-Mobile Prepaid or AT&T Prepaid, before subsequently porting the now-mobile number to Google Voice.  Trying to rush the process can cause the ports to fail.  You must have working inbound and outbound calling on the mobile phone, and working sending and receiving text messages, before you then port the number to Google Voice.

You will need, at minimum, an unlocked, working T-Mobile or AT&T Wireless cell phone and a SIM.  You will also need to purchase the minimum number of prepaid calling minutes, because you must be able to respond to a verification phone call before porting to Google Voice.

[aslank]

[You replied] I think you are saying that you now have an OBiTALK device successfully setup to both make and receive telephone calls using Google Voice, right?

You are absolutely correct here, thanks to you.

I will follow your advice on porting number process, i will work on it next week.
Once again, thank you for patience and throughout detailed explanation.
alex

[SteveInWA]

No problem.

Come back here if you experience problems with number porting.  It's better to ask, then to try to fix things, only to make it worse.  Porting in and out of land line carriers can be troublesome.

[aslank]

Hi Steve,
knowing now what i know, the answer is most likely NO, but i am going to take a risk and still ask you this question.
Is it possible to forward messages (somewhere in the settings in google voice) to landline home phone answering system.  So, now, when i call from cell phone to landline (well technically i am calling to obitalk, but the call is forwarded to freebie number, consequently landline phone rings), machine answering system does not kick in. Because google voice kicks in, i tried to play with settings in the phone answering settings(like for answer to kick in after 4 beeps vs.6), still does not help.  I do realize the answer is not but i do hope so.

The background is i have setup obi talk for my parents, the are over 75 years old, while everything else at this point is great, they use the phone like they would via telephone company services, they don't even know the difference, and they are happy.  The reason why i did it to help my parents, they have relatives in Russia, Germany, Belarus and Israel, and i can't denie them pleasure of calling their first/second blood relatives. They don't have much money, pension is not that big, so my sister and i have been helping them with payments.  Those international calls would be sometimes $500 -$600 a month, of course they are not aware of that, i had setup on my credit card with auto pay with century link.  This obi cut my expenses monthly to ~$30 monthly, which is quiet  a savings which i can re-route to a different needs for them.  Currently i switch century link to basic (~$40 monthly) until i complete phone number transfer, after which i cancel services all together.  In fact the phone is not plugged in to telephone jack as is it plugged in to obitalk device.

I can certainly try explaining them to use google voice, but given that they are over 75, not sure how well they can adopt, so before i do that i just wanted to check by you if it is feasible somewhere in coolge voice settings to make so landline message would kick in.  That is the way they are used to and know.

thank you
alex

[SteveInWA]

The problem with attempting to use an old-skool answering machine with Google Voice is that a) the answering machine must pick up the call well before the 25 second Google Voice ring interval, and b) if the Google Voice phone number is already on a call, then the second call will go to Google Voice voicemail. 

Google Voice is not a simple/dumb telephone line.  It is a complex call forwarding system.

If all you want for your parents is a cheap phone line, then get them a magicJack or use the OBiTALK device with a bare-bones SIP VoIP service provider, like Circlenet (http://www.circlenet.biz/)

[aslank]

Thank you Steve.
I made a google voice shortcut on a PC desktop, i think they learn faster than i gave them a credit initially.
Alex