Do Obi products work with Google Voice for G Suite?
SteveInWA:
You'll need the VVX "OBi Edition", but there is no difference in the actual hardware; it's just a different firmware load. What the G Suite support meant was what I also said: the former Obihai-heritage hardware won't work with Google Voice for G Suite; only the former Polycom VVX series hardware will work. So, when you describe the phones, use the term "Poly VVX x50 IP phone, OBi Edition". You'll have to ask your chosen reseller to find out how to purchase the correct version.
I don't yet have the procedure for using the Poly phones with Google Voice for G Suite, since this is brand new. Perhaps the G Suite folks can advise you as to how the phones are added to your console. The device's MAC address needs to be added to authorize the device, along with a Google Voice license for each user. The actual hardware provisioning is accomplished automatically, using the TR-069 standard. The OBiTALK web portal is not used at all.
Let me know if you can't get this sorted out with the G Suite folks; I have some contacts that may help if necessary.
smaccona:
@SteveInWA - thanks, I purchased the correct OBi Edition, but G Suite Support has said they don't support any hardware other than mobile devices at this time, and won't until GA is announced. So I've been unable to find out the provisioning procedure. If you have any pointers, that would be great!
SteveInWA:
Well, there's nothing you can do, but wait, because the provisioning procedure is secure and automated. It shouldn't be much longer.
smaccona:
@SteveInWA: a new section named "Desk Phones" became available in the G Suite Google Voice settings late yesterday evening. The interface is very straightforward: you enter the phone's MAC address and the user's email address, and it associates the phone with the user's Google Voice license.
I attempted to add my VVX using its MAC address, but received a message that it was "Unable to claim desk phone". Google Support were not able to help yet, as the service has not entered GA. I have the test phone networked using the Obihai WiFi USB adapter (it's supported) since it's not near an ethernet port, and it was the MAC address of the adapter I had used. The phone's ethernet port has a Polycom-assigned MAC address, which is in a different address space than the Obihai ones. It occurred to me that Google was probably filtering on supported desk phones via their MAC addresses, so I entered the ethernet port's MAC instead in the G Suite portal and even though that's not how the phone was connected to the network, it rebooted and to my surprise was online within a minute, and showed as online in the G Suite portal.
So it seems to work well and the process is very streamlined. Thanks again to all for your guidance on this.
SteveInWA:
Great! Good work on getting the phone set up. I'm glad to hear that the provisioning procedure is working so well. I'm pretty jazzed about this, as it's the culmination of a very large amount of work by Google and Poly to develop a better way to provision business phones for Google Voice. In case that statement leads to speculation, no, there are no plans to use this method for the consumer OBi products AFAIK.
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