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is this thing free forever?

Started by preppystud, September 22, 2011, 05:06:18 AM

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preppystud

do i have to pay for yearly fees after first year?

Everton

Quote from: preppystud on September 22, 2011, 05:06:18 AM
do i have to pay for yearly fees after first year?

I assume your question is directed at the Google Voice/Talk capabilities of the OBi.  My understanding is that the ability to make calls from with Gmail will continue to free up to the end of 2011.  No one can say what will happen after 2011.  Given what Google is now charging for calls originating outside of the US and charging a per minute charge, I think if a payment system is instituted, it will be on a per minute charge [for incoming (?) and outgoing (?)]

preppystud

#2
no. i am not asking about google voice.

i am asking about using obi11o. because there is another product called netalk which walmart sells, and they will charge $30 every year.

so does this thing charge any fee after i buy it?

thanks.

RonR

The OBi100/OBi110 is a hardware device and does not provide any calling service to landline or mobile telephones.  You must configure it with a service provider such Google Voice (free through at least the end of 2011) or VoIP (which charges a fee) in order to be able to call landline or mobile phones.

You can use the OBi to call other OBi's or OBiON Apps free (at least as long as Obihai is in business and keeps their servers running) or make calls though an existing landline connected to the OBi, but in general, the OBi does not provide telephone service by itself.

DaveSin

FYI, there is no such thing as a obi11.  There is a OBi110 and OBi100.  The OBi ATA is completely different than the the Nettalk, since the latter comes with Voice Service right out the box and cannot be used with any other VOIP provider or Google Voice.  There is also the Ooma Service where you pay a flat fee upfront of the order of $200+ and pay a nominal fee per year for unlimited US/Canada calling.  Of course there is also MagicJack which is similar to Nettalk.  Again, the OBi device is a completely different beast from these other products and does not charge a fee beyond the ATA itself!  Of course the OBi has the capabilities of using the OBiTALK Service and this does not attract any fees.

Maybe next time you should ask a specific question instead of having others guess what your mean.

Quote from: preppystud on September 22, 2011, 01:57:33 PM
no. i am not asking about google voice.

i am asking about using obi11. because there is another product called netalk which walmart sells, and they will charge $30 every year.

so does this thing charge any fee after i buy it?

thanks.

preppystud

can i still use this thing even if the company is out of business?

RonR

You would be able to use all aspects of it except the OBiTALK Service, which is used to link OBi-to-OBi and OBiON-to-OBi.  The OBiTALK Service uses an undocumented proprietary protocol and server provided by Obihai.

QBZappy

RonR,

Quote from: RonR on September 07, 2011, 02:57:31 PM
Are you sure the OBiTALK voice server doesn't use SIP protocol?  I don't know for sure, but I've always assumed it was mostly vanilla SIP with a few modifications/additions to handle the OBi's specific needs.  The ports used may very well be non-standard, which would account for them not being blocked.  It would have been a fair amount of work and would take up a lot of space in the OBi to have a totally different protocol in use for the OBiTALK service when SIP is already there and would suffice.

You changed your mind on the OBi protocol. In the past you thought it might be a modified sip. Now you seem to think it is something other than sip protocol. What gives you this impression?
Owner of the 1st OBi110/100 units in service in Canada & South America. 1st OBi202 on my street. 1st OBi1032 in Montreal.

RonR

If the modifications are undocumented and unavailable, it's effectively proprietary, isn't it?  I still suspect it's based on SIP, but without any documentation of the changes Obihai has made to the protocol, someone would have to reverse engineer it in order to resurrect the OBiTALK Service if Obihai were to disappear.  That will be a lot tougher job if it's attempted after OBihai is gone and the OBiTALK server is no longer running.

tome

Given the sporadic and sometimes vague customer service offered in the forums (I am referring to Obihai itself, not the forum members), the long term viability of the company is certainly in question in my mind.  I have certainly witnessed companies collapse when they have a poor showing in online CS forums and another product comes along that competes.  I wonder if we should start a yahoo group (or such) as a backup to at least have a place to go if we want to continue to use the Obi and they disappear...?

Tom

QBZappy

#10
tome,

I doubt very much that we have reached that point. OBi is riding a wave right now. Other than something unforeseen happening, I don't think they are going anywhere soon. I even suspect that by now they have reached a milestone in their growth.
Owner of the 1st OBi110/100 units in service in Canada & South America. 1st OBi202 on my street. 1st OBi1032 in Montreal.

preppystud

when did this thing first appear?

i think that if it is so good with google voice, google might buy this whole company, and start to expand google voice.

by then, people can probably even transfer landline phone to google number.

RonR

Quote from: QBZappy on September 22, 2011, 04:14:27 PM
I doubt very much that we have reached that point.

What does it take to reach that point?

Over the past 30+ days, there have been a total of 14 posts by Obihai Technology personnel, of which 7 were non-technical administrative type posts (some of those were 15 - 30 days late), 5 were:

Quote
We suggest you use the OBi Expert configuration pages to make modifications such as this -- No need to disable provisioning.

This is especially useful when you have OBi devices dispersed throughout a country or the world. From your single OBiTALK web portal log-in you may control your OBi devices with a great deal of granularity and control.

and only 1 was of a response to a technical issue.  Numerous problem reports remain totally unaddressed and totally unresponded to by any Obihai Technology representative.

How can you paint a rosy picture on this situation?

QBZappy

Point taken. I had noticed the canned responses recently as well. That is curious indeed. I think when they setup this forum they decided that "We will build it, they will come". At this point I would venture to say that this is the best supported product in the market. Unfortunately they can not take much credit for that.
Owner of the 1st OBi110/100 units in service in Canada & South America. 1st OBi202 on my street. 1st OBi1032 in Montreal.

kb_hunter



I posted a question on the forum and many people tried to answer-- all with good intentions -- but unfortunately the problem didn't get resolved. Then an administrator suggested something equally ineffective solution, but also asked me to write to support if that didn't work.

When I contacted support, they only partially understood the question, but their answer was within target and with that help I was able to get straightened out.

So all the activity you see may not be in the forums; i.e. their support cannot be judged solely by their forum. Sometimes, the forums take on a life on their own with a lot of people with a lot of time to try all kinds of possibilities -- but support, especially free support, need to pick and choose what they tackle and strike a judicious balance to help real users with real problems and to satisfy people'e curiosity.   

Johnny

preppystud,

I'm not sure if anyone answered your original question to your satisfaction or not.

It's my understanding that once you purchase the Obi product, that there are no other costs involved, if using it with Google Voice.

There are no annual costs or fees to Obi or GV, unless GV decides to start charging for their service at some point.

As far as customer service from Obi, I can only say that I have had very good service from support whenever I needed it.  YMMV of course.