Using GV Alone For Home Phone

[ceg3]

I wonder if I can get a few comments from people happy or not happy relying on Google Voice alone for home service?

[GeeObi]

I cannot recommend because there is no 911 service.

[ceg3]

I cannot recommend because there is no 911 service.

Have you looked into adding 911?

[ceg3]

Interestingly, I just called my local police in NC and was advised using a mobile phone to call 911 works very well and they can pinpoint you within two meters.  He agreed the system has made big advancements.  Google Voice for home phone and mobile phone for 911.  Sounds good to me.  I also realize if you pick up your GV phone and call 911 you will be able to tell them where you are.  It's not as if you can't call 911 with GV.  The truth is most of us will never have to call 911.

[Taoman]

It's not as if you can't call 911 with GV.

Not sure what you mean exactly by that statement. You can't dial 911 and have it route thru Google Voice without first transposing the number to a regular 10-digit POTS number. Such as {(<911:5558884321>):spX}

Is that what you mean? I do this but only because my local PSAP has an emergency 10-digit POTS number that has the same priority as a regular E911 call. But as you say, you would still have to give the PSAP call center your address/physical location.

[ceg3]

It's not as if you can't call 911 with GV.

Not sure what you mean exactly by that statement. You can't dial 911 and have it route thru Google Voice without first transposing the number to a regular 10-digit POTS number. Such as {(<911:5558884321>):spX}

Is that what you mean? I do this but only because my local PSAP has an emergency 10-digit POTS number that has the same priority as a regular E911 call. But as you say, you would still have to give the PSAP call center your address/physical location.

OK.  You are telling me something I didn't know but I wasn't really looking for comments on 911. The post just veered off track a little.  I have of course known for years GV isn't suitable for 911, and I've never thought about it much or tried to dial it.  I might think about it some more.

What I am really looking for is feedback from people just using GV on a daily basis as the only home phone service.  I would assume if you want 911 you have signed up for it.  I haven't relied on GV in years and I know it's improved a lot, so I just wondered how's it working for people.  I'm planning to drop PhonePower soon and just use GV.

[Taoman]

You are telling me something I didn't know but I wasn't really looking for comments on 911.

Understood. I just didn't want you (or anyone reading your post) to think you could just dial 911 with Google Voice and have it connect to your local PSAP call center. It simply won't work without first transposing 911 to a 10-digit number.

I've been using GV as my "primary" number since GV was in beta and the first Obi ATA was released. For the vast majority of the time it has worked great. But I wouldn't recommend using GV/OBi as your one and only source for telephony. At the very least, you should also have a cell phone that works (has reliable coverage) in your home.

For instance, this morning I had a long conversation with a friend who was using his cell phone from home (Verizon) and I was using my OBi. But the call would get choppy and actually dropped a couple times. This was not the fault of the OBi or GV. He has an extremely poor signal (-124 dBm) inside his trailer. So I ended up having to switch to my Verizon cell phone to have a decent conversation. This is rare but it does happen on occasion.

If you don't have a cell phone with good coverage in your home there are other options.

[ceg3]

Good point. I did incorrectly leave the impression you actually can dial 911 using GV just by entering 911.  I've been using OBi for quite a long time and as I stated earlier I've never really thought about GV and 911.  I do have a mobile phone.  I can imagine GV might not be as reliable as a paid service.  What having a home phone such as GV is good for is sitting on hold using a speaker phone waiting for some support rep to come back to the phone.  I have a couple of months before PhonePower renews, so I will just use GV exclusively to see how it works.  I don't use the phone very much to begin with.  I often think I've been PP best customer for five years, because I use them so little.  Thanks for the info.

[SteveInWA]

If you don't use the phone much, then it doesn't matter which service provider you use.  Google Voice works fine.  I've been using it for the large majority of my calls for years.  However, to emphasize the previous posts about 911 service, I would strongly advise signing up for E911 service from Callcentric (Google Voice on SP1 and Callcentric on SP2).  It is a very bad idea to have a land line telephone sitting around, with no 911 service.  You might remember that it won't work, but in a true emergency, especially if YOU are the person having a medical or police emergency, you may not be thinking straight, or you may be unconscious or in shock, and you, or whoever else happens to pick up that phone to call 911 will waste precious minutes trying and retrying to call 911, to no avail.  The cost is so low as to be a no-brainer to subscribe.

[ceg3]

If you don't use the phone much, then it doesn't matter which service provider you use.  Google Voice works fine.  I've been using it for the large majority of my calls for years.  However, to emphasize the previous posts about 911 service, I would strongly advise signing up for E911 service from Callcentric (Google Voice on SP1 and Callcentric on SP2).  It is a very bad idea to have a land line telephone sitting around, with no 911 service.  You might remember that it won't work, but in a true emergency, especially if YOU are the person having a medical or police emergency, you may not be thinking straight, or you may be unconscious or in shock, and you, or whoever else happens to pick up that phone to call 911 will waste precious minutes trying and retrying to call 911, to no avail.  The cost is so low as to be a no-brainer to subscribe.

Good advice. Interesting thing just happened.  Having never ever considered dialing 911 from GV, after the discussion I couldn't resist the temptation, so I dialed.  This is hardly a recommendation, but as expected the call simply clicked off, but instantly I got a call from the police and .... caller ID actually displayed The Town of .....  They said any time someone dials 911 they call you back, even if you hang up.  Oh, I may have just figured it out.  I still have PhonePower as SIP 1 and even though I have all calls forwarded to my GV number in my PhonePower dashboard the 911 service is likely still working.  GV is phone 1. On the other hand maybe that's not right. Interesting anyway.

Update.  Oh wow, guess who just knocked loudly on my door.  Yep the police.  I don't think I'll ever dial 911 on any phone and hang up again. 

[SteveInWA]

Yeah, that was dumb.  If you subscribe to E911 from Callcentric or Anveo, you can instead call 933 to perform a complete test.  It will read back your street address to confirm it has your correct information.

[ceg3]

Yep, my stupidity aside, this did expose what is a known truth, and I'm a big fan of the police.  When seconds matter, the police are minutes away.  It actually was at least 10 minutes after the call when I got the banging on the door.  He was a little peeved with dispatch when I told him I had immediately returned their call and explained what I did.  I am sure happy to know the police are at the end of a phone call, but there are situations, such as home invasion, when you better be ready to rely on yourself.

[ceg3]

I was reading some older posts about E911 and Callcentric and if I read it right adding just 911 service with no out going calls for 18.00 I think it is also adds CNAM for GV.  Is this correct?

[Taoman]

I was reading some older posts about E911 and Callcentric and if I read it right adding just 911 service with no out going calls for 18.00 I think it is also adds CNAM for GV.  Is this correct?

No.

Yes, you can get Callcentric's E911 for $1.50/month. However, most people on this forum suggest spending an extra $.45/month and get Callcentric's North America Basic plan which gives you 120 outbound minutes per month in addition to E911. This can be useful if you're having any issues making outbound calls thru GV.
https://www.callcentric.com/rate/plans/north_america_basic/

To get inbound CNAM on your GV calls forwarded to your Callcentric account you must also have a Callcentric DID for $1/month. This is how I get CNAM for my GV calls.
https://www.callcentric.com/dids/dollar_unlimited_phone_number

[drgeoff]

Callcentric withdrew their free DIDs earlier this year.  Hence the discrepancy between information in old posts and the current situation as correctly stated by Taoman.

[ceg3]

OK.  Thanks for the replies.

[ceg3]

Just to wrap up the story, I processed a cancellation of PhonePower, and will use GV exclusively, which should work just fine for me. I did use only GV years ago with my first OBi100. I've been using it a couple weeks and of course CNAM and MWI would be nice, but what do you expect for free? I have noticed that a couple of businesses' names have been displayed, which is kind of cool.  Now that I have joined the modern world and have unlimited talk on my mobile I will likely pick up the handset less often, anyway.