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Use OBI to call to Greece <Options> Please read!

Started by Veronica, December 17, 2011, 12:35:23 PM

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Veronica

Hello i need to find a way (best way) to call to Greece, so i was thinking in some options which i will describe and don't know if it is possible to do:

First MY SETUP:
ObiHai 110
SP1: FreephoneLine
SP2: Google Voice
POTS/PSTN

First Option:

Use Google Voice or voip.ms to call to Greece, in that case WHICH ONE IS BETTER? or IS THERE ANY OTHER VOIP PROVIDER better for Europe-GREECE specifically.

Second Option (Don't know if it is possible)

Make the person in Greece call my Obi number? use my Auto Attendant to make it call back using my SP1(FPL) line or SP2(GV) and then e able to call any of my other lines available(not been used). So basically my obi will be handling 2 of my lines at the same time. Big question is: IS THAT POSSIBLE? IF SO HOW?

Open to hear suggestions.

Veronica

Stewart

Calls to Greece (like most of Europe) are very inexpensive to landlines and quite costly to mobiles.  VoIP.ms rates are lower than GV and you'll also get good support, should you have trouble.  What is your expected monthly minutes to Greece?  Landline or cellular?  If cellular, which carrier(s)?  Or, please post the first three digits of the number (after the 30 country code).  If your usage is high, adding another provider, e.g. Voxbeam (excellent quality) or a Betamax company (cheapest) can save you money.  Of course, if your contact has an OBi or other VoIP device or app, you could call each other for free.

If your contact can make free (or very inexpensive) calls to Athens or Thessaloniki, you could set up Localphone so that they dial a number in one of those cities and it rings to your OBi.  The straightforward setup using Localphone would cost $0.005/min. to forward to your GV number.  With some additional complexity, the calls could be free to you.  Several providers offer dedicated incoming numbers in many GR cities.  There is a monthly charge of a few dollars, but no per-minute charge for calls that you receive.

Stewart

#2
Sorry, I forgot to answer your callback question.  Yes, you can set up the OBi so that when your contact in Greece dials one of your numbers, it recognizes the caller ID and does not immediately answer.  Your contact hangs up, the OBi AA calls back to his/her landline or mobile, and they can then press 0 to speak with you, or press 2 to call elsewhere using your services.  If you don't completely trust them, you can program the OBi to limit what countries they can call.

BTW, I was looking at some rates and see Easyvoip (a Betamax brand) offering $0.025/min. to GR mobiles.  This seems too good to be true and I've no idea whether the quality or reliability is any good, but you might want to pony up a few Loonies and give it a try.   Incoming calls to mobiles in Greece (like most of Europe) are free to the cell phone user and do not use plan minutes.

carl

Quote from: Stewart on December 17, 2011, 08:39:47 PM
   Incoming calls to mobiles in Greece (like most of Europe) are free to the cell phone user and do not use plan minutes.
As long as the cell phone is registered on it's home network otherwise the incoming calls can be rather costly.

Veronica

#4
thank you so much for reply soon. My boyfriend has family in greece and he has called for many years to athens at list once a day for long hours so yeah i think that is High usage for $0.04/min with his actual POTS which will cancel as soon as i come up with a better solution, i gifted him the obi110 and now to conclude the setup we need to able to call to athens Greece.
Today i checked the rates at voip.ms and this is what i found:
Greece Athens   3021     6     $0.01370000 which i think is very good, tho what about quality?, however im going to give a look to the companies you mentioned and decide for one and pay for it until next trip to greece where we will be giving his sister an obi110 so that way we dont have to pay anymore unless internet or power go off  ;D.

BTW i tested the 2 simultaneous calls and works flawlessly, i love this little gem  :-X

Thanks Stewart for take your time and help me out with this. Keep it up
Thanks ObiHai for this tremendous device, definitely the best 2011 Voip device.

Veronica

Stewart

IMO, VoIP.ms quality and support are generally excellent.  However, there are some reliability issues.  Although they have servers in many cities and have never been completely down, the system for automatically switching users to a different server may not work, or is slow to take effect.  So, users sometimes have to manually change to another server.  If you search the BBR VoIP forum http://www.dslreports.com/forum/voip , you can find lots of complaints.

In your case (using VoIP.ms only for international outbound), it may not be so bad.  If a call to Greece occasionally fails, you can just redial on Google Voice.  Or, you could even configure your OBi with gateways for more than one VoIP.ms server.

Quite a few providers, including Localphone, Rebtel, Zenofon, Voxbeam and Flowroute, give you a small credit at signup, usually good for about five minutes of calling, so you can evaluate quality without making a payment or providing any financial information.

The lowest cost option to Greece landlines (and most other places) is the Betamax companies.  Quality and reliability are not as good as VoIP.ms, but you may find them acceptable.  Easyvoip is $0.005/min.  Many of the others offer "free" calls to Greece, but the rules are complex for how many minutes you get, what payments are required, etc.  A list is here: http://backsla.sh/betamax .

Some of the providers mentioned have services that make it easy to call Greece from your mobile, or receive calls from Greece to your OBi or your mobile.  If you will be making many calls to mobiles in Greece, you should factor those rates into your decision.  Of course, the OBi allows you to connect to many providers, though you don't want to many, as it's an administrative hassle to maintain all the accounts, make payments, etc.

Veronica

Thank you Stewart ok so i want to try voip.ms that means i have to remove my SP2 settings (Google Voice) and instead put voip.ms or is there i way i can have freephoneline, google voice, voip.ms and my land line working  ;D. About the gateways you mention i dont know how they work.

Veronica