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Moving to Grand Cayman - What to do?

Started by aandaritter, December 21, 2011, 08:02:10 PM

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aandaritter

Hello all,

I have just gotten a job in Grand Cayman and will be moving at the end of January.  My wife will be staying behind to get the house sold, and will then move with me in July.  Her mother, my parents, friends, etc. will all be staying in the United States, but are all going to want to be able to call us without having to deal with obscenely expensive international phone bills.  In addition, we would also like to be able to call back to the states.

I spoke with an American that already lives on Grand Cayman about how they deal with this dilema, and they said that they use Vonage.  However, after researching Vonage, as well as Magic Jack Plus, and many other voip services, I am not real impressed with the level of satisfaction.  In fact, it seems that there are a lot of people out there that are unhappy with pretty much all of these services. 

However, I came across the OBi110 device on amazon, and the reviews are amazing, to say the least.  I have spent all day reading through all of these forum topics and postings until my head hurts, and I haven't been able to determine if it will do what I want it to do or not.

When I read about the Magic Jack Plus, it really seemed to me to be the perfect device.  Set it up with a phone number here in the states with an area code that won't be long distance for my mother-in-law, and then plug it into anywhere in the world that has high speed internet and I have instant phone.  Perfect, except that most people absolutely hate the thing.

So, I am looking for an alternative that will do the same thing.  I would like to have a device (with a dedicated "United States only" analog phone hooked to it) that I can hook up to the high speed internet service that I plan to get once I get to Cayman that will have a phone number registered in the states.  I then want to use it to call the states, and have all of my friends and family call me using that number.  Period.  I'll have a new land line (or not, depending on what I choose) and new cell phones just to use in Cayman (they have international calling plans available, but that doesn't help the people back in the states avoid the long distance fees).  The fact that Google Voice doesn't play well with 911, 411, etc. doesn't bother me because of this.

I'm confused about the Google Voice service.  I've been reading all about how it works, but I don't need any of the services that they talk about (forwarding calls to another phone, voicemail, etc.).  I just want to use it to route the OBi110 through to the states.  There doesn't appear to be an option to set it up with a new phone number that isn't linked to another phone.  I think I have figured out how to set it up, but I just need someone to confirm that I'm thinking correctly.  I think that I could buy the OBi110 now before I leave, then sign up for Google Voice, pick a phone number with an area code that I want, and link it to my current cell phone that I have here in the states.  Once I have it working properly, unhook everything, put it in my suitcase, and fly to Grand Cayman.  When I get my internet service working in Cayman, hook everything back up, and I should be able to call back home to my parents for free to let them know that I made it okay.  Is that right?  Some people made mention that Google Voice doesn't work from other countries because of the IP addresses.  I'm so confused that I don't know what to think.  I guess if Google Voice won't work, I could sign up for another voip service and still use the OBi110.

Help?

Thanks in advance,

Andy

Veronica

#1
Hello aandaritter GOOGLE VOICE is definitely the way to go in this case and
" I think that I could buy the OBi110 now before I leave, then sign up for Google Voice, pick a phone number with an area code that I want, and link it to my current cell phone that I have here in the states" is exactly what you have to do and dont worry about google voice not working in other countries, cause in fact IT DOES work perfectly with the Obi as well as softphones that offer the same direct calling with google voice, just make sure you create and setup you GV account in the states.

I am from Equador and have been using google voice for so long almost a year to be in touch with my boyfriend in Canada, at that time i had to use a proxy to simulate having an ip address from USA in order to set up an account with an american number in GV. BTW it has never let me down i even bought an android smartphone to set it up there too abd be able to text my bf, so far so good. About all the other services that google voice offers if you dont need them then dont use them anyways the service is FREE at list until 2012 for making calls but i really doubt about that.  In any case it stop being free in 2012 its going to cost $0.01 per minute which is nothing, but as i said i really doubt they do that starting for the fact that the service was created for americans but it had become global. So go ahead use that set up, happy holidays and happy flight!

Veronica

hwittenb

You have the right idea.  Google Voice is a good choice, because it is a free service (thru 2012 anyway).  It's not perfect but good enough.  The OBi implementation of the GV proprietary protocol is very good.  You should recognize the risks, though and have a backup setup.  From your ip address GV will know that you are located in an international location.  They can without notice stop your calls.  You won't know how well it works until you try it. To initially setup the account you need another phone to receive the validation call and it would be best to do that while you are in the U.S.

For backup for sure you should sign up for one or more pay-as-you-go accounts with a standard voip provider(s).  Providers I would consider would include CallCentric, voip.ms, Anveo, Future-Nine.  CallCentric is very reliable and only requires a $5 account deposit.

The OBi100/110 allows you to setup 2 full providers with a single attached phone.  You could have GoogleVoice plus one additional sip voip provider with a U.S. phone number for both incoming and outgoing calls.  You can have a number of additional voip providers setup on the unit for making outgoing only calls.  I would get the OBi110 instead of the OBi100 in case you ever wish to attach the unit to a landline.

How well the calls work will depend to a large extent on the quality of the internet service available.

Stewart

There are two types of VoIP providers, commonly called BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and DISCO (Device is Supplied by Company). BYOD is generally less expensive and more flexible, while the DISCO companies ship you a pre-configured device and can provide end-to-end support.

Among DISCOs, magicJack is IMO a rock-bottom piece of junk.  OTOH, Vonage is top-of-the-line, with excellent quality, reliability and support, but it's overpriced.  There are dozens of choices in between!  For example, take a look at VOIPo and Phonepower.  I'm a satisfied PP customer, though I use other services as well.

In the BYOD arena, GV has generally excellent quality and reliability, and will be free through at least 2012, but there is essentially no support.  Should you have a problem, e.g. with your IP address being blocked, there will be no help from them.  Next step up are outfits like Localphone.  A US number is $3 setup + $0.99/mo., free incoming, outgoing to most US numbers is $0.005/min.  At the high end, look at Callcentric and Anveo.

You may want to investigate IP phones or multi-line phones.  We have a winter home in Bangkok, equipped with a Gigaset A580 IP system with three handsets.  It connects to both our Phonepower service and a local landline.  Incoming calls on either service ring all the phones, and we can call out on either service from any.  If one phone is in use, we can make or receive a call on any other.  This can be two VoIP calls, or one VoIP and one landline (with only one landline, it is not possible to have two independent landline calls).

Although it wouldn't permit concurrent calls, you can connect a multi-handset cordless phone behind the OBi, which would allow both VoIP and landline calls from any set.  Or, with a two-line conventional cordless system, you could have one landline and one VoIP call, from any combination of handsets.

Many VoIP providers can port your existing US landline number, so you would not have to give your contacts a new number.  It's also possible with GV, but you would need to port to a (cheap prepaid) mobile first.

With most providers, or through the OBi, you could forward important US calls to your Cayman mobile.  Depending on provider and cell carrier, cost would range from $0.06 to $0.20/min.

What does it cost you to call the US from your Cayman mobile?  To call a local mobile or landline?  Using either the call-thru/callback features of the OBi, or features from your VoIP provider, substantial savings may be possible on calls from your mobiles.

It would be useful to know your approximate anticipated monthly minutes usage, to/from US on home phone, and to/from US on mobiles.  If you often call other countries, please summarize that, too.  It should then be possible to make more specific recommendations.

aandaritter

Quote from: Veronica on December 21, 2011, 09:12:16 PM
GOOGLE VOICE is definitely the way to go in this case...So go ahead use that set up, happy holidays and happy flight!

Veronica

Thanks for the quick reply, Veronica!  I'm definitely glad to hear from someone that is using this set up in another country.  I feel a whole lot better about giving it a try now.  I'll go ahead and order one of the OBi110s and see how it goes.

Happy holidays to you as well!

Thanks again,

Andy

aandaritter

Quote from: hwittenb on December 21, 2011, 10:18:28 PM
For backup for sure you should sign up for one or more pay-as-you-go accounts with a standard voip provider(s).  Providers I would consider would include CallCentric, voip.ms, Anveo, Future-Nine.  CallCentric is very reliable and only requires a $5 account deposit.

I would get the OBi110 instead of the OBi100 in case you ever wish to attach the unit to a landline.

How well the calls work will depend to a large extent on the quality of the internet service available.


Hello hwittenb,

Thanks so much for the quick reply.

The advice about setting up other voip providers is very helpful.  I will have to look into how to get that set up, since having a backup plan definitely makes sense.

I have decided to go ahead and buy the OBi110, mainly since it is the same price on amazon as the 100, but the fact that it has more capability also makes it a no brainer.  Since I am still trying to figure out what all of this stuff means (too many people talk about all of this stuff with only abbreviations/acronyms - makes it all very difficult to understand for the ignorant ones like me), I didn't really think it through enough to understand that I could theoretically hook up a Cayman land line to the OBi110 also and use the same analog phones to make all of my local calls as well.  I just figured that I would have to have one set of phones for my United States calls, and another set of phones for my Cayman calls.  I'm still trying to figure out if I should even get a land line in Cayman, but it might end up making sense.  The phone provider that I'm thinking of going with has a bundle package that essentially makes a basic land line free if you also sign up for internet and mobile services.  However, they charge by the minute for every phone call, land line or mobile, so I'm going to have to do some calculations to determine if it would be better to make most phone calls with my mobile phone or the land line. I imagine that it would be good to have a land line in case there are problems with the cell service.

Since you brought up the internet service quality, maybe you can help me choose which one to get.  I am used to high speed Road Runner cable internet and would rather not have to go back in time and get something slower.  Even more importantly, I need to get something that will be able to handle the added voice traffic.  They have five different choices of internet service to pick from, with maximum download speeds of 1, 2, 3, 4, & 8 Mbps, and maximum upload speeds of 512 kbps for the first four levels, and 768 kbps for the fastest service.  My thought is that I probably should pick the fastest service to ensure that everything works as it needs to.  Any thoughts?

Thanks again for the help,

Andy

aandaritter

Quote from: Stewart on December 21, 2011, 11:44:19 PM
With most providers, or through the OBi, you could forward important US calls to your Cayman mobile.  Depending on provider and cell carrier, cost would range from $0.06 to $0.20/min.

What does it cost you to call the US from your Cayman mobile?  To call a local mobile or landline?  Using either the call-thru/callback features of the OBi, or features from your VoIP provider, substantial savings may be possible on calls from your mobiles.

It would be useful to know your approximate anticipated monthly minutes usage, to/from US on home phone, and to/from US on mobiles.  If you often call other countries, please summarize that, too.  It should then be possible to make more specific recommendations.

Hello Stewart,

Thanks so much for the thorough and quick response.

That's a lot of very informative and helpful information.  I'm learning a lot about new ways to communicate that I've never even heard of before.

That's interesting information about forwarding calls to the Cayman mobile.  Since I haven't moved yet and am actually just in the planning stages, I still have some options based on what makes the most sense.  How would this forwarding work?  My guess is that the Obi would receive the call from the states and then use my Cayman land line (assuming that I get one) to call my mobile phone.  Is that how it would work?  If so, it costs 27 cents for the first minute, and 2 cents for each additional minute to call a mobile phone from a land line.  Plus, the mobile phone packages are based on minutes used (they don't have an unlimited plan like in the states), so the incoming forwarded call would be using up minutes on the mobile phone as well.  The packages are as follows: 300'/$40, 500'/$65, 700'/$90, and 1300'/$180.  They also have bundled minutes that you can add at any time for more money.

Estimating how many minutes will be needed is going to be a little tricky, largely because I've never been in this situation before.  My wife and I mainly use land lines for all of our calls currently.  Almost all of our calls are either placed to or received from friends and family.  It's not that unusual for her to talk to her friend in Florida for over an hour, me to talk to my parents in Wisconsin for an hour and a half, or for her to talk to her mother across town (in North Carolina) for a couple of hours.  That's the main reason that I want to get this OBi device setup using voip. 

We currently use TracPhones for our mobile service ($17.33 a month for two phones - you can't hardly beat that!).  She gets 100 minutes a month, and I get 80 a month, and we never use all of our minutes.  That's because we always make a point to use the land lines sitting on our desks at work, or the land line at home.  But, we have unlimited calling on those phones.  I have no idea how either of our jobs will treat phone calls, and probably won't until we get there and start working.  It won't surprise me at all if they frown on using the phone for personal reasons, since the phone companies charge for every freaking call (the island is only 22 miles long, but they don't have free calling - what's up with that?!).  In fact, when I was down there for my interview, I noticed that pretty much everyone had a cell phone clipped on their belt.  Because of that, we may have to use our mobile phones more than we do now, but I don't know for sure. 

The mobile phone minutes packages do include free calling to the states, but that wouldn't help at all for when people in the states want to call us.  Plus, the minutes are very limited, and as I pointed out before, very expensive.  One call from my mother-in-law would kill all of the minutes and send us into overage territory (which is even more expensive).

I have no reason to believe that I will have to call other countries.  I don't do so currently, although I guess that it is possible that I will befriend someone from another country (Grand Cayman has a very diverse population - it's pretty cool to meet people from all over the world) and will eventually want to call them when they have travelled back home.  But right now I don't think that I would necessarily need to call anywhere but the states.

Thanks again for the very helpful information.  I look forward to hearing about any other ideas that you may have.

Andy

oldtimercurt

One option I didn't see mentioned was the Obi to Obi using their propietary network.  Those calls are free also.  Unfortunately, haven't seen much feedback about how well this service works.  However, I would guess that, with the Obi expertise, it should function very well.

Just saying,

OTC

aandaritter

Quote from: oldtimercurt on December 22, 2011, 12:50:55 PM
One option I didn't see mentioned was the Obi to Obi using their propietary network.

Hey OTC,

That's true, I did think about that as well.  Some of my friends and family have high speed internet and if I had to, I could buy them all an OBi110 and have them use it to call me.  Unfortunately, the one person that is freaking out about this move the most is my mother-in-law, and she doesn't even know how to turn on a computer, much less have high speed internet.  Therefore, I'm trying to figure out a way to make this as simple as possible for everyone involved, even if that means making it a little bit complicated on my end.

Thanks for the reply,

Andy

Ostracus

Obi to Obi is as simple as all the other methods.

larrybob

#10
I am setting up 4 obi 110's in Brazil.  My first thought was to just use the obi without a land line. I found a little red phone to use. The phone would be the "bat phone" directly to and from the states. This has worked been working perfectly from Brazil with Google voice. ( I initiated all the accounts here in California). The call quality is much better than a traditional long distance call to Brazil. It worked perfectly on incoming and outgoing calls.

Then I got motivated, and now am programing the obi 110's  to use with a land line. The beauty of the obi 110 is its ability to bridge calls from Google voice to the land line. I don't know how much you understood form all that reading.. but this is how I am setting it up, from a users perspective.

When the phone is picked up in Brazil, the caller hears a Brazil dial tone and makes local calls as if the obi was not there. If they want to call the states, they dial **1, they hear the U.S. dial tone, and call as if they were in the US.
Incoming local calls and calls form the states ring the phone the same way, the person in  Brazil, who answers will not know the origin of the call until they start speaking.

There is a way to have the obi recognize friends through their caller id. Once these numbers are programed into the OBI, a caller with one of these numbers will not ring through to the phone in Brazil. Instead they will be greeted by a voice menu system with 3 options. 1 to ring through, 2 to call the U.S. and 3 to get a callback.

So, if my friend's grandmother wants to call the States, she calls her grandson... hears her three choices in Portuguese, presses 2, and then dials the 10 digit U.S. number ( or a speed dial).

If my friend wants to call me form his cell phone in Brazil, he calls his own home number, gets the three choices, but selects choice 3. He gets a call back to his cell phone (In Brazil, incoming cell phone calls are free (to the cell phone user)This saves his expensive cellphone minutes). He hears the three choices again, this time selects choice 2 , and calls my 10 digit number in California.

Finally, if I want to call my friend's grandmother in Brazil, I call my friends Google voice number , I reach the obi box in Brazil, it presents me with the three choices, I also choose choice 2 but dial the 8 digit  local number in Brazil, the obi recognizes this is a Brazil number and bridges my call out through the line port in Brazil.

There are many ways to program the flow of calls through the Obi audio attendant,I programed the routing to be automatic, depending on what number is being dialed( since U.S. numbers use 7 digits and Brazil uses 8 digits.)If this would not have worked out, there are manual ways to signal the obi how to bridge and route a call.
Once all is working I will post a summery of all I changed, and what changes do what.

I hope this explanation, has showed you how the OBi is much more powerful than Vonage type system.

One last thing, I use a product like Vonage called Ooma. It is a fantastic plug a play system, and comes complete with a physical answering machine. ( I have been using this long before the obi was available.) . I brought it to use on vacation in Colombia South America, and no one knew I had left my home in California.The calls are free after you buy the box ( about $200) , but you pay about $3.00/ month in taxes. I switched over a good friend to Ooma from Vonage, and he is very happy with it. If you are not technical at all, and want an all in one system, I would go with Ooma, over magic jack vonage, or anything else out there. If you can follow easy video instructions for the easy set up of the obi, you will have no trouble setting it up for Google voice on a dedicated phone. If you can follow help on this forum, you can go further with the obi, and also bring in the benefits of a local land line. (and or a local Voip provider where you are.)

aandaritter

Quote from: larrybob on December 22, 2011, 11:05:57 PM
I don't know how much you understood form all that reading.. but this is how I am setting it up, from a users perspective.

Hey larrybob,

Wow!  That makes a lot more sense now!  I remember reading several different things where people were punching in codes to make the OBi do special stuff, but it didn't make much sense to me.  Your explanation definitely shows that this device, if configured properly, could possibly be extremely helpful. 

I tried to figure out whether incoming calls to a cell phone are free in Cayman, but there wasn't anything on the LIME (telecommunications company) website that I could find.  I remember seeing something about how one plan had a feature that when you're out of minutes that you could text someone and ask them to call you (because the incoming minutes were free), but I don't remember where I saw it (it might have been a different company, but I think that LIME is going to make the most sense for me).  I imagine that it would be nice to have this feature set up for convenience, but there is still the issue that the calls from a land line to a mobile phone are charged at the higher rate per minute.

Man, there's a lot to learn about this stuff.  It looks like I'm going to be transitioning from just picking up a phone and making a call to learning a bunch of methods and codes, all because I want to save some money.  It sure is cool that this option is available, though, and I sure am glad that there are so many people that are willing to help a newbie like me figure it all out.

Thanks so much for the thourough explanation!

Andy

aandaritter

Quote from: DaveSin on December 23, 2011, 06:49:22 AM
Incoming calls to Lime Mobile is a free call!

Hey DaveSin,

Thanks for the info.

My cellphone experience is very limited (I just have a simple LG flip phone).  I see lots of people using the fancy smart phones, but don't really have much knowledge as to the capabilities of them.  When researching the mobile calling plans with LIME, I saw that every plan includes "Data", but I'm not really sure what that means.  The plans listed have 50 MB, 100 MB, 250 MB, and 500 MB of data included, depending on which one you choose.  I don't understand how to interpret megabytes of data into minutes of usage using the OBiON App.  Plus, it appears that the smart phones are insanely expensive.  I've always had the attitude that a phone is just for making and receiving calls and that I don't need all of those extra features (maybe it's time for an attitude adjustment).  When looking at the available phones from LIME, I don't see any labeled Android or iPhone.  Many of the less expensive phones listed Wi-Fi as a feature, and some of them listed 3G, but they didn't have any 4G phones listed.

Apparently I still have a lot to learn.

Thanks again,

Andy

aandaritter

Hello again All,

My new OBi110 has arrived and I have gotten it set up!  Right now I'm still in the states, but it is making and receiving calls beautifully.  This is such a cool device!  It's a bit overwhelming though looking through all of the variations on set up options, but I am intrigued as to what all it is capable of doing.  For right now, I'm just satisfied that it will let me make and receive phone calls, but I'm very eager to get down to Grand Cayman and see if it works just as easily there.  Once I get that figured out, I may even play around with the more advanced features.

Thanks so much for everyone's help, and I may have to reach out with more questions in the future.

Andy

CaptainSteubing

Hi Andy,

Quote from: aandaritter on December 21, 2011, 08:02:10 PM
I have just gotten a job in Grand Cayman and will be moving at the end of January.  My wife will be staying behind to get the house sold, and will then move with me in July.  Her mother, my parents, friends, etc. will all be staying in the United States, but are all going to want to be able to call us without having to deal with obscenely expensive international phone bills.  In addition, we would also like to be able to call back to the states.

Welcome to Grand Cayman when you get here! 

Sorry, I haven't read your initial message on the forum until now; was on vacation. I've got multiple Obi's that I use, and they've been working very well for me both with Google Voice and with a SIP Provider. I use them in a setup linked into my Asterisk PBX.

If you have any questions such as which ISP to go with in Cayman or anything else, please contact me via a personal message on the forums, I'd be happy to give you my e-mail address/contact details.

All the best,
Arthur