Moving to Grand Cayman - What to do?
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.
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