Calls made from Romania resid./cell phone to Obi in Romania-Can't get Attendent
Stewart:
IMO there is probably a good way to make this work without caller ID on the RO landline, using Localphone or Rebtel.
Please report what services you have presently set up on each OBi. Also, tell me about the economics: What is cost from their cell to the existing landline? From cell to an 031 number? From landline to cell?
jeetco:
Stewart,
Make this work without caller id?!! that would be fantastic...but how?!! by using Localphone or Rebtel...but how?!!?!!
The Obi that I have in the U.S is connected to the Ooma. I will use the Obi to specifically call Romania-Obi and then to Romania cell phone or Romania Residential line.
I plan to get rid of my Ooma service next year, when my $100 membership expires, port my number to GV and use Obi for all my calls within the U.S and countries other than Romania.
The Obi in Romania, at this moment will get calls from us in the U.S and be used to "jump" to the cell phone or residential line in Romania. I also wish to have them call us from their cell phone/residential line to romania-obi to U.S obi.
I have asked my relatives to let me know what the costs are for dialing from their cell to the existing landline, from cell to an 031 number and from landline to cell. I am told that the service there is awful...operators dont necessary know the answers or the customers are on hold for a long time and then they are hung up on. They will just wait for their bill and let me know what the costs are on their office land line and I will report back!!
Stewart:
The basic idea behind companies such as Localphone and Rebtel is simple: you call a local number in your country and it directly rings your contact in another country; your prepaid account with them is charged at reasonable per-minute rates. The way it works is that they have a small block of numbers (usually 8 to 20) in each city they serve. They use your caller ID to know which account to charge, and which number (in the block) you call tells them which contact to ring. Several other companies do the same thing, e.g. Zenofon and Fonworld, but they have access numbers in only one or two countries. Localphone and Rebtel can also be used as regular calling card or VoIP providers and they have other "tricks" as well.
If you sign up with Localphone (you get five minutes free credit for testing), you can set up a relative's number in RO as "your" number and your own Ooma and/or US cell number as the contact(s). Under Local Numbers, set your Location to Bucharest and you'll see an 0318 number for each contact. If the relative dials that number, it will ring your Ooma or cell line. The cost to a US number is $0.005/min.
So far, that has nothing to do with OBi. The next step is to get a SIP account for your US OBi, e.g. Callcentric, VoIP.ms, Localphone, or another that provides a free iNum. Set up your iNum as a Contact in Localphone, and your relative can now ring your OBi at no charge to you. With proper OBi configuration, you could also bridge the call via GV to your cell, or allow them access to the AA to call anywhere.
For the above to make economic sense, calls to the 0318 numbers have to be cheap. I would guess that from a cell phone, it's just regular airtime (though that may itself be costly). From a landline, I have no idea. However, if it's expensive, you can set up a callback system instead. Since Localphone will pass your relative's caller ID, the OBi can recognize it and not answer immediately. When the caller hangs up (not being charged for the unanswered call), the OBi AA calls back. Your relative can then press 2 and dial the desired number, or press 1 to ring your OBi. There is presumably no cost to receive a call on RO cell or landline phone. Of course, for that to make economic sense, you need an inexpensive route for the callback, hence my question of what it costs to call from the RO landline. If that, too, is expensive, a SIP provider will be the best choice. The Betamax companies are generally the cheapest, see http://backsla.sh/betamax for a list. Quality is generally not the best, but if you will be doing lots of minutes it's worth putting up €5 to experiment. Voxbeam (Premium route), another brand of Localphone, is usually excellent quality, but there are some gotchas. They give you $1 test credit at signup.
jeetco:
Stewart,
I sent you a reply at 12:30am and you respond at around 3am—the same day! Can’t thank you enough for the support, but don’t you get any sleep!! –sure appreciate you, Stewart!
Well, I signed up on Localphone. I did set up the relative’s number as “my” number and have listed my U.S residential (presently with Ooma) number as a “contact”. Localphone has assigned a local Bucharest number connected to my U.S (ooma) number.
Then, per your instructions, I procured an iNum from Localphone. Now, that iNum in Localphone which is also set up as a contact in the same account, has also been assigned a local Bucharest number, which is slightly different than the one assigned to my U.S (Ooma) residential line.
i.e. Both the numbers: iNum and my U.S (Ooma) residential number are listed as the “contacts” within the one account that I set up -- as mentioned in the second paragraph. Each one of these “contacts” have been assigned slightly separate Bucharest numbers.
The procured iNum has 3 options. 1. to forward calls to “internet phone” (no charge), 2. To forward calls to a land line (charge) and 3. Forward calls to local phone voicemail.
Presently the iNum is set up to forward to the “internet phone” which is a #-7 digit number.
This is where I get stuck!
How will my relative call me on the iNum and get to my U.S Obi?? I am wondering -- if my relative dials the local Bucharest number connected to the iNum, it will get forwarded to the #-7 digit “internet phone” number and then that call would have nowhere to go! If I do forward the "iNum–connected-Bucharest-local-number" to my "U.S-residential-line-bucharest-local-number" then there is a charge to that call.
I am just trying to achieve the result of what you commented “Set up your iNum as a Contact in Localphone, and your relative can now ring your OBi at no charge to you”
Also, once I have achieved this with Localphone, you say that I “could allow access to my U.S AA to call anywhere”—would I then be charged the fees when my relatives use my U.S Obi AA to call anywhere?
carl:
From what I see I do not think the i-num will do much for you, unless you want to forward the calls from there for 0.5c/min. You could also get an US DID from Localphone( they have now a special with no sign up fee) and set up your Obi with Localphone as a second provider. That' what I have ( I have some issues with Localphone voice mail, though.).
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