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Need clarification on what OBi can do

Started by lokibear, January 14, 2012, 10:16:53 AM

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lokibear

Upfront apologies on asking such a basic question, but I'm afraid that reading and re-reading the OBi website has not made this clear for me. Here's what I'm hoping I can do with OBi:

1 - make calls to any other regular phone, i.e. the person I'm calling doesn't need to have an OBi or anything else like VOIP, etc.
2 - port my existing phone number to use the OBi system, including Google Voice as the VOIP provider. Probably, GV would facilitate doing this porting for me, correct?
3 - use my existing cordless phones (currently using land-line service thru Qwest) to make these calls over OBi/GV
4 - retain use of my existing land line until I convince myself the OBi/GV setup meets my needs, i.e. I have the ability to use my existing cordless phones to call using Qwest or using OBi/GV. I'd do the number porting of course after my trial with OBi/GV.
5 - get some kind of refund on the device if it doesn't meet my needs, within of course some 30-day or so window of time; I'm assuming I'd pay for shipping.

I greatly appreciate any kind soul who's patient enough to get me off the ground with this. Many thanks upfront!

lhm.

All of the above with an Obi110. (Not an Obi100 w/no line port)

lokibear


Judgeless

As mentioned above it will do all that.  One thing I did not know when I bought the unit is you can not port your land line to google voice.  You need to port your land line to a cell phone carrier first, then port it to google voice. 

Felix

At the risk of stating the obvious, OBi is a device (ATA, or analog telephone adapter), not a service (there is Obinet - but let's put it aside for a moment). You would still need one or more services to make the calls. It could be Google Voice (which is free, but porting your Qwest number to it may be PITA); or it could be other VoIP providers that give you credentials.

Most "full-service" VoIP providers (Vonage, PhonePower, etc.) give you their own adapter; so you might not need OBi for them. Others provide "Pay-as-you-go" service for international calls (CallWithUs, Betamax companies); so having OBi is extremely convenient to make calls without being tied to the computer.

Finally, as somebody mentioned, OBi110 has PSTN port, so you can make and receive Qwest calls over the same telephone as VoIP calls. However, if you are just trying VoIP out, with the ultimate goal of ditching PSTN (and have a spare telephone lying around) then you might not need to use Line port at all.

lokibear

Thanks again to all who've replied here. Just a couple of followups -

- if I want one phone on each floor of my home (basement, main, upstairs), will I need 3 OBI devices?
- I agree that having to port my current landline # to a cell carrier first, then to GV does sound like a PITA. Do we have a sense on what are some simpler alternate routes? This is assuming I'm willing to use a service provider other than GV.
- ideally any alternative services would provide a transition arrangement so I could do something like this:

   1 - use the new service w/OBi devices and some temporary alternate phone number
   2 - retain my existing phone # (Qwest) and be able to use either one
   3 - after convincing myself it'll work out, port my existing phone # to the new service and lose the temporary one

Suggestions and thoughts around services other than GV are welcomed ("free" is not a requirement, but one of my goals is to save $ - currently spending $45/month...would also like to have 911). Again, all of the help I'm getting from the community is greatly appreciated.

Judgeless

Quote from: lokibear on January 18, 2012, 10:58:13 AM
- if I want one phone on each floor of my home (basement, main, upstairs), will I need 3 OBI devices?

If you want to use one phone number for all three phones you only need one box.  All three must be wired together and plugged into one OBI box.

hwittenb

lokibear,

As you know GV does not provide 911 service.  Many (most) VoIP providers do offer the service although its my opinion that the phone company's 911 service is without equal.  The phone company also provides power so that their lines work during a power failure so long as your telephone handset does not depend on your house power. 

It is possible to have an OBi110 attached to your Qwest(CenturyLink) phone, GV, and another voip provider that allows you to bring your own device.  You can setup the 911 service on the 2d voip provider. 

I would start that way with GoogleVoice and an additional VoIP pay-as-you-go provider like Callcentric or voip.ms setup for 911 and occasional outbound calls.  There are also other good pay-go providers.  Add one of their cheaper incoming numbers (DID) and get all that working and port your Qwest number to them when you are ready.  Both CallCentric and voip.ms have an option to show your current Qwest number as the outgoing caller id for calls made thru their service.  If you like you can setup one of them for both incoming and outgoing calls, the other for outgoing calls only.  Of course this is in addition to GoogleVoice.

I would initially get an indication from your selected voip provider that it is possible for them to port your number.  Some Qwest locations are rural and you might run into a problem.

With GV the outgoing caller id will be your GV number but the advantage is the calls are without cost at least thru 2012.  Of course you might decide to adopt the GV number as your primary number and drop using your other number.   

If there are additional voip provider(s) you wish to setup for occasional domestic or international calls you can add additional outgoing only providers.

I would attach your cordless phones to the OBi and they will be able to receive incoming calls from your PSTN line and your voip line(s).  After you port the number and drop your PSTN line service and detach the phone cabling from the utility company lines you can cable the OBi to that house wiring.

Felix

Quote from: hwittenb on January 18, 2012, 10:09:20 PM
Add one of their cheaper incoming numbers (DID)
I have Callwithus, and IPKall DID pointing to CWU. Theoretically, you don't need any provider to point IPKAll number directly to OBi, but I never had time to figure it out. IPkall is free, but the numbers are only in Washington state. Plus, you lose your number if you don't use it for 30 days. With OBi + GV this is much less valuable; but I've had it for long time...