Need clarification on what OBi can do
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:
Fantastic! Thanks, Ihm --
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.
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