Pros and Cons of Google voice as Primary Provider?
CallMeAl:
Hello,
New owner of an OBi 100, and quite impressed so far. I’ve had my device for about a week, and to date, have been flawlessly using it with Google Voice. I am considering porting my primary number away from my former provider, and am wondering if Google voice is really all I need. Curious as to what pros and cons people can share? So far, for me the pros have been free, and excellent call quality. In terms of cons, I guess the biggest would be lack of 911 service. I’ve also noticed that incoming caller ID only displays phone numbers and not names. I can’t seem to find a way to block outgoing caller ID on a per call basis, so I assume that is also a feature that is unavailable with GV. I could easily live with, or work around any of these issues, so I guess my main concern is reliability. How is the uptime of GV? I won’t be doing anything mission critical with this line, so I don’t necessarily expect 100% uptime, but something over 90% would be nice. In case of an outage, I have a cell phone for outgoing calls, but before I give my GV number out to all my friends, I would like to be reasonably certain that their calls will be forwarded to my cell, or they will at least be able to leave a message, even during most issues at Google’s end.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts,
Al
Rick:
You've hit on all the issues. I've had it for 14 months as our primary line and it's been up over 99%. You CANNOT block outgoing callerid, not per call or at all. I call on my cell which has it blocked all the time IF I need it blocked.
carl:
One more thing to keep in mind : http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=5250.0
RFord:
I too think you capture he issues quite well! My only suggestion is to set up on SP2 e911 with a provider such as Anveo ($0.80 per month), which will also serve as a backup in case there is a momentary problem with GV on SP1. This account could also be used for those calls that you wish to temporarily block outgoing caller id. I think Anveo allows this.
Would also suggest you route ALL your 800/855/866/877 calls through one of the free toll free providers that does not require registration for outgoing calls (e.g, sip.tollfreegateway.com) on one of your Gate Way accounts. This requires that SP2 is set up with a SIP provider or "fake" SIP account (127.0.0.1). GV has problems with a number of toll free numbers.
You can get Free incoming Caller name by getting a Free DID from Callcentric and use that number to route all your incoming calls. You could use Callcentric (instead of Anveo) on SP2 for e911 and all incoming calls. Search the forum for discussion on how to set this up (either way).
CheapPhone:
Per my understanding, any cell phone (even one that is no longer in service) has the emergency call available. So you can just get such a phone (old phone too but not too old as this feature is only by law enabled within last 10 years or so? cannot remember the exact date) that is not in service and use for emergency from home if you must.
This is free.....
Best regards,
Eugen
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