Have an Obi 110; What is the benefit of the PSTN line port.?

[dircom]

Got an Obi 110 last fall, works great!
Got my daughter a 100 (she lives near mountains / internet only and poor cell reception)
that is working good so far.

Temporarily connected my PSTN line to my Obi 110
Not sure what you gain other than both your numbers ring on one phone.

What you give up is being able to make two outgoing calls at the same time, or having two simultaneous incoming calls.

Am I missing something?
I want 2 people to be able to call out or receive calls at the same time


On another note,
it would be nice if there was a wikipedia article of all the sucessfull NPA-NXX-xxxx ports

[LeoKing]

People connected their landline to this line port for 911 dialing.

[hwittenb]

Temporarily connected my PSTN line to my Obi 110
Not sure what you gain other than both your numbers ring on one phone.

You can also connect a PSTN line to both the OBi110 and also to another separate analog telephone that is not connected to the OBi110.  Then the phone attached to the OBi110 can access the pstn line in addition to the voip providers setup on the OBi110 and the separate analog telephone can make and receive calls when the OBi110 is used for voip calls.

[dircom]

People connected their landline to this line port for 911 dialing.

If you already have a landline, you don't need to connect it to the obi, you can already call 911.

[dircom]

Temporarily connected my PSTN line to my Obi 110
Not sure what you gain other than both your numbers ring on one phone.

You can also connect a PSTN line to both the OBi110 and also to another separate analog telephone that is not connected to the OBi110.  Then the phone attached to the OBi110 can access the pstn line in addition to the voip providers setup on the OBi110 and the separate analog telephone can make and receive calls when the OBi110 is used for voip calls.

not sure how this would be any better than have a phone with two line capability.

[LeoKing]

People connected their landline to this line port for 911 dialing.

If you already have a landline, you don't need to connect it to the obi, you can already call 911.

Of course we know that but it's 1 of the purposes people used the line port for.

[ianobi]

The Line Port can be very useful where your family/friends do not live in North America. Let's say you are in USA, your family in Spain. Locate an OBi110 in Spain, then you can bridge calls from an OBi in USA to the OBi110 in Spain at no cost, then use the Spanish PSTN as if you were located in Spain. Calls can also be bridged dialling in from Spanish PSTN numbers via OBiTALk network to USA, then using a GV number to make free calls throughout the USA.

There are many examples of this type of call bridging on this forum.

[QBZappy]

That's exactly how I use it with a unit in Bolivia. (/read my signature)

[RFord]

Of course you can also connect another ATA (PAP2T-NA, etc.) to the Line port.  For instance, if you have magic jack, you can connect it to the Line port and make outgoing and receiving incoming calls on the OBi110 Phone port.  Essentially, the attached ATA serves much like an PSTN line.

[LeoKing]

Of course you can also connect another ATA (PAP2T-NA, etc.) to the Line port.  For instance, if you have magic jack, you can connect it to the Line port and make outgoing and receiving incoming calls on the OBi110 Phone port.  Essentially, the attached ATA services much like an PSTN line.

That's exactly what I connected to the Line Port's of my 110's, MagicJack Plus, to use the MJ 911 feature with my GV's.

[dircom]

The Line Port can be very useful where your family/friends do not live in North America. Let's say you are in USA, your family in Spain. Locate an OBi110 in Spain, then you can bridge calls from an OBi in USA to the OBi110 in Spain at no cost, then use the Spanish PSTN as if you were located in Spain. Calls can also be bridged dialling in from Spanish PSTN numbers via OBiTALk network to USA, then using a GV number to make free calls throughout the USA.

There are many examples of this type of call bridging on this forum.

say you live in Italy, your daughter is in the US, if both had an OBI, and you wanted to call your daughter and various numbers in the US, you just dial Obi to Obi, and then dial out using the GV call out feature right?
So in this specific instance you don't need a PSNT line in the USA, when you are calling from another country to the USA to dial anyone else (that does not have an Obi) correct?

To summarize, the main benefits of OBI 110 vs 100 are:
911 feature
ability to plug in another ATA to the 110 model
call from USA to another country, then go out on that countries PSTN network?
ability to use the PSTN network in another country, dial into the obi, bridge to OBI in the USA and dial out using GV

any more?
thanks

[Diana]

I think that pretty much capture the main points of the OBi110.  The way I see things, is the price difference between the OBi110 and the OBi100 is so small, the OBi110 was a better option, since I could not predict long term when I might need the extra LINE port.  It was better to have and not use it now, than to need it sometime in the future and not have it available and then have to purchase another OBi110.

If I'm not mistaken, some individuals have hooked their existing Intercom System into the LINE port for additional capabilities or to get their Intercom System to work as if they had a Land Line and the ability to "buzz" someone in who is at the Front Door (in an apartment building).