Google Sets the Date for the End of XMPP with Google Voice
sdb-:
Quote from: gderf on November 04, 2013, 11:49:13 am
I'm not sure I understand their service, the United States 5000 plan which is 5000 minutes for $5.00. What does this mean, cut from the site? How does your OBi play with that? Also, are there any taxes or other fees with that plan?
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Important information
This service requires you to dial a local landline number, that means you may also pay your phone provider local charges. If you get free landline calls you only pay our cheap international rates.
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That is like a calling card. OBi "plays" with internet calling, not that.
Localphone can be used like a calling card (e.g. call in to a local number, bounce your call to another number somewhere else at the localphone low rate instead of the normal long-distance rate). That is what your snip is describing.
Localphone can be used to make or receive calls from your computer like google voice + chat.
It can be used to rent a phone number near family or friends so they can call it locally, and it will forward to and ring your phone so you pay for the call (at localphone rates) instead of your family or friends.
It can also be used like any other SIP VoIP provider, which is where the OBi comes in.
Probably it can be used in other ways, but that is what I remember.
I'm just getting started with Localphone, but they appear to fully disclose the cost, so it appears you get 5000 minutes (those are US48 minutes, if I remember correctly) with no other taxes or fees.
How you use those minutes might have additional cost, but I expect I could use all 5000 to make outgoing calls with my OBi. If I wanted a DID on the other side of the country which would forward to my home phone number, I would expect to pay for that DID plus pay for the 5000, and then calls into that DID would use those 5000 minutes as would outgoing calls from my OBi.
But like I said, I'm just getting started...
Crow550:
GVJack is future ready: http://www.pcphonesoft.com/gvjackapp-unaffected-by-xmpp-retirement-may-2014.html
CoalMinerRetired:
Quote from: Crow550 on November 04, 2013, 11:43:54 pm
GVJack is future ready: http://www.pcphonesoft.com/gvjackapp-unaffected-by-xmpp-retirement-may-2014.html
I don't see how this is considered future ready when it must be run in a browser, i.e., to make use of it with GV you must have an 'always on' PC with an 'always open' browser.
If you're going to have a browser open all the time, why not just use GV in Hangouts or directly from GMail.
mo832:
I didn't use the quote feature correctly and it looks like I hid my own quote in the shaded box, so I'm re-posting it here. Refer to the original a few entries above:
"And THIS is what I was asking about. In other words, once one decides that they want an internet phone with seamless functionality with a standard phone and not having to worry about juggling several services and time charges, and having to spend a small amount of money for whatever service they choose, there seems to be no longer a reason to use the OBI box if other boxes can do it all in one with a unified account and a unified fee for all services. If you only need it as an "extra" phone and use very little minutes, I could see the point. But if you use it as a landline replacement, which I think many ppl do, then $30 a year to set it and forget it seems as cheap as any of the other services. Correct?"
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Another way of saying this is- once you've already had to sign up for another account with a SIP provider, since you are already paying the $1.50 for 911, what's so bad about paying an additional 1 dollar (making it 2.50 a month or 30/yr) and knowing that everything is already taken care of? In one all-inclusive service, you now don't worry about nickel and dime charges for every little thing, your incoming and outgoing are in the same place, you have live cust service etc. Unless that extra $1.00 sounds like a huge increase from the multiple 1c and 7c charges you are sure to have with the other services, or you really like paying 5.95 for "5000" minutes, instead of 2.50 for flat-fee.
Again, what am I missing?? I realize 100% free is a no-brainer, even compared to super cheap. But once you start paying even a small charge, it's almost no difference between "super cheap" and "really cheap", especially when there is a HUGE difference in convenience.
If there is a flaw in my logic, or I forgot about other hidden charges or factors, please point it out. Other than this, it may be just a personal preference thing. (Still, comparing straight dollar-for-dollar, I think there is no objective advantage to the cobbled-together setup with OBi and multiple providers).
QBZappy:
There are many casualties as a result of GV enforcing their TOS. Here is a 3rd party app confirming that Google is actively behind this. I don't understand why the obihai blog was not as transparent. It looks like MetroTalk got their letter earlier than obihai, since obihai has until May 15, 2014.
http://winsource.com/2013/11/04/google-voice-for-windows-phone-shutting-down-metrotalk/
"We are sad to announce that after a request by Google, MetroTalk will be removed from the Windows Phone store on May 1, 2014. We apologize to all our users for this but the decision is beyond our control, and in fact affects all third-party Google Voice apps. The good news is that the app will remain available and fully functional for 6 more months, and you can expect bug fix updates during that time. A huge thank you to all of our users for making us one of the top downloaded and highest rated apps of the Windows Phone store. Once again, we truly apologize to everyone affected by this."
I am speculating that obihai may have plans to do a mass provisioning exercise on the units on May 15, 2014 to remove the GV code in the firmware. Any units configured to be provisioned by the OBiTALK service will be affected. This reminds me of the last time obihai surprised everyone after they mass provisioned all the units. A casualty of the last mass provisioning effort was the loss of RonR as a contributor. Removing the GV code would make a lot of sense since it frees up valuable space for other features in the embedded firmware. I'm hoping obihai adds an open VPN client to replace the GV code.
This looks like an opportunity to make another round of feature requests and suggest your own.
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