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What is this new Vestalink (obivoice) service provider?

Started by QBZappy, January 11, 2014, 08:34:53 AM

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QBZappy

OBi Mary meet Obivoice man

There is a new kid on the block attempting a unique approach of picking up new clients in what I can see is a niche market. Obihai created this market by convincing people to buy their OBi product bundled with the ability to use the free GV service.

This upstart seems to be around since 2010 operating under the name of Intelafone (Intelafone LLC/Intelafone.com). The obivoice brand seems to be a spinoff of the Intelafone service to capitalize on the pool of OBi/GV users out there. The choice of brand name is interesting. It begs the question if obihai will challenge them on the choice of name.

The services included in the price seems to be interesting. I'll let you read the features yourself ( http://www.obivoice.com/index.php ). At the moment it is offering free GV ports. This is an aggressive move to quickly swallow up the potential new customers before they decide to go with the more established voip offerings such as voip.ms, Callcentric, etc.

Both entities use blogs to communicate to the public. The recent entry of the obihai blog implies that they are seeking voip partners after the May 15, 2014 GV switchoff, and obivoice mentions that they would like to develop a relationship with OBiTALK.

"Obivoice is looking to closely partner with OBiTalk in the new year to continue providing quality, affordable service to those who want to continue to use their Obihai devices as an alternative to standard home telephone service."
http://www.obivoice.com/blog/?cat=1

The obivoice and the official OBiPLUS services seem to overlap somewhat as they seem to offer some business like PBX functionality.

Both obihai and intelafone have draconian Terms of Service. If you take the trouble to read it, it seems that they can kick you out at any time for any reason. I think that most service providers have similar TOS and that may be par for the course.

Terms of Service
https://intelafone.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/1338220-terms-of-service

There may be other individuals involved, however it seems the main person behind this effort is Ryan Tilton.

"When I started a voip company in 2010 we started off with Google voice as a free service for our users as well."
Ryan Tilton
http://www.obivoice.com/blog/?cat=1

Ryan, take advantage of this opportunity and introduce yourself officially to the community on the OBi forum. Please tell us who you are and what you are offering.
Owner of the 1st OBi110/100 units in service in Canada & South America. 1st OBi202 on my street. 1st OBi1032 in Montreal.

LeoKing

The OBiVoice service is by IntelaFone that I have been interested in after the May 2014 GV announcement. The website used to be http://www.intelafone.com/.

Jackson

#2
The $25/year 500 minutes of talk time per month would suit me just fine.  I'm assuming this is for both in and out?

QuoteOver 20 Calling Features
E911 Calling, Call Blocking, Call Forwarding, Call Waiting, Call Detail Records, Caller ID w/ Name, Ring Scheduling, Fax to Email, Web Faxing, etc. All free!

The only con I see.

Quote$3 Taxes and fees will be assessed per user/line per month

I am unclear if there is a monthly charge for the number they provide.

LeoKing

Yep, the $3/line/month for taxes and fees was what had stopped me from signing up with IntelaFone as it was not clear to me.

Usetheforceobiwan

#4
So with the taxes and fees, the ~$2.00 month phone service becomes >$5.00 month phone service, right?   If the bill doubles from promoted price, some people are gonna be real sore about it.  

I went through part of the sign up process (but did not complete), nothing about it impressed me.  You do at least get to see if they have a local number for your area code before you make a final commitment.

QBZappy

I wonder if this tax applies to clients outside the USA.

https://intelafone.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/1338220-terms-of-service

Billing

Accounts renew automatically unless cancelled. Accounts will renew on or around the anniversary of your initial order based on your selected term. All Intelafone services are prepaid at least one month in advance.
$3 Taxes and fees will be assessed per user/line per month
USF federal program fee, local taxes, & E911 taxes/fees - Intelafone is obligated to collect taxes and fees per state and federal regulations.


The federal program fee applicable to all accounts.

The Federal Program Fee is the contribution Intelafone incurs as a service provider to the Universal Service Fund (USF), which is mandated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as part of the 1996 Telecommunications Act.
USF applies to funding for Universal Service programs, which may include:

    Affordable telecommunications services to schools, libraries, and rural health care facilities
    Subsidies for local service in high-cost areas and low-income households
    Telecommunications services for individuals with hearing and speech disabilities

The Federal Program Fee applies to all charges for interstate (from one state to another) telephone calls, not including taxes, for all 50 U.S. states, Puerto Rico, and other U.S. territories.
Owner of the 1st OBi110/100 units in service in Canada & South America. 1st OBi202 on my street. 1st OBi1032 in Montreal.

gderf

#6
I spoke to Ryan Tilton, president and CEO of obivoice last night during a support call I made when I was having trouble getting my OBi registered for the 30 day / 60 minute free trial.

I specifically asked him if the prices on the obivoice.com plans were the totals or if any additional taxes and fees were going to be charged on top of the listed prices. He assured me that there are no additional taxes or fees and that the prices listed on the site will be the total price charged.

It may not be accurate to continue quoting from Intelafone pages.

I suggest that if you have questions on plan prices, just pick up the phone and call them at  (855) 208-9700.
Help me OBiHai PhoneOBi. You're my only hope.

LeoKing

#7
If the prices on the plans listed are the total/final prices, I will wait till OBiVoice revises the TOS to take out the $3 Taxes and fees will be assessed per user/line per month or make it clearer that the users will not have to pay $3/month in addition to the listed prices.

gderf

I wrote an email to obivoice.com support mentioning that additional the $3 Taxes on the web site and Fees were in contradiction to a statement made to me by Ryan Tilton president and CEO of obivoice when he told me that the plan prices on the web site were the total prices charged and that there were no additional taxes or fees on top of that.

I too am awaiting pricing clarification, as well as updated web pages.

Help me OBiHai PhoneOBi. You're my only hope.

Jackson

Yea I just got an email from him.  I had also asked if VM pick up time was adjustable.

QuoteYes, you can change the ring time from 10 – 90 seconds in the online portal. Where are you seeing the 3/mo taxes and fees, we got rid of that. Is it still somewhere online? Thanks

I noticed in one his vids there appeared to be a monthly number charge of $1 in the web portal.  I asked about that but got no answer.

gderf

One number is included with service. In the user control panel, additional numbers can be provisioned and they are charged for. Setup is $.99, but I do not know what they charge per month. Trying to get far enough along in the process of choosing a second number fails with trial accounts.
Help me OBiHai PhoneOBi. You're my only hope.

gderf

The web page at https://intelafone.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/1338220-terms-of-service has been updated. The $3 Taxes and Fees have been removed from the Billing Section.
Help me OBiHai PhoneOBi. You're my only hope.

QBZappy

https://intelafone.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/1338220-terms-of-service

Change of Terms

We may change the terms and conditions of this Agreement from time to time. Notices will be considered given and effective on the date posted on our website. These changes will become binding and effective the date they are posted to our website. No further notice by us is required upon your continued use of the Service. The Agreement as and when posted supersedes all previously agreed to electronic and written terms of service.

That was fast!

Ryan, thank you for the clarification. If the prices/services you are offering are indeed transparent (without surprises) I suspect you may need to hire some help with what I expect to be some new business coming from former OBi/GV users. Indeed, the offer is very competitive. I also believe that your voip service is not limited to obihai products.

Good luck.
Owner of the 1st OBi110/100 units in service in Canada & South America. 1st OBi202 on my street. 1st OBi1032 in Montreal.

cluckercreek

I've set up my account. I'm trying to learn VoIP anyway and this is looking like the way for me to go.

gderf

Did you take the free trial or just dive in with some money?

I took the trial and so far it works fine. Ignore the suggested STUN server if you use an OBi.
Help me OBiHai PhoneOBi. You're my only hope.

cluckercreek

Quote from: gderf on January 11, 2014, 11:42:33 AM
Did you take the free trial or just dive in with some money?

I took the trial and so far it works fine. Ignore the suggested STUN server if you use an OBi.

I signed up for the free trial to see how it works for me. Appreciate the heads up on the STUN setting since I use the Obi110.

gderf

Unless I hear bad things otherwise, I'll probably buy a year of service there come mid May.
Help me OBiHai PhoneOBi. You're my only hope.

carl

A slight smell of fish. First taxes- all taxes, federal, state, local, 911 whatever. Which are not uniform but vary significantly, where  live by municipality. Then, all of sudden, they disappear. Off course, TOS changing like chameleon. And who is the mysterious provider? GV is just fine, because it is free, but I would not pay for it. There is such a great choice of good and sometimes very inexpensive VOIP providers. My broadband is getting more and more pricey and even my equipment sucks money, like my 51W u-verse gateway. So a dollar more or less is really not an issue. I gave up on this  race to the bottom a while ago. Obi should keep developing new equipment, work on the manual, make things easier to use for non techies and stay out of cheap schemes.I understand that they have a headache with the end of GV through Obi but it was their choice to push Obi as the GV device and barely mention the rest. lesson learned, hopefully.

lhm.

ObiTalk, Reg.TM?  If so, ObiVoice may be hearing from ObiHai legal counsel shortly.

giqcass

Has anyone got the outbound CID Spoofing to work?  I have tried several times to verify my number but every attempt fails with my trial account.
Long live our new ObiLords!