Greetings,
I have an Obi 202. SP1 is PhonePower on line 1. SP2 is GV on line 2. I've been using PhonePower for 4+ years and I've been happy with the service with two exceptions.
1. When my Obi loses power, I need to disable SP1, wait for PhonePower to drop my SIP registration and then reconnect. I often don't realize that PhonePower is refusing the registration attempts until 2 minutes before a conference call. When this happens, I use line 2 (GV).
2. The technical help at PhonePower isn't great. It's not terrible, but I try not to call unless I'm really stuck. They are pleasant, but they seem overworked.
This is not a PhonePower bashing post. I've been happy with them for some time and overall the service has been good at a great price. But I started using GV on SP2 because of the above issue with power outages and GV has not failed me yet.
I'm thinking of porting my PhonePower number to GV (via T-Mobile) and then configuring SP1 with this number on line 1. Any reason not to do this? I work from home so I need an option with almost unlimited minutes. 911 service isn't an issue since I have a landline and cell service at home. I'll miss outgoing CID, but I can live with this slight loss of functionality. Having redundant phone service is very appealing, but I feel like PhonePower isn't always reliable because of the SIP registration issue.
Am I opening a Pandora's box by switching both lines to GV just to avoid intermittent outages?
Would appreciation some input.
Thanks.
The only thing in your post that I would personally worry about, if I was in your situation, is this: "I work from home so I need an option with almost unlimited minutes".
Google Voice would certainly work, but it's not 100% reliable, either. It's the nature of VoIP to have occasional problems, but in the case of GV, there is no formal, direct technical support, so, if something breaks and you must be on a call, then you're hosed.
I'd instead suggest porting your PP number to a different SIP VoIP ITSP, to see if your overall experience improves, or at least, get another phone number from a different ITSP (e.g. Callcentric or voip.ms), and give it a try for a couple of months, before deciding to port out of PP.
By the way, since you mentioned working from home: if you use one of the so-called "free conference calling" services, note that the services aren't truly free; somebody has to pay, and they operate by ripping off other telcos that have to connect to their numbers, with exorbitant inter-carrier connection fees. Google Voice charges one cent per minute to call those numbers, to partially recoup their connection costs.
https://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/traffic-pumping (https://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/traffic-pumping)
So, for conference calls, use a reputable, paid conference service.