OBI200
I have been a lurker in these forums and pretty confident that I can set up our OBI200 with this forum's support. However, I need some help with the order/timeline for the actions I need to take. We currently have DSL Internet and landline thru Verizon. We intend to port our landline to GV or other VOIP via a mobile carrier. We then intend to migrate to a FIOS internet only plan. We're okay with GV except for the 911 issue which we hope to get through GV911 or something else you recommend as better. Our dilemmas are these:
1. If we successfully port our landline to GV via a mobile carrier, will we lose our internet connection once the port completes?
2. What is the best way or order to do this to avoid losing our landline number or be without internet connection for too long?
3. If not GV911, what else? We would prefer unlimited calling and caller Id with name but not a deal breaker. We have kids that occasionally call us with the land phone but not a lot.
Any other tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Answers:
1) You might, unless you coordinate this with Verizon. It has to do with the arcane way that they bill DSL service, associated with the landline telephone number on your account. Back when I did this, I lost service for days, until they worked it out. When you port out the account's primary phone number, they might cancel your DSL service. Find out about transferring it to a new "naked DSL" account (with a new account number) first.
2) You will have to carefully discuss this with Verizon. You need to work out how you'll transfer your DSL service to a FiOS account.
3) WTF GV911. I don't understand why anyone would be attracted to this anonymous, no-information company. Use Callcentric for E911. I don't know how this relates to the second question in your paragraph, regarding unlimited calling. They are unrelated.
Thanks SteveInWA for your answers. I will contact Verizon. By naked DSL account, do you mean the landline and internet will have different account numbers? Does Callcentric's 911 provide caller Id with name? How will that work or be set up? Unlimited calling through GV but 911 info from Callcentric?Wi
E911 service has nothing whatsoever to do with caller ID service. They are separate services.
Callcentric is a SIP VoIP Internet Telephone Service Provider (ITSP). They sell calling service, a la carte. You can subscribe to any of their services. You will get a Callcentric account number, which looks like a telephone number, and starts with 1777xxxxxxx. You will then pick the services you want.
E911 service is part of their OUTbound calling plans (after all, when you call 911, you are making an outbound call). Subscribe to their North America Basic plan for $1.95/month. This includes E911 service plus some outbound calling minutes in case you need them (e.g. if Google Voice is out of service).
If you want to have caller ID name service for your Google Voice number, then also subscribe to their Dollar Unlimited plan for $1.00/month. This will give you a NY State area code telephone number. You will then configure Google Voice to forward inbound calls to that telephone number, instead of the native Google Voice SIP client in the OBiTALK device.
Finally, you will use the OBiTALK dashboard to set up one of the OBi device's Service Provider (SP1 -- SP4) slots to register to your Callcentric account. You will set up a SIP password for each registration you add, and fill in the form on the dashboard, under "OBiTALK Compatible Service Providers" at the bottom of the page.
Thanks for the screenshots. Can I just do Obi and callcentric or do I need google voice for callcentric to work? My call today to Verizon was not successful. The agent told me they only have stand alone with FIOS and not DSL. I'll try again tomorrow and hopefully get a more informed agent.
I'm afraid you aren't clear on how this works, and it gets pretty tedious explaining things from the ground up.
Google Voice, among many other things, is a SIP VoIP telephone service provider. Callcentric is also a SIP VoIP service provider. Technically, one can simply use Google Voice on an OBiTALK device to make and receive telephone calls. However, it lacks two features: E911 calling, and Caller ID Name (CNAM). To gain those two features, you can also sign up for Callcentric. You then have
two different service providers provisioned (set up) on your OBiTALK device.
Technically, you can also not use Google Voice at all, if your calling volume (total number of minutes on calls) doesn't exceed your willingness to pay for Callcentric's telephone service.
However, the beauty of Google Voice is that it is also an integrated call forwarding, SMS/MMS and voicemail service, that works on land line PSTN phone numbers, mobile phone numbers, and OBiTALK devices.
Google Voice can forward inbound calls to any combination of:
- up to six 48-state US 10-digit PSTN phone numbers (mobile, land line and/or VoIP)
- multiple Android or iOS devices running the Google Voice app (which, like an OBi, is a SIP client)
- multiple Firefox or Google Chrome Browsers on the Google Voice website
- as many OBiTALK devices as you wish
I can't address your DSL vs. FiOS migration issues; you'll have to work that out with Verizon. It is a messy process.