how many people reply solely on Google Voice and Obi devices?
I'm new, but I'm loving it so far. Friends/family actually commented
on how much clearer my voice sounded, compared to the old landline
and Vonage service that I had.
I have already ditched Vonage, since it's pointless to keep paying
$11.99(plus tax) per month. Is it too insane if I ditch landline as
well to save another $8.99(plus tax) per month? :)
A lot, I ditched my landline over 5 years ago when GV was Grand Central. Used a PAP2 then added an Obi. I have saved almost $2000 over that period. :)
I'm relatively new to OBI - only about 18 months - but I actually started by porting my vonage number to GV. You have to first port it to a throwaway cell, then to GV, as GV only allows port in's from cell's. Rare cases it don't work - but mine ported fine - so I have a Vonage number that rings on my OBI!
8,164. :D
Since January.
Of course we have cell phones, but for home number it's google voice and an obi. Switched a few months ago, but also use callcentric for E911 and their NY free inbound DID and Anveo for a call centric backup. google voice for all outbound.
You can get a backup SIP provider with a free DID for incoming calls and pay per call for outgoing. Thus it costs you next to nothing if you don't use it much (one quick call each direction a month just to keep the account active). But you have a hot spare in case google pulls the plug or is subjected to a successful denial of service attack.
My Rant:
Many years ago I decided I had enough of paying a ton of money to phone companies and being told what to do. You have to be quite old to remember things like the phone company renting you a phone and you could not add your own. Then when we could add phones, they charged you for each phone you had in the house. When they added touchtone capability, you paid a premium to be able t ouse it. The money supposedly went to upgrade their equipment, yet they already had upgraded because that is how the touchtone was working in the first place. Those fees went on for decades. The changeover to digital switching cut their costs tremendously.
Rant kinda ends here.
When I found VOIP services, I embraced them. I first used Packet8 and cut costs considerably. Then here in Hawaii was able to get a 808 area code by using 808netFone, another Voip provider. Hawaii is one of those places that is difficult to get numbers in and Voip.Ms considers area code 808 an international number :-)
Google Voice allowed me to have a number where my Mom lived so she could call a local number and reach me 1/4 way around the world. She felt that I didn't live so far away.
I played around with Asterisk but didn't want to run yet another computer because our electric rates here are astronomical.
Enter the Obi 110 and then the Obi 202. I enjoy running them and reconfiguring them and connecting them to my new RaspberryPi.
I have recommended the Obi's for neighbors and friends and blogged about them. The Obi's with GoogleVoice are a great idea to let them save money. Many want to get off their local phone companies and not have to pay $300 a year or more just to make local calls. Adding a low cost Voip provider lets them have more options than they ever had before.
While I don't rely solely on Obi's, they are an important part of my communications needs and my toy box :-)
@Lavarock7
You forgot about having to pay rental for the extra length extendable cord on the handset receiver.
But then you could get a break as a party-line subscriber. If you were willing to deal with the occasional " Hey lady/man get off the %xx&x! line I have an important call to make, you have been talking all %xx&x! day!" ;D
Solely? Certainly not. My cell phones are the base line. But quite a lot, not just GV but also Localphone, Callcentric as a back up and 911. Started way back with Magic Jack, but that became too frustrating.
I replaced another voip phone with it and would like to use it for all local calls but it is not always reliable so I use my cell pheon quite a bit. I get poor call quality at times and choppiness or dropped calls entirely too much to completely rely on it. I am new so it may be configuration or even my isp but I dont have problem streaming netflix or playing wireless games on ps3 so I dont know.