Please partner with obivoice

[dvguy]

I signed up for obivoice and so far, so good. Please partner with them and bring your obi features to let your customers enjoy low priced calling. Obi is great, but when google voice stops supporting it, we need alternatives. Your current business model of using google voice is over and you need to adapt. Please, for once listen to your customers, Obivoice is. The Aveno offer is a joke. 250 minutes a month is really not a good deal. I am yet to see a reply from obi and I am waiting over a year for a obion app speaker phone to get fixed. Reply to your customers and let them know your intentions. Right now  I am figuring you will be shutting the doors when google voice closes down. It is not a good thought for those of us who invested in obi devices.

[giqcass]

 We don't know if Ovivoice ever applied to be a partner.  The application process is open to any business that can add value to the Obi line of devices however Obihai owes it's customers and must  properly evaluate each application to make sure the company is a good fit.  If the company doesn't meet minimum standards Obhai may need to decline the partnership opportunity so they can assure only the best quality for it's customers.  Since this partner program is somewhat new it may be difficult to know how long the application process will take.  It's difficult to know just how many companies have applied and each application must be carefully evaluated.

Luckily the Obi line of devices are compatible with any service that complies with standard sip protocols and has a BYOD policy.  What's more Obihai has built in the ability for any company to deploy their devices with automatic provisioning.  They provide a large library of documents defining the process.  The ITSP need only point the devices to their own provisioning servers.  This will allow the ITSP to make sure the Obi devices are always up to date with their most current configuration settings.  Obivoice currently only sells the Grandstream.  I believe it's model 701 much like the one used by Walmart for their Basictalk service.  If you would like Obivoice to partner with Obihai or offer the Obi line of devices please contact Obivoice with a direct request for support.  Obivoice is usually quite responsive to customer requests.

I am not an employee of Obihai nor do I have any inside information.  So I can't give you any information about if ObiVoice is in the process of becoming a partner nor about where they are in the process assuming they have applied.  I can say I know of other ITSPs that have started the application process so hopefully we will hear something soon.

[dvguy]

I already mentioned to obivoice about it. They said they were trying. I am skeptical about obihai as I have seen there support does not seem to be as good. A year ago there support promissed there would be an update to the obion app to fix the speaker phone issue and no update. In 1 year obion has been updated 0 times and remains broken. I really like the actual obi device, but I am not convinced they are working with enough partners to make the loss of google voice worth buying the product now a days. I really hate to see such a good device become waste. As for quality obivoice has been good so far and as I pointed out obhia does not seem to be that concerned. A broken android app for over a year and no word about the actions they are taking now that there gv business model of free calls is gone. If they take the same action as fixing the android app you can bet ebay will be full of these devices come May 15.

I hope if they do not signup with obivoice they realize deals that have 250 minutes a month are just no good.

[giqcass]

The 250 per month is for outgoing only.  Incoming is unlimited.  That is plenty for a lot of people.  My wife and I used to split 550 minutes on our Sprint cellphone plan.  I personally doubt I would go over that 250 minute outbound mark.  The frugal person would log on to the computer and initiate a Google Voice callback when they planned to make a call to their mother or Grandmother so the call would be a free inbound call. We all know those are the calls that really eat up minutes. 

The loss of free Google voice may hurt their business a little but it won't kill it.  Obi makes the best consumer ATA devices on the market.  Their Commercial line is starting to look pretty good as well.

You should have a look at Localphones subscription rates.  For $2.59 per month you could have an incoming DID with free inbound and 800 outbound minutes.  That does not include 911.  If you want that you would get it from Anveo for another $0.80 per month. For $5.99 per month you could have 5000 outbound minutes with free incoming.  Localphone charges a one time $3 setup fee for inbound DIDs.  You could of course get a free DID elsewhere if you like.  I prefer the advance routing feature of Callcentric for inbound calls.

[dvguy]

The 250 per month is for outgoing only.  Incoming is unlimited.  That is plenty for a lot of people.  My wife and I used to split 550 minutes on our Sprint cellphone plan.  I personally doubt I would go over that 250 minute outbound mark.  The frugal person would log on to the computer and initiate a Google Voice callback when they planned to make a call to their mother or Grandmother so the call would be a free inbound call. We all know those are the calls that really eat up minutes. 

The loss of free Google voice may hurt their business a little but it won't kill it.  Obi makes the best consumer ATA devices on the market.  Their Commercial line is starting to look pretty good as well.

You should have a look at Localphones subscription rates.  For $2.59 per month you could have an incoming DID with free inbound and 800 outbound minutes.  That does not include 911.  If you want that you would get it from Anveo for another $0.80 per month. For $5.99 per month you could have 5000 outbound minutes with free incoming.  Localphone charges a one time $3 setup fee for inbound DIDs.  You could of course get a free DID elsewhere if you like.  I prefer the advance routing feature of Callcentric for inbound calls.

Thanks for the advice. I would hope that someone from Obihai would weigh in on my post and let us know who exactly they are working with and what will be offered? The company has yet to really let people know anything. They continue to advertise Google voice on there main page. That is not a good sign.

[OneForTheTeam]

They continue to advertise Google voice on there main page. That is not a good sign.

Or maybe it is a good sign...