Dave,
Hi, this is my take on your idea. You seem to have a group of people that you can identify that you would like to communicate with. To use a business analogy, consider this group as employees in the family business. You can think of the OBi as a poor man's PBX system. If for any reason GV does not work in the Phils you might consider the following couple of setups: This will take up one SP account, leaving you the second one to experiment with GV or other SIP SP. All the OBi tricks, can be handled on the local OBi unit (CF, Callback, etc...)
Don't forget the OBiTALK service can connect all the OBi's as well.
1)
Voip.ms offers a feature called sub-accounts. Each OBi can be registered under a voipms sub account.
Pros:Free if calls are made between sub accounts using internal extensions. I think you can see the benefits of that.
Gives PBX like features to the OBi (voice mail, and more)
Calls using regular telephone numbers are possible. No explanation of sip uri dialing required.
Large selection of US tel numbers to choose from.
Their service has been rock solid. I have not lost registration to their service yet.
Cons:Downside is that one person has to pay the bill for at least one main account. Their rates are low, should not be a problem.
If the Phils OBi will handle all the call forwarding services to your cell this will work if you don't mind paying the voipms long distance rates. You will have to decide if this is interesting or not. Compare voipms rates to a local Phils voip or POTs service and decide.
Voipms rates .15-.18 cents/min to Phils. Not the cheapest on their international calling list.
No Phils DID numbers available.
2) Totally free solution might be to get a SIP account from sip2sip or other similar service.
(
https://mdns.sipthor.net/register_sip_account.phtml )
Pros:Free
Their service has been rock solid. I have not lost registration to their service yet.
Some features available (VM via Email, video calling)
Cons:You will need to explain how to dial using sip uri:
2231234567@sip2sip.infoNot as straight forward. You can setup speed dials to make it easier for the group.
Hope this helps.