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New to OBI and Canadian... Help.

Started by Anjolala, May 22, 2018, 09:12:23 PM

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Anjolala

New to OBI.. got it for a while but have not set it up.
I got an OBI 200.  Currently in Canada and with Bell Canada.

I want to keep my current phone line.  Looking at Freephoneline, or other alternatives, any suggestion?

I believe GV does not work in Canada.  What is good out there?  And how do I make sure my OBI 200 is working fine?  How do I dial a local Canadian number (e.g. 416 toronto number)?

Many Many thanks! 

SteveInWA

Hi neighbor!

Short answer:  no Google Voice, but yes, to any other SIP Internet Telephone Service Provider that offers Canadian phone numbers.  You can't do anything with an OBi device with out service from a provider (well, technically, you can call other OBi devices over a private Obi network connection).

Many folks here use voip.ms, which is a Montreal-based service provider.  They have excellent rates and have been in business a long time.  The only downside is that their documentation is barely adequate, and they assume the customer is reasonably VoIP-savvy.  People here can help you fill in the technical support gaps.

drgeoff

Quote from: Anjolala on May 22, 2018, 09:12:23 PM
I want to keep my current phone line.
Not clear what you mean by that.  Do you want to retain that phone line and number but have an additional phone number and service from a VoIP provider?  Or do you want to cease service from Bell Canada and have phone service only from a VoIP provider?  If the latter, you can port your current number to the VoIP provider.

SHarp

#3
Quote from: Anjolala on May 22, 2018, 09:12:23 PM
New to OBI.. got it for a while but have not set it up.
I got an OBI 200.  Currently in Canada and with Bell Canada.

I want to keep my current phone line.  Looking at Freephoneline, or other alternatives, any suggestion?

I believe GV does not work in Canada.  What is good out there?  And how do I make sure my OBI 200 is working fine?  How do I dial a local Canadian number (e.g. 416 toronto number)?

Many Many thanks!  

I'm going to assume that you mean that you want to keep your Bell number but move it away from Bell. Like said above, you can move it to VOIP.MS. You could also move it to Callcentric or any available voip provider that allows porting in. Yes, Freephoneline will let you port in a number of Canadian phone numbers; your example of Toronto would work. It would cost $25 for the port in, then $75 to get the SIP credentials unlocked to use with your OBi. After that, the only cost would be to call cities and towns outside of their free calling area.

Myself, I call people in western Manitoba that are not covered by Freephoneline(FPL). I also currently can't really spare the startup costs, so I have went with Circlenet. Their BYOD (for use with OBi) plans are very cheap and I was able to port in my number from Anveo. Warning, some configuration required.

Because you have an OBi, there is also the possibility of going with FPL for most of your calls, and using Circlenet outgoing only to very cheaply call destinations not covered by FPL's free calling area. Circlenet would even allow your FPL phone number to show as your callerID.

Lastly, you CAN use Google Voice, but only for outgoing calls, and your callerID would be somewhat random or even just a 0 (zero). If, on a visit to the States, you were able to add a phone number to your Google Voice account it would be an American number, but you could then receive calls through GV.