Google Fi

[bsdaiwa]

Does anyone know of any problems using Google Fi relating to the Obi device? I am thinking of accepting my invitation to Fi but I don't want to mess up my Obi devices that use my Google Voice account.
Thanks for any help.

[SteveInWA]

Fi numbers are not compatible with OBi devices.

https://support.google.com/fi/answer/6159953?hl=en

[ceg3]

Is Fi a threat to Google Voice over OBi?  I heard Leo Laporte talking about it and he didn't sound as if he had all the facts, but was lamenting how well GV HAD worked with the OBi and spoke of moving to Anveo.

[SteveInWA]

Mr. Laporte's remarks remind me of the beloved Car Talk guys, Tom and Ray Magliozzi.  One of my favorite quotes from Tom was:  "Non Impediti Ratione Cogitationis—Unencumbered by the Thought Process."

He has no idea what he's talking about.  Project Fi is not replacing or displacing Google Voice.  It's a technology demonstration, to encourage development of hybrid WiFi/LTE solutions.

[ceg3]

Thanks much for the clarification.  It seems somebody is always trying kill off GV and OBi connection.  Glad to know it lives on.

[SteveInWA]

Yep.  GV, and its relationship to Google's other services, is easy to misunderstand.  OBi devices are actually using the old Google Chat (XMPP) service, not Google Voice, which is the inbound PSTN forwarding system.  Google seems content to keep XMPP alive for the many OBi device customers using it with the service.  There are also a lot of Google employees using GV and and some of them also use OBis.

Google continues to invest big bucks in the GV infrastructure, including leasing millions upon millions of phone numbers from CLECs, and interconnecting with a very large carrier network, so I wouldn't worry about it any time soon.

[Rick]

I investigated Project Fi a bit, and quickly saw the issue with GV and the OBi.  I have two accounts with GV numbers that I use - and don't want to lose those numbers nor the OBi connectivity.

I took the immediate step of applying for Project Fi with other Google accounts - ones where there is not a number I care about losing, or involvement of the OBi.  One of the problems with the Project Fi beta is that you can't say "Thanks for the invite to my account "A", I want Project Fi, but I want it on account "B".  You have to apply for an invite on account B.

I will be doing some in-depth investigation of options in the next few weeks - by mid November we need to either renew our two year contract at Verizon or lose the ability to keep unlimited data at the rate we are currently paying, and I need to see if it makes sense for some of us to leave because we don't use that much data.  Project Fi looks interesting from the setup of the data plan - BUT I am very concerned about Google support of it as well as Google sticking with it - I have no desire to switch and then in 6 or 12 months have Google drop the plan and make my decision a bad one in hindsight.  If I had to guess, I won't be going the Project Fi route, but that's what my research will confirm, or not.

[SteveInWA]

It's amusing that this thread, which has nothing to do with Obihai or its products, got started in the "On-Topic" section.  If it gets moved or deleted, I wouldn't be surprised.

In any case, I wouldn't consider Google's continuing support the top decision factor (if they decided to ditch Fi, they'd give everyone plenty of time to port out, and the mobile handsets being used could be used with any other carrier).

The two primary issues would be:  1) ask your friends and neighbors and look at coverage maps:  do Sprint and T-Mobile have good coverage where you want to make or receive calls on the go?  2) do you want to buy new Nexus phones for everyone in your family (Fi only works on Nexus phones at this time)?

With regard to the rocket-science/supercompuing calculations of deciding which mobile phone carrier's plans are best, and the demise of "unlimited" data, I thought this was a good article:

http://www.cnet.com/news/is-it-time-to-ditch-verizons-unlimited-data-plan/