Is PhonePower still an approved service provider?

[KevKan]

It appears they are no longer listed as an approved service provider so how will current Obihai users, who utilize PhonePower, be supported?   For example, how do you add them back as a provider if for some reason you had to temporarily delete them?   Also how do you resync your device when the Resync My Device button is no longer present?

[KevKan]

After posing this question directly to Obihai Support here is their response:


Edit:  Having some issue posting with Photo Bucket.  It was up here but it has been removed by them...something about third party hosting.

[Taoman]

After posing this question directly to Obihai Support here is their response:

Uh, say what?

[KevKan]

Bad information! They are still accessible through the ObiTALK portal.  Just found out while PhonePower is no longer in the "Approved Service Provider" list, they are still a provider.  When you go into Approved Service Providers and drill down, you will find them in the list "ObiTalk Compatible Service Providers"

[Taoman]

Bad information! They are still accessible through the ObiTALK portal.  Just found out while PhonePower is no longer in the "Approved Service Provider" list, they are still a provider.  When you go into Approved Service Providers and drill down, you will find them in the list "ObiTalk Compatible Service Providers"

PhonePower has always been accessible as an OBiTalk Compatible Service Provider. Even if they weren't on that list you could still set it up manually as long as you had the proper SIP credentials.

I'm still trying to figure out what Obihai told you about PhonePower no longer being an "Approved Service Provider." All I see in your post is a photobucket image saying to upgrade your account to enable 3rd party hosting.

Did you have a link/image to Photobucket that actually displayed Obihai's response? If so, it isn't visible.......at least to me.

[SteveInWA]

Bad information! They are still accessible through the ObiTALK portal.  Just found out while PhonePower is no longer in the "Approved Service Provider" list, they are still a provider.  When you go into Approved Service Providers and drill down, you will find them in the list "ObiTalk Compatible Service Providers"

PhonePower has always been accessible as an OBiTalk Compatible Service Provider. Even if they weren't on that list you could still set it up manually as long as you had the proper SIP credentials.

I'm still trying to figure out what Obihai told you about PhonePower no longer being an "Approved Service Provider." All I see in your post is a photobucket image saying to upgrade your account to enable 3rd party hosting.

Did you have a link/image to Photobucket that actually displayed Obihai's response? If so, it isn't visible.......at least to me.

I assume you know this already, but the two main differences between being an "Approved Service Provider" (ASP) and having a pre-built configuration template under the "OBiTALK Compatible Service Provider" are:

• The ASP program gives the service providers access to an enterprise provisioning platform that enables them to remotely provision and manage the devices they provide, as part of an integrated hardware/VoIP service solution.
• Some ASP service providers leverage that, to offer discounted service plans.  It makes sense for them, because a) it's easier/faster/cheaper for them to provide customer support, and b) it can lower customer acquisition and retention costs (which is one of the biggest problems in the mobile phone industry, for example).

I asked Sherman about the mis-match between the removal of Phonepower from the main ASP web page, vs. their individual ASP web page still being accessible.  He's on vacation now, and so he just deleted their ASP page.  Perhaps he'll provide more information later...or not, if it was Phonepower's decision.  I can only guess that perhaps PP decided not to continue using the ASP program.  Perhaps calling Phonepower and asking them about it would yield their answer, but who knows... my guess is that they decided they could make more money by selling non-Obihai ATAs with their higher-priced plans.

[Taoman]

Yes, definitely a safe bet that PhonePower is no longer an Obihai "Approved Service Provider."

From: "Obihai Support" <support@obihai.com>
To: Anyone who cares
Sent: 10/4/2017 3:02:02 PM
Subject: Status of PhonePower as an approved ObiHai service provider

Hi,

Phonepower service is no longer available through OBiTALK portal.


Best Regards,
Obihai Technology

[ceg3]

I had not noticed the changes to PP.  As a subscriber, with a renewal coming up, I need to find out what is going on.  Your question about re-syncing the account is a big concern, and I emailed PP support for an answer.  I'll post what I find out.

Answer: 
Hello,

Obhai has changed their sync process due to problems with the configuration they
were pushing to the devices.

1) What you'll need to do now is  Enable your Sip credentials in the Phone power account portal

2) Next In Obihai where there was the icon for Phonepower,  You now click on the link at the
bottom of that page for "other providers" and you'll see a link for phonepower.

3) Click on that link and then manually enter the Sip credential info from the
phonepower account portal into the fields in the obihai page.

Ive attached screenshots

[Taoman]

So are you saying these plans are still available for OBi users or only for existing users on a PP OBitalk plan? If available for all OBi users I wonder how they would actually sign up to get those prices?

[ceg3]

I don't really have an answer for you about new subscribers.  The only thing I asked about was not being to re sync my account, when it used to be a very simple process when they were listed as an ASP.  There are times when you want to renew the connection to resolve issues.

[jentzd]

The ASP was nice, but kind of kludgy. Whatever - it worked.

I have 2 phonepower subscriptions and am generally very happy with them. However, I see 2 main problems with these events:

1- phonepower forcing sip usage puts the account into a mode that can only have 4 simultaneous sip registrations and 2 simultaneous calls.
The 4 simultaneous registrations is not a problem for me, but 2 concurrent calls is actually kind of limiting! I think the previous value was 4 concurrent calls.

2 - what happens to obi phones / devices that were registered with the ASP method. Now that this method is gone...are they grandfathered in? if the device hits some magical reboot or registration will it no longer work? what is the transition plan?

[SteveInWA]

Only PhonePower can definitively answer those questions.  Anything else is pure speculation.

[estevez08876]

ceg 3      were you able to renew with phone power  any further information to add     best regards

[ceg3]

I just checked and I don't renew until 11/20, but I have no reason at this point to think that my account will not renew again this year.

[estevez08876]

keep us posted if you can   

[jentzd]

New problem detected with phone power and the inability to use the ASP method.

Without ASP, you can enable sip credentials then add them into the obi sip method.

This seems to work fine, obi shows up as a registered sip device on the phone power sip credentials page.

When I get a call, phonepower/obi device rings 1 time, and is then immediately transferred to the phonepower failsafe number. Failsafe number then works just fine.

Essentially this means I am not getting incoming calls on phonepower/obi using non ASP method, though. BTW, I still have a line registered with the ASP method that is working like a champ. Kind of anxious about keeping it that way, though!

Filed a trouble ticket with phone power. Will post any results.

[jentzd]

Found that on the phone power sip credentials page
The minimum registration interval is at least 1 hour. Any duration shorter than 1 hour can result in intermittent or complete loss of service.

When Obi device registers, it registers as 60 seconds by default. Setting is RegistrationPeriod under ITSP Profile A SIP (etc)

Going to try changing this to be 3600.

Will report results

[ceg3]

keep us posted if you can   

I can report that I just clicked on pre-pay my renewal and the option presents itself.  I did not follow through, but it appears I'll have no issue.  I pre-paid by a few days last year.

[jentzd]

Found that on the phone power sip credentials page
The minimum registration interval is at least 1 hour. Any duration shorter than 1 hour can result in intermittent or complete loss of service.

When Obi device registers, it registers as 60 seconds by default. Setting is RegistrationPeriod under ITSP Profile A SIP (etc)

Going to try changing this to be 3600.

Will report results

Registration period to 3600 appears to work, though I had to delete the SP from the front page then re-add it for things to come up happy. Still seems to be a little bit glitchy and failsafe number seems to be called sometimes instead of other non answer options, but close enough.

Called phonepower tech support and they asked me to delete then re-add my working ASP legacy registration. No thanks!

[jentzd]

Turns out it wasn't just the 3600 in registration period (that was my guess). A few more settings are needed that I would have never guessed.

In the Service Providers section:
Under ITSP Profile x General:

1) Name = PhonePower
2) DTMFMethod = Auto
3) X_UseFixedDurationRFC2833DTMF = not checked
4) DigitMap = (**|[3469]11|0|00|1xxxxxxxxxx|<1>[2-9]xxxxxxxxxS0|*21|*50xxxx|*51xxxx|*52xxxx|*53xxxx|*54|*6[013569]|*6[27]xx.|*77|*[789]2xx.|*73|*74[0-1][0-9]*xxxxxxxxxx|*75[0-1][0-9]|*8[137]|90xxxx|*93|*96|011xx.|xx.|(Mipd)|[^*#]@@.)

Under ITSP Profile x SIP:

ProxyServer = sip.phonepower.com
ProxyServerPort = 0
RegistrarServer = sip.phonepower.com
RegistrarServerPort = 12060
UserAgentDomain = sip.phonepower.com
OutboundProxy = sip.phonepower.com
OutboundProxyPort = 0
RegistrationPeriod = 3600
X_RegistrationMargin = 0.1

In the Voice Services section:

Under SPx Service:

Enable = checked
X_AcceptSipFromRegistrarOnly = checked
X_NoRegNoCall = checked
X_KeepAliveEnable = checked
X_KeepAliveExpires = 30
X_KeepAliveServer = sip.phonepower.com
DirectoryNumber = (your phone number)
AuthUserName = (your phone number)
AuthPassword = (your sip password)


So, now that the ASP method is gone, I was selecting the list of service providers and selecting phone power. The tech told me not to do that. Essentially you can select generic service provider, fill in a few items from this list, but then go into expert mode and fill in the rest of the items. Not easy!!

But at least there is a way forward.

Also the tech said SPs still in ASP registered mode will eventually stop working I did not ask about the concurrent calls issue, since we will be going from 4 to 2, but I will - eventually.. unless someone beats me to it.