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Obi with "new" GV - findings

Started by billsimon, May 14, 2018, 01:33:35 PM

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billsimon

I received a 1062 and plugged it in, let the firmware update, and configured a Google Voice account. It appears in the GV dashboard in the new way (not Google Chat). Inbound/outbound calling are fine. A couple findings...

* call transfer doesn't work. I don't know if it ever did (this is my first Obi unit).

* voicemail pilot does not work - dialing my own GV number should take me to the voicemail menu, but it just hangs up

* placing a call on hold and then resuming it changes the codec. Before the hold, the phone negotiated G.711u (what I expected when calling a PSTN number). After the hold, the Obi negotiated Opus. It still sounded exactly the same and worked fine, but this behavior doesn't make sense.

* toggling the "Obitalk Device" off in the GV dashboard so that it doesn't receive calls doesn't work. It toggles off, and if I refresh the page, it's back on again.

restamp

Quote from: billsimon on May 14, 2018, 01:33:35 PM
* placing a call on hold and then resuming it changes the codec. Before the hold, the phone negotiated G.711u (what I expected when calling a PSTN number). After the hold, the Obi negotiated Opus. It still sounded exactly the same and worked fine, but this behavior doesn't make sense.
Wasn't this one of the touted advantages of the New GV (I still don't think it has a name): If both sides can negotiate OPUS, GV converts to some "HD audio" format or something that is supposed to sound better than the G.711 standard audio?

SteveInWA

#2
Quote from: billsimon on May 14, 2018, 01:33:35 PM
I received a 1062 and plugged it in, let the firmware update, and configured a Google Voice account. It appears in the GV dashboard in the new way (not Google Chat). Inbound/outbound calling are fine. A couple findings...

* call transfer doesn't work. I don't know if it ever did (this is my first Obi unit).  It works for me, at least on inbound calls.

* voicemail pilot does not work - dialing my own GV number should take me to the voicemail menu, but it just hangs up  Also works for me.  Have you gone to the Google Voice legacy web page and configured your voicemail box?  You need to at least enter a PIN (twice) and save the setting.  You might as well record your name and record your greeting while you are there.

* placing a call on hold and then resuming it changes the codec. Before the hold, the phone negotiated G.711u (what I expected when calling a PSTN number). After the hold, the Obi negotiated Opus. It still sounded exactly the same and worked fine, but this behavior doesn't make sense.  This sounds like a bug.  If you can capture some screenshots of the call detail from the call status section of the device's web page, I can ask about it.

* toggling the "Obitalk Device" off in the GV dashboard so that it doesn't receive calls doesn't work. It toggles off, and if I refresh the page, it's back on again.  That's weird.  I could swear it worked last week.  So many balls in the air right now.  I submitted a question about this to Google Voice engineering (is this a bug, or is it "broken as designed"?).  Thanks for finding it!  Update as of June 3rd:  The bug fix has now rolled out.  You can now toggle on/off forwarding to OBiTALK devices in the new Google Voice UI.

billsimon

* call transfer doesn't work. I don't know if it ever did (this is my first Obi unit).  It works for me, at least on inbound calls. - I receive a call, hit transfer, dial the new number, hear the target answer, and then hit Transfer Now. The new call disappears and the original call remains on hold. Might be user (my) error, but the sequence seems right to me.

* voicemail pilot does not work - dialing my own GV number should take me to the voicemail menu, but it just hangs up  Also works for me.  Have you gone to the Google Voice legacy web page and configured your voicemail box?  You need to at least enter a PIN (twice) and save the setting.  You might as well record your name and record your greeting while you are there. - Yes, that was the issue. Once I set a PIN, I was able to dial in to my voicemail box.

Marc

Re: Transfer
There is something strange that occasionally happens with the transfer function.  Here's my rough error breakdown based on having 10 small businesses using Obi1062s and my own experience with 202/1032/1062:

  • 50%: User error*
  • 25%: Obitalk voip network offline**
  • 20%: I don't have a clue, works for me, not others even when I watch them and know they are following the proper steps
  • 5%: Wait 10 minutes and it works

*For the "transfer now" function to work, the party to which you are transferring must answer the phone before you press transfer now.  If you press it while it's still ringing, the transfer will fail.  I find the same behavior whether on GV SPs, Obitalk, or SIP DID providers like callcentric & voip.ms.
**Instead of paying for expensive hosted PBX system, I setup the Link Devices for intercom and intra-office/intra-company transfers.  It's not perfect bc the Obitalk network seems to go offline at least once a week, but it works most of the time.

PS: Congrats on your first Obi device... at a fraction the price of Cisco IP phones and having the GV connectivity, they are phenomenal phones.  Given the Polycomm acquisition, I've put on hold buying the Obi2000 series phones, but I've heard good things about them.

OBi110 (stored in closet now,) OBi200 x 3, Polycom 200 x 1, OBi202 x 4, Polycom 202 x 2, OBi1032 x 3, OBi1062 x 5, OBi2182 x 3

Combination of GV (consumer,) CallCentric & voip.ms both direct and via Asterisk.