Obi 1xx/2xx GV end of life - Afterlife?

[BGood]

I have enjoyed using an Obihai 202 on my in-house LAN and Google Voice for on-the-go connectivity over the last decade.  My configuration includes an Obi 202 with 2 active lines (Anveo/GV), Vtech 2-line wireless house phones,  and 2 Android cell phones.  But watching recent Obi/Poly announcements and trends in telecom forums, I sense a contraction in interest, support, and market for legacy low-end ATA/VOIP technology configurations like mine.  So at this point, I am beginning to think about what the next system configuration will be for me and I am wondering what other Obi users are planning.

Given my retirement, probably simplest solution would be to drop the house landline and port the GV line over to the cellular provider.  However, it would be convenient to utilize the half-dozen or so cordless phones distributed around the house.  Cursory research reveals a few devices (cell2jack for example) which bridge cell phones to analog in-house phones.  Does anyone have experience with any of these devices, in terms of features or cost/benefits comparison with Obi?

In terms of a more direct Obi alternative, it appears that Ooma markets several levels of VOIP/ATA connection ranging from bare-bones free to pricey feature-laden services.  Again, does anyone have an opinion about Ooma versus Obi?

Thanks, Just thinking ahead.

[Taoman]

But watching recent Obi/Poly announcements and trends in telecom forums, I sense a contraction in interest, support, and market for legacy low-end ATA/VOIP technology configurations like mine.

While I agree with your assessment I wouldn't dream of giving up my OBi202 because of next year's EOL. Heck, I still have an OBi110 I use that was EOL'd years ago. Even though the OBi2xx series of ATAs will go EOL next year and perhaps lose a direct connection to Google Voice, they will still be great SIP ATAs.

If and when a direct connection from my OBi to GV no longer works, I will continue to use my $1/month unlimited Callcentric DID for incoming calls forwarded from GV. I will use Localphone for outgoing calls at ½ cent/minute that spoofs my GV number. If I was feeling really cheap frugal, I could use GV's callback feature (via the web or app) to call my Callcentric number before placing the outbound call.

[BGood]

But watching recent Obi/Poly announcements and trends in telecom forums, I sense a contraction in interest, support, and market for legacy low-end ATA/VOIP technology configurations like mine.

I wouldn't dream of giving up my OBi202 because of next year's EOL. Heck, I still have an OBi110 I use that was EOL'd years ago. Even though the OBi2xx series of ATAs will go EOL next year and perhaps lose a direct connection to Google Voice, they will still be great SIP ATAs.

Good point, Taoman. In the search for unified communication (email, voice, sms, etc) I liked what GV offerred, but the software configuation to achieve this now seems overly complicated.  For example, the university's outlook (O365) exchange server handles incoming email and sms just fine, but does not enable sms reply (no email-sms gateway).  Likewise, GV transcription of voice messages through the university exchange server is great, but again I need to reply via phone or GV application.  It's even worse when on the go from the cell phones.  If I use the android GV app to reply, GV wants to take over all calling from the phone.  The idea of simply having a cell phone for all communication is appealing for the reduced volume of prefessional calls I expect in retirement.

Not to rant about this, but I do wish there was a single app that would unify my communications.  Thanks again for your input.

[vtsnaab]

When our Obi110 went EOL we tried an Ooma Telo.
It wouldn't connect through our perfectly good cable modem - not even directly.
Their so-called 'tech support' is just script readers who replace units only - which they did several times with the same results.
We then purchased the wifi adapter for it - and only THEN would it connect, and it did work...

Sort of.
It went down alot - and for the ~$6/month in 'taxes & fees' that it cost, that was very poor service in our opinion.

Finally:
An Obi200 was purchased & replaced the older box perfectly ever since.

Thus we have an almost brand new Ooma Telo with its wifi adapter all packed up in its nice little box that nobody has wanted - not even as a swap for an older tablet.

I would never, never buy another Ooma product - especially as their 'free' services cost a total of ~$72/year (here) and are unreliable.

Of course YMMV.

[BGood]

Thanks for the first hand report vtsnaab.  Nothing like this in the Ooma marketing narrative.  Like yours, my Obi202 just keeps chugging along.

[sic0048]

I agree with everyone that it is likely the Obi202 devices will continue to function well after EOL.

That being said, in addition to the alternatives already discussed here, I will share how I use my Obi device.  While I started with an Obi110 as my telephone interface, I quickly decided to move to a full IP Phone system solution.  I use a free software called "PBX in a Flash".  I run it on a virtual machine on my larger home automation server.  With this, I subscribe to a VOIP provider and pay about $4/mo for service (the vast majority of that cost is for the e911 service).  

While I have over the years replaced all of my analog phone with digital IP phones (primarily for the "intercom" functionality which is incredible), I do still use the Obi202 device as an analog conversion.  What this means is that your Obi device can act as a gateway between the VOIP system and the analog phones.

Really this is what the Obi devices do by themselves (at least with the select VOIP providers that are supported by Obi) currently.  If anything, my system is overly complicated if you just want basic phone service.  But should Obi drop support for those built in VOIP providers at EOL, my method would allow you to still use the Obi device as a gateway to a full digital phone system and allow you to choose your VOIP provider.  This pretty much ensures that the Obi devices would continue to function because all of the interactions with the VOIP service providers and other extensions is handled by the digital phone system software and not the Obi device.  Hopefully that makes sense.

[drgeoff]

But should Obi drop support for those built in VOIP providers at EOL, my method would allow you to still use the Obi device as a gateway to a full digital phone system and allow you to choose your VOIP provider.  This pretty much ensures that the Obi devices would continue to function because all of the interactions with the VOIP service providers and other extensions is handled by the digital phone system software and not the Obi device.  Hopefully that makes sense.

The only VoIP service that requires any support from Poly is Google Voice.  As long as your OBi hardware device remains fault-free you can use and configure all other standard SIP VoIP services without needing any facilities provided by or on behalf of Poly.

[psuPete]

I'm using a Panasonic w/ the Link-2-Cell feature and am very happy with it.  It has 4 wireless handsets.  When at home, cellular and OBi (GV) calls go to all handsets.

[shadow1967]

Something to consider looking into is the Xlink BTTN. You can link cellphone service to analog telephones, including rotary dial antiques.

[Koby]

Something to consider looking into is the Xlink BTTN. You can link cellphone service to analog telephones, including rotary dial antiques.

That is one option; a less expensive one is Cell2Jack.  From what I have read they both work quite well, and there are several YouTube videos showing both in use. I have no interest of any kind in either company and from what I have seen they will both do the job, just wanted to point out that there is a less expensive alternative to the Xlink.