I am setting up 4 obi 110's in Brazil. My first thought was to just use the obi without a land line. I found a little red phone to use. The phone would be the "bat phone" directly to and from the states. This has worked been working perfectly from Brazil with Google voice. ( I initiated all the accounts here in California). The call quality is much better than a traditional long distance call to Brazil. It worked perfectly on incoming and outgoing calls.
Then I got motivated, and now am programing the obi 110's to use with a land line. The beauty of the obi 110 is its ability to bridge calls from Google voice to the land line. I don't know how much you understood form all that reading.. but this is how I am setting it up, from a users perspective.
When the phone is picked up in Brazil, the caller hears a Brazil dial tone and makes local calls as if the obi was not there. If they want to call the states, they dial **1, they hear the U.S. dial tone, and call as if they were in the US.
Incoming local calls and calls form the states ring the phone the same way, the person in Brazil, who answers will not know the origin of the call until they start speaking.
There is a way to have the obi recognize friends through their caller id. Once these numbers are programed into the OBI, a caller with one of these numbers will not ring through to the phone in Brazil. Instead they will be greeted by a voice menu system with 3 options. 1 to ring through, 2 to call the U.S. and 3 to get a callback.
So, if my friend's grandmother wants to call the States, she calls her grandson... hears her three choices in Portuguese, presses 2, and then dials the 10 digit U.S. number ( or a speed dial).
If my friend wants to call me form his cell phone in Brazil, he calls his own home number, gets the three choices, but selects choice 3. He gets a call back to his cell phone (In Brazil, incoming cell phone calls are free (to the cell phone user)This saves his expensive cellphone minutes). He hears the three choices again, this time selects choice 2 , and calls my 10 digit number in California.
Finally, if I want to call my friend's grandmother in Brazil, I call my friends Google voice number , I reach the obi box in Brazil, it presents me with the three choices, I also choose choice 2 but dial the 8 digit local number in Brazil, the obi recognizes this is a Brazil number and bridges my call out through the line port in Brazil.
There are many ways to program the flow of calls through the Obi audio attendant,I programed the routing to be automatic, depending on what number is being dialed( since U.S. numbers use 7 digits and Brazil uses 8 digits.)If this would not have worked out, there are manual ways to signal the obi how to bridge and route a call.
Once all is working I will post a summery of all I changed, and what changes do what.
I hope this explanation, has showed you how the OBi is much more powerful than Vonage type system.
One last thing, I use a product like Vonage called Ooma. It is a fantastic plug a play system, and comes complete with a physical answering machine. ( I have been using this long before the obi was available.) . I brought it to use on vacation in Colombia South America, and no one knew I had left my home in California.The calls are free after you buy the box ( about $200) , but you pay about $3.00/ month in taxes. I switched over a good friend to Ooma from Vonage, and he is very happy with it. If you are not technical at all, and want an all in one system, I would go with Ooma, over magic jack vonage, or anything else out there. If you can follow easy video instructions for the easy set up of the obi, you will have no trouble setting it up for Google voice on a dedicated phone. If you can follow help on this forum, you can go further with the obi, and also bring in the benefits of a local land line. (and or a local Voip provider where you are.)