Is there a bug in GV Call Waiting calls, or is it a CC issue?

[CoalMinerRetired]

I mean to ask, when the call waiting calls are answered?

This has happened twice in the last two weeks: 

- I'm on a call on an Obi202 with my GV line, which since it's a received call is forwarded to the paired CC/CNAM number (GV=SP3, CC/CMAN=SP4).

- A second caller calls the GV line,  I hear the brief flash interruption in the first call, which of course is still in progress.

- The Caller ID and CNAM display on the analog phone handset I'm using does not show any Caller ID or CNAM. It does not even flash. It used to a few firmware releases ago.

- When I flash to connect to the second incoming call, I get the GV Call Screening audio prompts.  One of the audio options is "Press 5 to join a conference...", I might have the "5" wrong as I was not expecting it and only heard it once recently, and very quickly. All of which is and of itself is questionable because I have all but anonymous calls/callers set to Call Screening = Off. 

- From the Obi call history I can see the incoming calls, both sent to SP4/PH2 as expected.  The second call shows Ringing, Connected, Ended by the other end, all within 22 seconds (ringign took 15 sec of that). And as was the case the first time this occured, in flashing to get the 2nd call, I lost the first caller, the Obi202 log shows "Call Ended (403 Incorrect Authentication)".

-The CC call history also shows the second incoming call.

I at first thought GV might not be sending Caller ID on a second incoming call, or CC is not sending Caller ID/CNAM on a second call, or the Obi is not recognizing things.

However, the Obi Call History correctly shows the ID and CNAM of the second incoming call. In my case the second call is from the same number and therefore CNAM as the first call, an office with all outgoing calls show as the main DID number.  So I'm sort of suspecting the Obi is not handling this situation correctly. because back in Dec 2012 (older firmware) it all worked correctly.

This is a longer explanation than I wanted, ... has anybody else see the same thing?

[CoalMinerRetired]

Follow up, I was able to test this when I got access to two phones this evening.

More than one piece is not working correctly here. When receiving the second incoming Call Waiting call, the GV Prompt says "Unknown caller, to add this call to a conference press 5, to accept press 1".  This is an issue, because the Call Waiting Caller ID on the phone (and the Obi Call History) show the caller ID number and CNAM correctly. Sounds like a GV problem.

Upon accepting the Call Waiting call with a "1", I am connected to the call. It looks like I cannot hook-flash back to the first call without dropping both calls. 

However, big issue upon hanging up the analog phone, I got an immediate reboot on the Obi202. The timestamp did not have a reboot code. Not good.

Perhaps some more experimenting tomorrow.

[zapattack]

Yes, the situation you describe is similar to what I have experience with the Obi 110.
If you call yourself, the caller-ID behaves as you described, no display even though there is an incoming call.
It appears that the Obi thinks the line is busy, but only partly, so GV keeps on ringing. If I hang up, the incoming call gives a brief ring before disconnecting indicating the call was in the Obi.
Note that on a PSTN line, call waiting tone will not be heard if you have just picked up the phone and there is dial tone, and during dialing or ringing.
At the same time, the caller will hear busy tone, which is what you wanted to avoid by subscribing to call-waiting!
Call-waiting on the PSTN works only during a conversation.
Keep i mind the PSTN is a single channel network, but VoIP is usually two or more call channels per 'line'.

[RFord]

According to the OBihai Support, the issue with incoming caller id not showing up on your phone is that some phones do not show Caller id when you are already on a call.  I find this hard to believe.  I do have the same issue when on a call and a second call comes in, I hear the call waiting beeps (tones), but no caller id/information (OBi110 - no PSTN Line connected to the LINE port).  This is with a Vtech Phone that is just over 2+ years old.  I haven't had a chance to test with another caller id wating phone to confirm this.

CoalMinerRetired:

The issue with picking up the second call is that you have to hookflash twice in quick succession to pick up the second call.  Hookflash once and you will get a dial tone.

Yes, the situation you describe is similar to what I have experience with the Obi 110.
If you call yourself, the caller-ID behaves as you described, no display even though there is an incoming call.
It appears that the Obi thinks the line is busy, but only partly, so GV keeps on ringing. If I hang up, the incoming call gives a brief ring before disconnecting indicating the call was in the Obi.
Note that on a PSTN line, call waiting tone will not be heard if you have just picked up the phone and there is dial tone, and during dialing or ringing.
At the same time, the caller will hear busy tone, which is what you wanted to avoid by subscribing to call-waiting!
Call-waiting on the PSTN works only during a conversation.
Keep i mind the PSTN is a single channel network, but VoIP is usually two or more call channels per 'line'.

[CoalMinerRetired]

According to the OBihai Support, the issue with incoming caller id not showing up on your phone is that some phones do not show Caller id when you are already on a call.  I find this hard to believe.  I do have the same issue when on a call and a second call comes in, I hear the call waiting beeps (tones), but no caller id/information (OBi110 - no PSTN Line connected to the LINE port).  This is with a Vtech Phone that is just over 2+ years old.  I haven't had a chance to test with another caller id wating phone to confirm this.

CoalMinerRetired:

The issue with picking up the second call is that you have to hookflash twice in quick succession to pick up the second call.  Hookflash once and you will get a dial tone.

RFord, I know the phone has Call Waiting Caller ID/CNAM because I have the manual for it, and that feature worked fine for 10 years before moving to GV and an OBI.

Thanks for the tip on the two hook-flashes, I sort of suspected that and was going to consult the admin guide.

[CoalMinerRetired]

Yes, the situation you describe is similar to what I have experience with the Obi 110.

If you call yourself, the caller-ID behaves as you described, no display even though there is an incoming call.
It appears that the Obi thinks the line is busy, but only partly, so GV keeps on ringing. If I hang up, the incoming call gives a brief ring before disconnecting indicating the call was in the Obi.

Note that on a PSTN line, call waiting tone will not be heard if you have just picked up the phone and there is dial tone, and during dialing or ringing.
At the same time, the caller will hear busy tone, which is what you wanted to avoid by subscribing to call-waiting!

Call-waiting on the PSTN works only during a conversation.

Keep i mind the PSTN is a single channel network, but VoIP is usually two or more call channels per 'line'.

ZapAttack, can you confirm a few other details?
- GV presents the Call Waiting call saying with prompts 'unknown caller'? Even though ID and CNAM are in the log.
- Do you get any immediate reboots of your 110?
- Does the Obi call log show any calls ending suspiciously with "Call Ended (403 Incorrect Authentication)"?

I did some more experimenting. Looks to me like there's an issue in GV with the secomd incoming call always being presented with both Audio Caller ID and as 'unknown caller' even when GV Settings is for all calls to Screening Off and the ID (and CNAM via CC) are present in the Obi call history log.

There are some fields for hook-flash unique to an Obi110. I was also to connect to the second incoming call waiting call with one hook flash, and jump back and forth between the two calls with hook flash. (Need to see if this matches what the manual says.) However, in two of five tests, I got a reboot upon ending one of the two incoming calls.

Unlike in my first, original post, I now do see the incoming Caller ID and CNAM.  Also unlike in the first post the two calls were from two different numbers. Suspicion here is the OBI sends a blank Caller ID and CNAM when the second incoming call waiting call is from the same number at the already in progress call.

Will do some more experimenting and report back...

[zapattack]

Sorry, I have not looked as deeply into the issue as you have and am not a serious GV user so never had the spontaneous reboots you mention or other issues with 'duplicate' calls.
But I would like to mention that Obi CW caller-ID is not 100% compatible with some older CID units that claim to be CW CID units, thus the click-beep with no display. My Linksys talked to a BellSouth unit that Obi could not signal.
I now have a unit that does CW CID properly, but blanks out for multi-digit international calls.

[MRTT]

According to the OBihai Support, the issue with incoming caller id not showing up on your phone is that some phones do not show Caller id when you are already on a call.  I find this hard to believe. 

I work for a telco.  We saw the same issue when we migrated to different access gear.  The word is that the V-tech phones (and some others) are slightly out of spec for the way the CWCID is supposed to operate.  The vtech phones also do not mute for .5 seconds when the CWCID FSK tones are being sent, at least they didn't in our case.  It's annoying.  And we're still waiting for said access gear manufacturer's firmware update.