Can I set up an Obi 100 with GV in the USA and then make free calls from Mexico?

[Banford]

My friend lives in Cozumel, Mexico.  I want to get him an Obi 100 and set it up with GV and take it with me when I go visit him in 10 days, so he can make and receive free calls to/from the US.  He set up a Gmail account and tried to make calls, but it would not let him call the US for free.  But if I set up his Obi 100 here in the US and get him a GV US phone number, can I then take it with me when I visit him and he can connect it to his router and make free calls?  Does the Obi 100 care what country it is in as long as it is connected to the internet?  Would I use the standard setup for GV with the Obi 100, or is there some special procedure I have to use? 

[Everton]

YES to all your questions.  Most of your questions can be answered by simply searching the Forum, in this case using the word "Mexico"!

[Banford]

Thanks, Everton!  I tried searching Mexico, but perhaps I didn't do it right, because it returned thousands of posts, and most of them did not have "Mexico" in them (or at least not in the subject, I guess), and the ones that did (within the first several pages I looked at) have Mexico in them were not relevant.  I thought it would work anywhere there's internet access, but I wasn't sure. 

[ateo]

Hi I did this for a friend in Mexico

Your friend can have a free US phone number, no charges for the number and no charges for the minutes talk and he/she only needs an OBi ATA.

These are the steps you need to do before you take the OBi to Mexico
1 - Get a free phone number from Callcentric.com and make sure you indicate that the account will be used outside the US (There is a charge for emergency service 911 if the ATA is used in the US or Canada).
2 - Get a free Google phone number, this is a Google voice number and make the phone number you got in step 1 (the Callcentric phone number) the forwarding phone number for the Google number.  If he/she does not have a Google account, you can get one for he/she, he/she do not even need to know they have one.
3 - Make sure you can make and receive calls using the Gmail application.
4 - Get the OBi ATA.
5 - Register the OBI in the OBIHai web page to control it.
6 - Configure the OBi and make sure you can make phone calls.

When you visit your friend you can take the ATA OBI1x0 and he/she can connect it to the internet and make and receive phone calls for free.

When you call your friend you can call any of the numbers you got for your friend (the free callcentric or the google number) and your friend should be able to answer in Mexico.  Also your friend can just dial your number in the USA for free.

Take a look at the following web sites, some are old but the information is still valid.

http://www.obihai.com/googlevoice.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5BwQ0E6fmQ
http://tech.iprock.com/?p=3098
http://tech.iprock.com/?p=3124
http://truvoipbuzz.com/2011/03/review-obi110-you-must-read-before-buying-voip-hardware-ata/#ixzz1I0wMn985

[Banford]

Thanks, ateo, I appreciate your help.  The only part of your response I did not understand is the need to get a callcentric number.  I was planning to have the forwarding number be his girlfriend's cell number (she is currently in the US, but she will be going to visit on 9/13), as she can answer it when Google Voice calls, and enter the code Google Voice tells her to enter.  Ultimately, if the Obi 100/Google Voice combination works satisfactorily, he will port his US Verizon cell phone number to Google Voice and that will become his GV number.  Is there some reason my plan won't work?  If the callcentric number is necessary, please explain why.  Thanks! 

[dircom]

The CallCentric # is good to have as a backup.
you will have at least three ways to call
Obi to Obi
CallCentric to CallCentric (assuming you create a CallCentric account on your US based Obi also)
and GV to GV

also, if you fwd your GV calls to Callcentric, then you get name caller id, which GV does not provide

[Banford]

Thanks, dircom!