Google Sets the Date for the End of XMPP with Google Voice

[carl]

I suppose I am one of the very few people who use the phone barely any. I mean, it is usually less than maybe 5 minutes a month. That is why Google Voice was so attractive to me. I just want a way to make or receive the few calls a month I do participate in for free. I got rid of any other type of landline I had in the past because I just never used it enough to justify the expense. I really hope they can get it working through the Hangouts API's. If they don't, can anyone suggest another option for a cheapskate like myself that rarely uses any minutes at all? I mean, the cheaper the better, obviously.

I mentioned it before. Localphone. US DID 99c/month, 0.5c/min to lower 48.

[steveken]

I mentioned it before. Localphone. US DID 99c/month, 0.5c/min to lower 48.

Yeah, I saw that, but their rates page kind of confuses me. I am looking at the United States 250 page, specifically. It says "This service requires you to dial a local landline number, that means you may also pay your phone provider local charges." Does that mean you have to call another number before you can call the number you want to call? Or what exactly does this mean? I do like the half a cent per minute, or in the case of the 250, 1/3 of a cent per minute and $0.75 per month access.

I guess I am just very new to all this lingo for this sort of thing. I am just guessing on a lot of terms like DID (I guess Direct Incoming Dial??). I suppose if I spent a lot of time researching this I might be able to figure out more about it, but right now it is all confusing the hell out of me. I don't want a lot of jargon or extra information. I just want a simple, straight forward, idiot proof explanation of fees and benefits from these services and I am not really finding it. I am needing clear info like that because I am going to have to explain and justify this stuff with my wife before I can do anything. She kinda likes to know what's going on with this stuff, too.

[Wilbour]

I have been using my Obi110 for a year and a half now with great success. We have family in central NY who call my NY # at no cost to them. That rings my Canadian cell and my home phone (via OBi). Could I opt for a free Call Central # in NY and forward my Google voice # to that #? My relatives will not pay for the call and  my reprogrammed Obi110 can ring my home phone and google voice will ring my Canadian Cell? When I call them with the OBi110 it is a local call?

Free NY # is charged for 911 though right?

This is a whole new world for me and I only have 6 months to figure it out 

[dadab]

Sigh....I waited too long to ditch my ooma and now this....after all, GV shutdown reality hits home....Now the hunt for next VOIP. 

[Kris404]

I was planning on doing what is said below. Which SIP provider of Anveo, Callcentric or VOIPms allows spoofing caller ID's?

None. But Localphone let's you set as caller ID any phone number you register with them, it could be your cell phone, your GV number, other SIP provider's number or whatever else.

Callcentric allows this as well. I have three numbers registered as such. You have to call a specified number and then open a support ticket stating the phone number and time of call to get it verified.

[Ostracus]

How is your Obi "useless" ? There is a ton of excellent VOIP providers out there. Yes, you have to pay a tiny little bit but you get much more than from Google Voice.Look at localphone.com, $0.99/month for US DID and 0.5c/min  to the lower 48 and a real customer service and a lot of other services. Or Callcentric, a bit more expensive but a truly professional full featured phone service.  
Yes, we all enjoyed free ride with GV but honestly, no big deal.

Obi will be probably more likely to help with configuration for SIP in the future than they have been so far.

Their ability to deal with spam calls was a plus in their favor.

[carl]

I have been using my Obi110 for a year and a half now with great success. We have family in central NY who call my NY # at no cost to them. That rings my Canadian cell and my home phone (via OBi). Could I opt for a free Call Central # in NY and forward my Google voice # to that #? My relatives will not pay for the call and  my reprogrammed Obi110 can ring my home phone and google voice will ring my Canadian Cell? When I call them with the OBi110 it is a local call?

Free NY # is charged for 911 though right?

This is a whole new world for me and I only have 6 months to figure it out 

You mean Callcentric. yes, you can do that, as a matter of fact many people already do it because you get full caller iD with name.

[FRUGALFREAK]

A good majority of users want a simple fee structure of per month fee for unlimited service. None of the alt services listed on announcement seemed like a good fit for those people. I don't want technical configurations, SIP, XMPP blah blah blah, Just offer me a nominal fee for unlimited service instead of per Min billing and ease of setup with my Obi.

I doubt the "Good majority" but for example VOIPO is like that.

$75 a year? thanks but no thanks. magicjack is $19.95 yr but isn't obi.

[carl]

Their ability to deal with spam calls was a plus in their favor.

True. But their call treatments are somewhat buggy and not quite reliable. The biggest aggravation for me will the estimated $ 56  in porting costs for my 2 numbers. But i am not moving anything till February.

[carl]

$75 a year? thanks but no thanks. magicjack is $19.95 yr but isn't obi.

Currently, the true total costs of magic junk are WAY more than 19.95 a year. Additionally, the ' service " is so miserable That VOIPO, with all it's issues, looks stellar compared to that foolishness. I would not want magic junk any more if it were for free.

[Felix]

I suppose I am one of the very few people who use the phone barely any. I mean, it is usually less than maybe 5 minutes a month.

So, you can have CallWithus and it will cost you (gasp) 5 cents a month. And you can have free WA phone number from IPKall or free NY number from CallCentric. Or you can have both in and out from CallCentric or Voip.MS and it will cost you 10 cents a month.

Let's stop "the sky is falling" nonsense. Obihai is still an excellent device. It used to have a unique feature (GV support); now it will compete with Grandstreams and others. Maybe it will force them to improve their documentation - or maybe they will abandon retail market altogether!

[FameWolf]

Here's the url of the topic on how to setup google voice to forward to callcentric...advantages are you get both caller id number and NAME (my cell phone phonebook has been downloaded to my local phones so most get a name anyway but for unknown numbers this is useful) and apparently your callcentric number can receive faxes which get forwarded to your email address as pdf files.  http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=3640.0

Now tie that into services like faxzero that let you send a couple of faxes a day free from web browser and an app like camscanner that lets you make pdf's from pics from your smartphone and you can take care of both send and receive.

[steveken]

I suppose I am one of the very few people who use the phone barely any. I mean, it is usually less than maybe 5 minutes a month.

So, you can have CallWithus and it will cost you (gasp) 5 cents a month. And you can have free WA phone number from IPKall or free NY number from CallCentric. Or you can have both in and out from CallCentric or Voip.MS and it will cost you 10 cents a month.

Let's stop "the sky is falling" nonsense. Obihai is still an excellent device. It used to have a unique feature (GV support); now it will compete with Grandstreams and others. Maybe it will force them to improve their documentation - or maybe they will abandon retail market altogether!

The thing is that right now, with GV, I have a number that is local to me. I do not want to have to give out a WA number or NY number to people if I need to give them a number. That just introduces WAY too many issues depending on who it is given to. And my wife sure as hell wouldn't do something like that. She would just rather not use the stuff at all if that were the case. It is just far more convenient for someone to have a number that is truly local to them. With that said, I am just trying to weigh the options and figure out what the actual costs are for what is available. Whatever it is, it has to be dirt cheap or it won't fly.

There is absolutely no "the sky is falling" here at all. It is a simple fact that I am trying to keep something working virtually the same as it does currently at a cost of free or extremely low to appease someone that I actually have to answer to.

Listen, what it boils down to is that things are going to be changing from what most of us are used to. We are just needing some assistance in figuring out the best options. The numerous sites out there that offer services are just too full of confusing terms that some of us are not accustomed to. I, personally, am a little confused on some of it and just am in need of some help. I am most definitely not needing to be belittled or berated over this topic. If you can't help me, or don't want to help me, that's fine. Keep your derisive comments to yourself.

[ja_ys]

I suppose I am one of the very few people who use the phone barely any. I mean, it is usually less than maybe 5 minutes a month. That is why Google Voice was so attractive to me. I just want a way to make or receive the few calls a month I do participate in for free. I got rid of any other type of landline I had in the past because I just never used it enough to justify the expense. I really hope they can get it working through the Hangouts API's. If they don't, can anyone suggest another option for a cheapskate like myself that rarely uses any minutes at all? I mean, the cheaper the better, obviously.

Hi ... Try http://www.nettalk.com/duo it has very liberal use at $29.95 per year (first year and device is $49.95) works just fine . This sounds like what you might be interested in . I have had it for 2 years and start my 3 rd year in December, never a problem.

[Crow550]

If Google doesn't release some type of api or sdk to allow 3rd parties to develop and connect into Google Voice....

This could kill Obihai.... Or will as they will just end up another ATA company and the big reason people even know of these Obi boxes is because of Google Voice. If you use another service you are in the minority. This was the one edge that Obihai had over Ooma and MagicJack....

If G-Voice support goes many will go with it....

Either Google will work with 3rd parties like Obihai or come out with there own ATA box....

On one hand I'm glad Google Voice is finally getting attention and updates! On the other I don't know.... It's too soon to tell if Google will add 3rd party support or come out with there own hardware?

Too soon to know for sure if Obihai will not be able to support G-Voice? Things can change before the cut off date, so well see.

Obi could be asked to be a Google Hardware partner too....

[Wilbour]

There is absolutely no "the sky is falling" here at all. It is a simple fact that I am trying to keep something working virtually the same as it does currently at a cost of free or extremely low to appease someone that I actually have to answer to.

Listen, what it boils down to is that things are going to be changing from what most of us are used to. We are just needing some assistance in figuring out the best options. The numerous sites out there that offer services are just too full of confusing terms that some of us are not accustomed to. I, personally, am a little confused on some of it and just am in need of some help. I am most definitely not needing to be belittled or berated over this topic. If you can't help me, or don't want to help me, that's fine. Keep your derisive comments to yourself.

It took me weeks to get the hardware and software to work seamlessly. My spouse is very low tech. so everything has to meet with her aproval. I now have a bit of a learning curve ahead.

[Rick]

I agree that this will kill OBi's retail business.  I suspect they thought Google would start charging a small amount for the service versus dropping it.

I'm going to be looking into just porting the house number to a cell phone and getting faxes via the internet vs. porting to a different service and see where I come out, but I'll wait until next year to look at it.

[steveken]

Hi ... Try http://www.nettalk.com/duo it has very liberal use at $29.95 per year (first year and device is $49.95) works just fine . This sounds like what you might be interested in . I have had it for 2 years and start my 3 rd year in December, never a problem.

Oh boy, another magicjack device. Thanks, but no thanks. I have no interest in a device like that. Plus, that is way more expensive than even getting another ITSP like we have been discussing here.

[steveken]

This could kill Obihai.... Or will as they will just end up another ATA company and the big reason people even know of these Obi boxes is because of Google Voice. If you use another service you are in the minority. This was the one edge that Obihai had over Ooma and MagicJack....

If G-Voice support goes many will go with it....

I wholeheartedly agree. You look at the device on Amazon and you will see 99% of the comments are relating to GV. This really could hurt the company as a whole. I think you'd be hard pressed to find 1 person out of 500 that would know what any of this is all about. This is such a hobbyist area in the first place. The phone companies still have everyone under their thumbs in the first place that people would just be easier going cell only than to deal with any of this crap. I really do hope they open up the API to let companies like Obi back in. Time will tell.

[dircom]

.........The phone companies still have everyone under their thumbs in the first place that people would just be easier going cell only than to deal with any of this crap.

I for one will never go to cell only until and unless the call quality is better.  Also, it is nice to have the ability to send the occasional outbound fax.  I still have free incoming from the starting days of jfax/efax