Recommendations for best business voip service since GV going away?

[BillDoe]

Using Charter for a business line for spouse business line. We use one Obi for our personal landline (via GV). We are moving in March and I'd like some ideas how best to still utilize the two Obi's I own.

First, any recommendations for the best provider to set up HOME line (new number OK due to new area code so we don't need GV anymore).

Second, I'd like to get away from paying monthly big bucks for her business line and put the second Obi to work...but...it's critical it not fail as this is a serious business line...recommendations? Use same provider for both home and business?

[MikeHObi]

I wouldn't just drop google voice.  In fact I prefer it for business use in some cases due to the feature set.  I like being able to give one number and have it ring any phone that I am at.  Also the ability to start a call at my desk, continue it to my cell and then drive to a meeting while completing the call is a big advantage.  Note, that for $10, google will let you change your number so you can get a new one for your area code.  And for $20 google voice will let you get a new number and keep your old one so that calls to the old number will still reach you.

As far as using business lines with voip, just make sure you are clearly choosing Business services for your voip.  This will ensure the class of service is better and should have some advantages when choosing calling routes.

The up side with Voip and google voice over just using native service from a cable company is that if the cable goes down (which in my experience it does) you can route calls to your cell.  With google voice it's built in, with voip you can add softphones and reroute to there.  That can keep your business flowing when mother nature or construction crews have other ideas.

[ProfTech]

No doubt you will get lots of recommendations. I would recommend Callcentric for your business line and CallWithUs for the home line, however CC may charge more for business usage [incoming] but I think it is only 2 or 3 dollars more. Don't think it makes any difference on outgoing as long as you select the Unlimited plan. I used them for about 2 years. In order to get the best service you may need to experiment a little with the Obi settings as their web site only shows rudimentary settings. Expect to pay around $30 for unlimited.

I haven't used CallWithUs a whole lot but my daughter uses them for most of her outbound calling. I think they charge less than $5 for their inbound service, which usually includes 2000 to 3000 minutes of usage. All of their outbound is Pay-As-You-Go at about 1 cent per minute for calls in the U.S.

*edited* With Callcentric you can have your business calls automatically forward to your cell at no additional charge on the unlimited plan if the internet goes down. Lots of other easy to set up options also.

[carl]

I would not use Callwithus for inboud service. If you need cheap inbound, get Localphone or if you do not care about the number you have, Callcentric's free NYC DID.

[lhm.]

RingCentral.com

[BillDoe]

 Let me clarify that when I say "business" line I may be overstating it. For her purposes it is nothing more than a separate number with vmail...no different than your typical home line in terms of functionality. It needs to be unlimited outbound and inbound as she spends the majority of her day on the phone with clients and on lengthy conference calls.

As far as GV is concerned, isn't that going bye bye in a few months?

[Robert.Thompson]

Anveo:

$2.00 per month for unlimited incoming & if you pay for 12 months up front, they port your existing phone number in for free.

Outgoing will cost $0.005 per minute to Canada or $0.01 to the USA.

Or, use CallWithUs for outgoing.

Rob.

[ProfTech]

Both to be fair to CallCentric and to keep yourself out of trouble, you probably need to look at your usage a little closer. If your wife has numerous long calls each day it may set off a flag with them. Anyway, I took another look at their web page and it says their 1000 minute [outbound] plan is perfectly acceptable for business use and is $12.95. Overage is charged at 0.0198 [US dollars] per minute. Their "Office unlimited" [inbound] is only $8.95. Together you would be looking at $21.90 with no questions asked and 911 is included. There are no added taxes / fees at this time.

[BillDoe]

Hard to know usage but safe to say she is on the phone enough to warrant 1500 min outbound a month to be safe.

So just to confirm, are there no more free option ( ie Google voice) and is GV out of the question?

No need to port old number as we will be moving to a new area code and pretty sure she'll adopt that and pass it out to business contacts

[Robert.Thompson]

BillDoe:

If you have been using GV, which will not work 'directly' with Obi's after May 15 2014, you can calculate your usage - visit this post on this forum: http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=7188.0

There is a way to continue to use your GV phone number, it seems, by using IPKall - search this forum to see posts. (If not here, see DSLReports as well)

Rob.

[gderf]

Obivoice just recently added a 7500 min/mo business package. I think it might include a toll free number?

https://www.obivoice.com/billing.php        Scroll down.

[Robert.Thompson]

Hey gderf, what's your email address and password for Obivoice? (your link requires it.)

[MikeHObi]

One point is that for many providers a business line gets priority routing across calling routes.  They may not use "least cost" calling routes that other low cost residential did's do.

Your best bet is to contact the provider directly and ask them.  Anveo does a good job of classifying the various phone number options they have and what acceptable usage for them would be.

[gderf]

Hey gderf, what's your email address and password for Obivoice? (your link requires it.)

I'll let you have it when there is one minute left on my trial

[ProfTech]

Bill Doe: As Robert.Thompson stated, the way we have been using GV with the Obi is scheduled to stop on May 15. Since you don't care about keeping the GV number for personal use there are lots of options for your personal use. You should be able to transfer to CallCentric [and keep] your business number for a flat one-time fee of $25 if you want to keep it. And as he also stated Anveo is another option for your home number. I have only been using them a little over a month but have been satisfied. However getting everything set up the way you want it may not be for the faint of heart. I've been playing with VOIP and 4 different ATA's for about 4 years and still had to figure everything out for myself with Anveo. I believe their web site states they do not help with configuration of your device, no matter who the manufacturer is.

[BillDoe]

Proftech = you hit the nail on the head at the chief reason my wife will yell when she hears this is my plan. she saw me struggle with issues I was having with disconnected calls, etc. with GV, so any suggestion I plan to do something similar will not be received well.

Forget I mentioned a business line, it muddied the waters - it is just another home line that she uses for work so she can have a separate number and vmail, thats all. I did see she averages maybe 1000-1500 outbound minutes per billing cycle - charter doesn't track inbound minutes.

Changing both home and her work numbers is also not an issue, so we can take that off the table.

Having said all the above, I don't want a solution thats going to have me doing all sorts of complex configurations that fail on a reasonably regular basis. her line is her lifeline as a home-based rep. when it goes down, she's dead in the water and my life will be miserable scrambling to get it back up.

[MikeHObi]

If any of your devices have two phone ports, you can do this with one device.  But if you need two then what you need is similar to what I need.

This should be super simple and cause limited to zero grief, you just need to make some decisions.
#1 - Do you want to have a single account to manage the two services, or do you not care. (i.e. a single pool of minutes or a single pool of dollars and same account type)
#2 - If you want to have a single account to manage the two services then you need to decide if you need independent E911 addresses per device.  (i.e. is one device going to be at a different address) 
#3 - How many concurrent sip channels do you need?  Many residential /free services limit you to two.

Once you know that you can pick a service and set things up.  For example, I want a single account to manage my two devices (obi 202 and a obi100).  I need independent E911 address per device.  In my research that eliminated Callcentric.  They have the concept of Sub Accounts (via Extensions) but they can not have a different address for e911 per extension.

Since I already have an account with Anveo so I am using them currently and the configuration was simple.
I added the second Obi and registered it through obi Talk.  It now shows up as a device for me to manage with my single ObiTalk account.  I then using my Anveo account logged in.  While Anveo doesn't walk you through it, I tend to be a curious sort so I have investigated all their web menu options so I had a good idea where to go.
You go to the users/sub accounts page from the My accounts menu.  If you want to share the funds in your account with this new account click on the Action button next to your current account and choose Add Sub Account.  If you don't want to share the funds in your account (probably best for business, but not required) with this new account (want to have separate funds) you just click on the add new user.
During the sub account setup you configure everything you need including a DID and then enable SIP.
Once you enable sip you will see the info you need to configure in the obi.
Configure that in the Obi and now when you call this new DID, the phone connected to the Obi will ring.

Pretty simple.  It just works.  Each did in Anveo gets it's own call flow.  Each account can have it's own voice mail.

[ProfTech]

I understand your dilemma. Since you will be moving, maybe we are getting the cart before the horse. Before we think about phone service at all you need to determine who your new internet service provider will be and what type of service it will be. Simple reason; No "Internet" {VOIP} service can ever be any better than the underlying ISP service. With that in mind there is another option for some folks. It sounds like you may already be using it. The option would be to use a pre-packaged and supposedly tested / guaranteed service. That might be Vonage or service from your new ISP. I used Vonage for about 3 years until they got up to about $35 per month. If you're going to be in an area where Verizon FIOS is available you can get internet phone service directly from them as well. There are other pre-packaged services that are separate from the ISP but I don't have any experience with any of them.

An option that I like, if it is available to you is to get DSL internet service along with "real" phone service from the local phone company. Then you always have a real phone for backup, and it should be less expensive in the end than cable internet. Many out there pooh-pooh DSL service but under the right conditions I think it can be superior to cable. That said, if you are looking at ATT you may want to be wary if they are offering their UVerse service as opposed to standard DSL. I have seen numerous discussions of the modem they supply for UVerse and they weren't favorable for VOIP phone use unless you buy their pre-packaged phone service.

The bottom line for you may be how much effort do you want to expend to set it up and can you live with a few issues along the way, vs how much do you want to spend each month?

*edited* You didn't say what model Obi(s) you have, but the 110 is very well suited to use with a backup land line.