Obi202 - two lines, one provider account

[B34N]

I've been loving my Obi202 with My GV number. It stinks that Google is taking that away from me, but I'm certainly willing to pay a bit to get continued good service.

I want to be able to use my Obi202 with two different numbers and use only one account with a service provider. We would port over our land line phone to the provider and use that on line 1. I would then like to forward my GV number to a number for line 2 since I don't want to give up the forwarding capabilities of my GV number by porting it to the provider. I would then have all outgoing calls from line 2 show as my GV number. It sounds like it should be really easy to do, but I'm looking for confirmation. It's a no-brainer if I setup two accounts, but I'm looking to get by with only one. We typically use much less than 200 mins a month of time on the phone in total so two accounts would be overkill.

Thank you,
B34N

[AlanB]

Anveo can do this if you don't go with the ObiTalk plans, but use a straight Anveo plan.  You can create a sub account.  It's already discussed in detail here:  http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=7681.msg49671#msg49671

I'm sure many other providers can do this as well.

[azrobert]

I know you don't want 2 providers, but CircleNet charges less than half a cent per minute.
100 hundred minutes on a 2nd line would cost you less than 50 cents per month.
Currently they are an outbound only provider, but you can specify any outbound CallerID.

[B34N]

Thank you for the replies. The most important items are that I have reliable phone with E911 and that I can use two sets of phones on my obi202. Price is less of an issue as I'm sure most any option is going to be much less expensive than my single phone with Verizon.

I'm trying to understand the Anveo option a bit better. Since I want to move over an existing  phone number and also get a new phone number (if needed for forwarding my GV number to), I would be looking at something like:
$1.00 = .50 * 2 for two phone numbers: 1 for moved and 1 for something to forward GV to
$0.80 : E911 for both numbers under one account
$0.01: per minute incoming/outgoing calls within the 48 U.S. states

With this I could have each port of my Obi202 handle a separate number. I could make the calls on my "GV line" look like they are actually coming from my GV number. With all of this I would have caller ID and reliable phone service?

Thank you,
B34N

[AlanB]

B34N. That should work as you describe. Of course if either line typically has more than 150 minutes of incoming calls you'd be better off on the personal unlimited for that number but I think you could switch to that at any time.

You will have a one time fee of $15 to port your landline.   

As azrobert said you can always add CircleNet later if you wish for cheaper outgoing calls since you still presumably have SP3 and SP4 available.

[B34N]

Thank you for the responses. I think I'm really close to choosing a solution but need some confirmation

I was under the impression that I needed a phone number for each line but I am now starting to understand that may not be the case. Basically I want port 1 to act like my old Verizon line and port 2 to act like my GV line (without porting it over). Do I just move the old Verizon line over to a new provider and then just forward my GV calls to a DID? Then all I would need to do is spoof all calls from port 2 to look like they are coming from my GV number. So basically I'm really only using one account with one phone number but routing calls differently.

I'm still not really sure what the difference is between a DID and phone number...but am I correct is that a phone number is only needed for POTS calls.

[drgeoff]

I'm still not really sure what the difference is between a DID and phone number...but am I correct is that a phone number is only needed for POTS calls.

My understanding is as follows.  VoIP (using SIP protocol) does not natively use phone numbers.  The end-points (SIP phones or Analogue Telephone Adaptors) have SIP addresses very similar to email addresses.  Like sip:identifier@serviceprovider.com.  Clearly such a SIP address cannot be dialled from an ordinary 'dial' phone (or push-button version).  Even dialling a SIP address from a SIP terminal or ATA may not be straightforward.  Because of that, and probably also because of the ubiquity of the concept of a phone number, service providers can provide a number which maps (at their server) to a SIP address.  The next step is to have that number look like a real phone number, then to have it unique so it doesn't clash with another real phone number.  The final step is to have it reachable by anyone who dials it from a POTS phone.  And in the other direction, anyone receiving a call from a SIP terminal from that address gets a CID which is a real phone number they can call back.

So, at least in this context, a DID and a phone number are the same thing.  You don't need a DID or phone number to make calls from a SIP endpoint to another SIP endpoint or to a POTS number.  And it isn't technically necessary to have a DID or phone number to receive calls at a SIP endpoint.  But it is much more convenient and useful if you do - the rest of the world can call you just as if you had a POTS phone line rather than SIP VoIP.

[B34N]

I'm not feeling the love with Anveo. I sent the sales group an e-mail Sunday night and have not yet received a reply. Sure, I can see that support might be delayed but over two business days from the sales team to get any type of a response....that is not a good sign.

B34N