OBi202 conference wih different providers?

[HHinFlorida]

I have my OBi202 set up so that on the first physical phone port outbound calls are sent to SP1 which is bound to Google Voice.
The second physical phone port outbound calls are sent to SP2 which bound to Callcentric. Callcentric works for me well for international calls (to Europe) but Google Voice is cheaper for USA.

Now I want to call one person in USA with google voice and call another person with Callcentric and conference us together.

I haven't found anything about conferencing the two physical ports together on the OBi202.

The other possibility I see is to call San Francisco with GV on line one, then flash hook then dial **2 011 44 1865  (etc) to place the second call to Oxford on physical port 1 but SP2. Then reflash to conference.

My question - is that how it is supposed to work? And does anyone know whether it actually does work well (transoceanic conference calls)?

[SteveInWA]

Hi:

For outbound calls, the physical phone port in use isn't relevant.  Consider that your OBi has 4 service provider slots, plus OBiBT and OBiTALK, and, as you noted, you can select which SP to use by prefixing the call with a ** command.  A phone plugged into either of the two physical phone jacks can use any one of the SPs to place an outbound call.

You can place a second call, while on the first call, using the same, or a different SP, by pressing the flash key.  The conference calling function is handled locally on the OBi in this case, vs. on the provider's network, so you can actually set up conference calls between two different SPs.

So, for example, you want to call Jenny in SF using GV, and you want to call Gail in Oxford using Callcentric.  First, call Jenny:  415-867-5309.  Assuming that you have GV on SP1 set as the default SP for outbound, your call will go out via SP1 (otherwise, you could enter the desired SP to use, e.g. **3).  After Jenny answers, press the flash key, then, when you get the dial tone, call Gail:  **2 011 44 1865...  When Gail answers, press flash again and you have a three-way conference call.

[drgeoff]

My question - is that how it is supposed to work?

Yes.

SteveInWA's solution is the same as the one you already arrived at.

[HHinFlorida]

Thank you both.

So there isn't a way to conference using both physical ports of the OBi202 then?
I mean if you have two calls established, one on each physical port then there is no way to join them together in a conference.
My question - is that correct?

[azrobert]

You can barge-in on an existing call, but I don't know if you can with a call on-hold. You will just have to try it. The following is from the user guide.

PHONE 1/2 Collaborative Features (OBi202 and OBi302 Only)
While PHONE 1 and PHONE 2 can function independently of each other, the OBi202 and OBi302 also offer some collaborative features to let the two phone ports work together as a mini phone system.
With the factory default digit map and call routing rules, you can dial a single "#" (pound/hash) digit to call from one phone port to ring the other phone port. Depending on the current state of the called phone, one of the following can happen:
1. If the called phone is idle (on-hook), it will ring normally with a special Caller-ID that indicates the call is from the other PHONE Port.
2. If the called phone is already on a call, the calling phone will barge in to join the call.
3. If the called phone is on-hook with a call on-hold, the calling phone will pick up and resume that call.
4. If the called phone is ringing, the calling phone will pick up and answer that call.
5. For all other scenarios, the calling phone will hear busy tone.

Note that you can prevent the calling phone port from doing 2, 3 and 4, as they can be disabled by setting the parameter EnablePhonePortBargeIn to false for that port. In that case, 2 will become normal call-waiting on the called phone, but the calling phone will hear busy tone for 3 and 4.
You can also transfer an external call from PHONE 1 to PHONE 2 the usual way: while connected on an external all, hook flash and dial # to ring the other phone, then hang up to transfer when the caller phone rings or answers. For incoming calls on any trunk (SP1-4 or OBiTALK Service), one can set up the corresponding inbound call route to ring just PHONE 1 or PHONE 2 or both. The default inbound call routes are setup to ring both phone ports.
For outgoing calls, each phone port has its own digit map and outbound call route configuration, which means that you have the full flexibility in allocating trunks for making calls from each port independently. Each port may also have a different primary line assigned; the default however is to set the primary line to SP1 for both phone ports.

[SteveInWA]

And I would be interest to see anyone else's results.

I did test the exact procedure that I described, before I posted it.  It works fine.

[airberryblue]

You might consider getting a 2 line phone that merges the call if you like.  I use multi line phone like that all the time.

[SteveInWA]

This is getting ridiculous.  I already described a verified-working solution.  I can't imagine why anyone would need to use two physical phone ports to make it work, but that variation should work, too, based on the documentation.

[azrobert]

This is getting ridiculous.  I already described a verified-working solution.  I can't imagine why anyone would need to use two physical phone ports to make it work, but that variation should work, too, based on the documentation.

You did not answer the OP's question in reply#3. He has 2 separate active calls and wants to merge them into a 4-way.

[SteveInWA]

This is getting ridiculous.  I already described a verified-working solution.  I can't imagine why anyone would need to use two physical phone ports to make it work, but that variation should work, too, based on the documentation.

You did not answer the OP's question in reply#3. He has 2 separate active calls and wants to merge them into a 4-way.

Nope, that was not the question being asked.  The goal is:  there are three people who want to talk to each other.  My answer was how to accomplish that goal:  make a three-way call.  Here was the original use case:

Now I want to call one person in USA with google voice and call another person with Callcentric and conference us together.

Then:

I mean if you have two calls established, one on each physical port then there is no way to join them together in a conference.

The OP seems to think that it entails calling person A on one physical telephone line, and calling person B on the other line.  That's not the way to set up a three-way conference call.

I explained that, for outbound calls, there is no point to using two different physical phone ports (line 1 and line 2) to originate two separate conversations, since the OBi can make the three-way call using one telephone line, and two different service providers, and flash-key them into a conference.  I tested and confirmed that it works.  After the OP again asked about the two physical ports, I said that the documentation implied that it should work, but I am not going to test it myself; the OP can do the testing.

Bottom line:  if somebody asks how to steer a car while doing a head-stand with one hand holding their ear, I am going to tell them that the way to steer a car is by sitting in the seat and holding onto the steering wheel.

[HHinFlorida]

Well, to clarify, I was thinking three way. Or last least thinking in terms of three endpoints. Four (or even five??!) endpoints is an interesting idea though, if someone wants to try it (not me).

But the point of using two separate physical phones is that the people being called on the other end are not terribly sophisticated (to put it mildly) and there are two potential problems:
1. The person put on hold might think that the call is lost and hang up, despite pleas not to do so.
2. It isn't clear at the time of trying to set up the conference whether either or both called people will actually be available. So the idea was for me to call one and have a conversation, my partner to call the other and have a conversation, and if that is all going well then to propose a conference. Four people, yes, but two of them local to the OBi202 itself.

I suppose it is the difference between something that works and something that is comfortable for non-techies to use. I always hate the idea of "flash hook" in that there is no bright line between flash-hook and hang-up except timing. Things that depend on human timing are always a bit trickier than things which don't depend on timing. I suspect we have all suffered meta-stability problems in our work (just a guess, don't flame!).

Thank you to the person who suggested using a conferencing two-line telephone. That may very well be the best approach in the end.

So thank everyone, all of the comments were valuable to me. All of them.

[restamp]

I have an OBi202 in service here.  Robert's proposal to use barge-in to establish a 4-way call was intriguing to me although I never had the time to get three additional friends together to try it in real-life to see if it would work.  However, I had to establish a 4-way call just a few moments ago, so I finally had the chance to put his proposal to the test.  (One attempt, so take it with a grain of salt.)

I established a conventional 3-way call with two of the other parties on PH1, then called the third party on PH2,
flashed PH2 and hit '#'.  The result... Unfortunately, PH2 rang busy in this barge-in attempt.  So, based on this one attempt, and presuming I didn't make any stupid mistakes in the process, barge-in under these conditions does not appear to work.

(I still needed to chat with these 3 other people, preferably together, so when this didn't work, I set the phones connected to PH1 and PH2 side-by-side on the desk and hit the speaker-phone button on both.  You know, that low-tech solution didn't work out half badly:  Everyone said they could hear everyone else just fine.  Go figure.)

(After I concluded the 4-way call, I did one further experiment:  I called my mobile on PH2, flashed, and hit '#'.
That worked: I was able to transfer the call to PH1 while PH1 was on-hook.  However, an attempt to transfer the call back to PH2 from PH1, while PH2 was off-hook, failed.  Thus, I suspect the OBi doesn't allow barge-in to an off-hook line while you already have a call on hold.  YMMV)