Well this stinks. Does anyone know of any good alternatives that will allow you to use Google Voice? Preferably with no monthly fee!
Summary: OBi200, OBi202 and OBi212 have entered the End of Life phase with the following key milestones:
The way that I read it, they will be turning off the cloud servers that manage the OBI2xx line but they will still work for both SIP and Google Voice after that cutoff date as long as you don’t need to change the device config.
My OBi202 has a Google Voice number and a pre-paid SIP number from voip.ms on it. Other than the bout of DDoS attacks they went through a few months ago, I have been 100% satisfied with the paid service for the light use that I make of it. It hasn’t cost me $30 in total since I made the switch of that line from Vonage last year, and I should have done it years ago!
Anyway, if the OBi202 ever stops working with Google Voice, I’ll just port that number over to the SIP carrier as well…
I wondered about that when I read it, but I think the article says they MAY still work after that date.
Is there an alternative VOIP adapter to the obihai’s that will work on Google Voice and still be supported?
Not that I have seen. Obihai is using a hack-y method to do calls, since Google Voice does not offer standard SIP protocol. Since my last post in this thread, I have now ported my GV number over to voip.ms as well. Both are on SIP in my Obihai 202, and can easily be moved to any other ATA device should the Obihai’s SIP function ever stop working. FWIW, voip.ms natively offers simulring and many of the Google Voice features, so you may not miss Google at all.
Links about the impending shutdown from around the web:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Googlevoice/comments/ul9htx/obitalk_alternatives_eoleos_2023/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Googlevoice/comments/uggyx5/alternative_to_obihai_obi202/
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rPTgFsXmFCO5KIgQm0BLJzUCgKgYm3WeOag5lDIsUPc/edit?pli=1
.
I acquired numbers from Callcentric which I added to my Obihai 212 and have my GV numbers forarded to these CC numbers. Of course this is not free and cost me about $ 6 a month for the several numbers. I also have a Obihai 2182 and supposedly it is not eol.
The day my Obihai stops working is the day that I stop having a home phone. The only reason I have it is because it is free. I have zero interest in paying for a home phone.
LOL… I understand but I find it useful. My GV nrs (1 for my personal calls, 1 for my business calls and 1 for my wife, ring simultaneously on 7 cordless phones in our home and on our cell phones. People ony have our GV number and when we are at home, no need to carry cell phone all over the house.
I am thinking about porting my number to VoIP.ms
How difficult is the setup on the OBI side?
I did it a while ago, so I don’t recall the specifics. Nothing traumatic that I can remember, and voip.ms had Obihai-specific directions on their web site when I did it. For some reason, I recall that voip.ms was one of the service options in the Obihai setup wizard, but don’t quote me on that…
Answering my own question, their wiki has instructions for manually adding voip.ms to an Obi device. And until Obi stops supporting the device, you can provision it through ObiTalk’s wizard, which is easier/faster. Setup was simple - now I’m waiting for my Gvoice number to port.
A note to keep in mind (and this might be true for other voip providers), the username when adding voip.ms to the Obi202 is the 6-digit ID for your account or sub-account.
One nice thing about voip.ms is that they let you create a gazillion sub-accounts (phone extensions) for free, so you can add SIP lines to your smartphone and even home SIP phones at no charge. I have SIP extensions on my cell phone via an app, my home iPad, Mac computer, and even my DW’s smartphone. All are in a hunt group, which functions identically to Google Voice’s simulring feature. I don’t know how voip.ms can offer this service for a monthly fee that’s essentially pocket change, but it is the one of the best changes that I ever made ditching Vonage and Google Voice…