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Forgive me if this topic has been posted before but I did not see it. I'm thinking about switching from Vonage to Google voice for my home phone. I know GV is primarily used for cell phones, but if you buy this adapter, then you could use your google voice as your land line. (At least how I think it works)
I actually like Vonage but I NEVER use my house phone. I probably made a total of 10 minutes worth of calls since June. I'm only paying roughly $6.00 a month for Vonage's pay as you go plan, and since I barely make phone calls on my home phone, the fee is relatively low. However, I am hesitant to give up a good and inexpensive concept like Vonage's plan to go with free but an unknown service like google voice.
Has anyone used google voice, either on their cell phone or on their land line? Is there any hidden fees that I should be aware of? Are the calls crystal clear or are they spotty?
I use Google voice for my cell phone for making work related calls. I have had no quality problems with my Google #, but I use it very rarely.
If you are paying $6. per month for this now, it would take about 7 months for this device to pay for itself. But if you are using your home phone that rarely, do you really need to have a landline?
I use Google voice for my cell phone for making work related calls. I have had no quality problems with my Google #, but I use it very rarely.
If you are paying $6. per month for this now, it would take about 7 months for this device to pay for itself. But if you are using your home phone that rarely, do you really need to have a landline?
I like to have a back up phone just in case my cell phone breaks. I am also known to change my cell phone quite often, so if my family/friends need to get a hold of me, they can call the house phone. I like to use it for a back up.
I've been using a Google Voice number with one of those Obi boxes as a "home phone" for a few years now. Google Voice can be a little glitchy sometimes and I've had to reboot or reset my Obi box a time or two. (Check the forums at the Obihai website). I have it hooked to a regular home handheld telephone set.
But for FREE calls I've been totally happy with it.
We have Tracfone cell phones that cost us less than $100 year for light use away from home. We use the the Google Voice at home for making long phone calls.
When we are away from home I have Google Voice set to send me a text on my cell phone when I get a voicemail. It's my answering machine.
I also use the Google Voice number to text from my computer sometimes.
I have had Google Voice for several years and it has improved drastically. I don't know why anyone pays for long distance calls when you can make them for free on GV.
The OBi device is good and they are integrated well into the Google Voice ecosystem. I have one of the first OBi boxes released, and had no issues for over 5 years until about 3-4 months ago. They released some sort of update to their software that couldn't be updated on the old boxes except for a manual update. I found the how to on the OBi forums and I'm back in business again.
Keep in mind there is no e911 with the OBi/GV setup. You must set up a separate account at a VOIP provider if you wish to have it. It's around $18/yr for that service, well worth it IMO. I use Callcentric. There are how-to's on how to set that up on the OBi box as well. You then do a test call to 911 to verify, it has worked every time I have tried it without issue.
We've had google voice for home phone for years. Absolutely love it! We have a cell phone in case the power goes out and we don't have internet or if we would ever need to call 9-1-1.
We've had google voice for home phone for years. Absolutely love it! We have a cell phone in case the power goes out and we don't have internet or if we would ever need to call 9-1-1.
What do you use as an adapter for your home phone?
I'm a Google Voice user (don't even know my cell #) but I don't use Obi device for one reason: no 911 service.
We have kids who know how to dial 911 using a landline phone but not from a cell phone. For landline 911 service, we use callcentric.com. For $1.50/m, you get 2 numbers with free incoming and $0.05/m outgoing. You can use Google Voice # for both incoming/outgoing #. However, you will need a VoIP adapter (ethernet to phone), which costs about $20 on ebay.
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