Polycom OBi200 1-Port VoIP Google Voice Digital Internet Telephone Adapter Expired

No one can guarantee that they will be alive tomorrow and everything spent today was just a waste. The thing here with this box is that in two months you are well into the plus side. The rumors of its demise have been going on for ten plus years and I have had the service working perfectly for those ten plus years. Two months of a similar service are going to set you back $60. Yes all actions are a gamble but this is one of the few sure ones that will see profit in very short order.

In my case I was paying close close to $50 a month for a landline, at 11 years in to the OBi that has saved me $6520. It's been one of the best deals ever and a cell phone as a replacement is just not really feasible or convenient.

GV on a cellphone is a lame and clunky solution. No cellphone will run the 7 years that my Obi did without a need for a new battery. Just the cost of the cellphones would be higher. A cellphone has to be constantly charged and constantly updated. Cellphones are not grandma friendly in the least, try to guide grandma though an Android update and you will know what I mean. The OBi is set and forget and will run for years on end and the non tech savvy will think they just have a phone. My Obi 110 ran for 7 years without touching it. Ergonomics and voice quality is better even on a cheap handset and I can have multiple handsets strewn through the house for a phone to be in easy reach. Those handsets can sit on the sofa for a month or more without needing to be charged.

On top of that a cellphone can not handle four lines as the OBi does and lacks almost all the convenience features that are native to the OBi. I can have distinctive rings for calls to the wife and calls to my business that are handled by the same phone. I can run a whole house full of phones off existing wiring. I can fax when need be and I can do some serious telephony with the built in star codes. You can even set these things up to act as intercoms and have speed dials to local services. It is a feature rich device designed to do one thing which is telephony, a cell phone is designed to do many and lacks in dedicated features for just true phone use. Just the fact of needing constant charging points that out quite clearly.

I get it, it may not be what you need in particular but if your comments dissuade someone that can truly use it to save thousands you have done a disservice to other SD members. Not being your cup of tea and the service being taken away from you for no reason are two different things. The service has been going on ten plus years and there has always been talk of it being taken away but that has never happened. I can't predict the future but for something that puts you in the positive cash flow in a month it may be worth the gamble.

It's a great and dirt cheap box that has telephone features that no cell phone can touch. There are many people that still find a great need for just a phone. Personally I'd give up my cell before I would the Obi. Yes the cell is invaluable when on the road but I find them little use at home. A regular handset is a better device to make and take calls on. My handsets must be pushing fifteen years and still are running strong. In that period I have probably been through 6 cells. Many cells don't even have replaceable batteries which is a real big downside.

Presuming a reliable internet connection, it would be perfect for a business. If anything, Google Voice (VoIP) is more flexible and provides far more convenient options than a typical landline.

Whether a phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop. You can pick make and pick-up calls on any device where you are logged into your Google Account and have it enabled (Google Voice application on Android/iOS and Chrome Extension for Windows/macOS/Linux). You can have access to your messages and voicemails wherever you are physically located. You can also set-up call forwarding to other phone numbers. You can have e-mail notifications for missed calls and voicemails. You can SMS/MMS and GV supports group messaging and short-code. There is a ton of flexibility and features you can use with GV.

This box is magic as you can connect it to Ethernet for a stable internet connection and have it hooked up to physical phones via phone jacks, intended for landlines. And have it run on Google Voice which is a hyper-flexible service.

I use one of these in my beach rentals so I don't have to have phone service. It's minimal bandwidth and e911 is cheap to add on. If you have robust firewall rules, you may have to open some ports. Stable and works well.