**** Update 12/23/21 ****
I just noticed that the end of life has been announced for this product, from their ObiTalk.com website:
"December 18th, 2021
*** Important notice to OBiTALK customers***
Summary: OBi200, OBi202 and OBi212 have entered the End of Life phase with the following key milestones:
End of Sale date is December 18, 2021 (as supplies last)
End of Engineering Support is December 18, 2023.
End of Service date is December 18, 2023.
OBi200, OBi202 and OBi212 products have entered the End of Sale phase with the last day of sale of these products to be December 18, 2021 (as supplies last). The End of Engineering support date and the End of Service date for all OBi200, OBi202 and OBi212 products will be December 18, 2023. OBiTALK calling service will continue to be supported for the OBi200, OBi202 and OBi212 until December 18, 2023. OBi200, OBi202 and OBi212 devices may continue to work after the end of service date, but they will not be able to get added to the Google Voice service after December 18, 2023. OBi200, OBi202 and OBi212 devices registered prior to the End of Engineering Support date won’t be able to be provisioned via OBiTALK after the December 18, 2023 and can only be managed and provisioned locally (manually). "
So at this point I would seriously recommend you review if/how you plan to use this device due to this end of life notice. Very disappointing announcement considering I just purchased the device and expended $'s to move to use this device with Google Voice.
***** End of 12/23/21 Update ******
***** Original review ******
In brief this unit is great and I would recommend. If you want more details then see below.
I have used a previous model of this Obihai unit for 6+ years via the telco provider Basictalk so hopefully this unit will last as long. I will update this review if I encounter any hardware issues with the device. On first activation the device automatically upgraded to the latest firmware version, ensure that you are on the latest version or you may have problems configuring it with Google Voice.
I was happy with the Basictalk service but wanted to reduce my telco expenses even further and have more control over my landline. With this unit combined with Google Voice I found a solution I am very happy with.
The Obihai unit is small but powerful in that if you want to go all geeky then there is a web interface you can access on the unit to customize it as much as you want, however the basic out of the box setup is relative simple and straightforward for a standard setup with Google Voice and the Obitalk services.
There are a couple of youtube videos which demo how to do the Obi device settup and Google Voice setup etc. just search youtube for "Google Voice and Obi200)" and several should show up, the one by "Budget Nerd" is good but there are several others. There are also quite a few more detailed reviews here on Amazon that go into setup steps in more details so I would recommend looking for those. There is
also a community blog on the Obitalk website that is very useful and contains lots of information and pointers if needed.
Note I had no need to contact the Obitalk tech support so cannot talk to how good that is.
I was unable to directly port my landline directly to Google Voice so I temporarily ported it to Tracfone then ported it into Google Voice. You can check on Google Voice to see if your number will directly port or not. The port to Googlevoice is a one time $20 and I recall paying Tracfone approx $16 for their lowest 30 day service plan to temporarily port the landline number into it. The extra number porting hop added a few days to my overall transition to the Googe Voice / Obitalk sett up.
I still wanted a 911 service and there were a couple of options directly available on the Obitalk website, that worked out $25 for a years service. There maybe cheaper options and if you don't want/need the ability for 911 operators to determine your location/address automatically then you could skip this all together.
So for an initial cost of the Obihai unit and another one time $36 getting the landline number ported over to Google Voice I have a settup that will cost me $25 per year. Note I only need to make calls to North America numbers from this phone if you do need to call internationally then you would need to add some additional costs/service to your setup. The Google voice service also provides me more flexibility to re-route my calls to my mobile phone if needed or simply get notifications that calls have come in on the "land line". So all in all very happy with this.
The only down side to this type of settup is that unlike a regular old true land line this settup is dependent on your internet connection and electricity so if those go out so does your "land line". If your cell/mobile was still working you could route your number to your cell as a backup.
When using the phone and the Obihai unit the sound for me and caller is great, again this may vary based on the quality of your internet service.
My "landline" phone voicemail will also pickup and record if not answered. You may need to tweak some Google Voice settings if the calls end up in the Google Voice "voicemail".
So in general I would recommend this solution, just be aware of the caveats and take a look at the youtube videos, more detailed reviews for steps and the Obitalk website for more info. If you have setup your home internet modem/router then you should be ok with this process.
| Wireless Type | 54g |
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