The Death of Free Phone Service

Some of you have noticed that Google is killing XMPP support for Google Voice on May 15th.  That pretty much renders the OBI products useless for free service (they are offering a $50/yr alternative that's not bad).  At this time it is unknown if they'll be activating SIP which would solve everyone's problem with connectivity but make configuration a nightmare.  Alas, all good things must come to an end.  I personally think that was pretty lame on the part of Google to can it w/o offering a per month subscription or something.  But, as Google said - they have no interest in becoming a telephone provider.  It was great while it lasted right?

Luckily there is an alternative (sort of)!  It's not free but it's really inexpensive.  It's service is free for the 1st year when you purchase the equipment and then $30 a year afterward with a guarantee that they won't raise the price as long as you keep service on it.  That's not too shabby.  The product is called the NetTalk Duo.  It's $44.99 @ Amazon for the standard and $30 for the v2 but, the v2 only includes 3 months of service.  They also have a WiFi model for $70.  After you get the unit installed, you just go setup call forwarding on your Google Voice account and disable the voice mail.  Your outgoing number will be the new NetTalk number and you can still receive calls from the Google voice number.  Google says that they're not killing the service, just the XMPP connectivity.  Here are the links to buy a NetTalk unit:

Nettalk Duo VOIP Telephone Service
netTalk 857392003016 DUO II VoIP Phone and Device
netTalk DUO WiFi VoIP Phone Adapter and Device

**UPDATE** The WiFi version seems to be on sale for $49.99 w/3 free months of service!  That's only $5 more than the regular unit!

**UPDATE** the $30 /yr doesn't include Federal Taxes - they usually run around $3.50 so the overall yearly cost would be around $33.50

If you wanted to keep your OBI and get another VOIP provider - these guys have the best pricing:
http://www.phonepower.com/Obihai_info.aspx
There are currently 2 plans.  There is a 333 minute and a Unlimited plan.

Good luck - either option is still less than the $20/month offered by Time Warner.  If you find a free SIP VOIP provider the OBI can connect to it.  I hadn't seen anything worth mentioning at this time.

**UPDATE** there is another option from OOMA which is free + Federal taxes so, about $3.50 a month.
Ooma Telo Free Home Phone Service

I'll try to keep everyone up to date as I hear more.

**UPDATE**  I ordered and am using the Nettalk Duo above.  It works like a champ and is way better than the Obi100 ever was.  Excellent voice quality etc.  The only thing that I had to do was set it to a static IP and throw it in the DMZ.  IDK if it was necessary to QOS high priority the thing but I did it anyway.  For amusement sake Joe is going to see if he can hack my old Obi100 to work with Google's new framework.  I'll start a new post if it works & include a walkthru.