Obi WiFi dongle $22 after $8 off promo code 4BKNVEC264
Newegg also has the 202 for $65 currently.
I see it at $69.99 + $20 off w/ promo code 23BKFCYM28A, limited offer, so $49.99
That is the 200. Newegg (& Amazon) have had that $50 pricing for a month or so.
$65 ($100-$35) is for the 202
https://www.newegg.com/polycom-2200-49522-001-accessories/p/N82E16833617016
Yes, thank you. I mixed them up...
Obi200 dropped a few dollars.
Currently $37.69
The recent snafu between Obihai & GV brought this thread back to mind after months have passed.
Quite suddenly lots & lots of folks found that their Obi boxes which had been fine the day before were offline with useless reasons given like 'token error' & 'registration not required'.
The Obi forum was flooded with repeated new threads about these concerns.
Given the normally distant nature of the big G's non-support there wasn't much anyone could do in terms of taking action about it directly.
This went on for 2+ days - with no relief for folks who use their Obi as their home phones (as with us).
Finally someone whom I'll only refer to as that forum's biggest troll claimed that he used his remaining 'google contacts' somehow, and in less than a day the Obi boxes started coming fully back online.
Our temporary solution during the outage=>
We had an urgent need to make a call specifically from the home number which was time sensitive, and so...
The best temporary solution for us was simply to change the account settings on an unactivated phone to the needed gmail account - use a true/full cellular to get the verification done - and presto, 100% available 'home phone' via Android for the duration.
This misadventure of sorts highlighted the benefits of having a paid VOIP account with a great company vs. depending upon a 'free' service given away by a data collection company;
Our friend who kept his old Obi100 going by porting his number over to VOIP.MS had no troubles at all during that time whatsoever.
If such outages multiply or become worse now that Obihai is Polycom, we may also sign up for that monthly 5.95 phone bill rather than enduring days long outages.
Only time will reveal what may be coming along next...
Thanks, Et_Z ! I --still-- haven't gotten around to making the leap to Obi, but plan to do so. I was aware of the possibility of doing what you described, but a very useful warning to have it thought through and set up in advance of the potential need.
Also, nice observation about Google (for whom telecom is only a dabbling interest) vs. a dedicated VoIP provider (who relies on keeping it working for their business survival.
I got rid of my Obi that I had used for about 5 years recently and instead, just set up an old cell phone I had laying around with Google Voice. Works perfect and now no more cordless phone with all the wires and no more obi that sometimes needed to reboot. The solution cost me zero with all the same benefits! (I have Google Voice using wifi only so I don't need another cell plan active on the phone)
We actually quite adore our cordless phones - 'specially as they can reach WAAAAY out in the yard so it is possible to use the phone if outside doing stuff - like even when working on the car.
(The wifi doesn't reach nearly as far as that.)
So we have both options now.
If/when the Obi option goes fubar at all - no biggie - so long as it doesn't stay that way for too long.
Aside of that=>
Any ATA box can be useful MINUS the Obi + GV & as the big G continues to limit features with increasing disregard for its users other good ITSPs are always available.
My friend with his ancient Obi100 only found out about the recent GV snafu when I told him of it & had 100% fine VOIP usage during the very same period of time that ours was totally down.
Not good news at all.
Could this also signal how Polycom plans to kill off the Obitalk portal service ??
AFAIK they are not offering any newer ATA box to replace those & if that is so - 2 years MAX now exist to use the Obi2xx series ATAs.
There has been less & less activity at their support forum - with most of it being complaints about services being interrupted and/or failing.
Ours has been pretty good so far with only minor outages until today when several calls totally failed to ring in - but the VM notifications still worked & later so did the Obi, again.
PS:
Given how much of this thread related with the Ooma Telo that we finally & totally gave up on, what is sad about it is that nobody anyplace has been interested in it at all.
Practically brand new, all boxed up - and most likely I'll give it one more shot at re-homing via Freecycle...if when that fails, landfill time for that dust collector.