Moving phones from Comcast Business Voice to Google Voice/OBi202

Sharing the process I used for this and some money and time saving tips - Read all the steps in the description. Note that while my Obi202 continues to work, it's no longer possible to add a new device or make any Google Voice changes.

Porting land lines from Comcast Business Voice to Google Voice is a 2-step process. First you need to port the number(s) to a mobile carrier. I used T-Mobile pre-paid SIMs for this step, inserted the SIMs into an unlocked, dual-SIM Cubot Note S phone (no longer available, just a generic dual-SIM unlocked smart phone):
https://www.cubot.net/

After a few restarts and ~5 days, I had the numbers moved off of Comcast and onto T-Mobile. I took the Comcast phone box down to the local Comcast store that day to return it. Make sure you get it back prior to your monthly billing cycle start date to avoid an extra month's charges.

NOTE: I think the "legacy" Google Voice interface has been shut off. I think you can now do this process using the current interface but that wasn't available at the time this video was made. So some of the screen shots and steps may be slightly different for you.

Then, set up your Google Voice account, request a temporary number then transfer (port) your T-Mobile number in. Your account number is the ported phone number on the pre-paid SIM. You'll need to enter a PIN number after you get an e-mail notice.

For Google Voice, you'll need one GMail address per number you're porting. I used my main GMail address for my voice line then created a new GMail account for my FAX line (I rarely check that e-mail account). Big tip: If you need to set up a new GMail account do that BEFORE you port the numbers. Why? Because you'll need a valid phone number to sign up for a GMail account and once you port the number to GVoice, you can't use a GVoice number to set up a new GMail account.

In the end, I set up 2 Google Voice accounts, one for voice and one for FAX. For nicer Caller ID display, I set up a Call Centric account, got a free (now $1.00/mo) DID phone number (and e911 service for $1.50/mo). Then in Google Voice, forward calls to the CallCentric DID (disable Google Chat forwarding).

For the FAX, I turned off the T38 options as noted in the FAX setup link below.

Works great! The voice mail notifications are lightning fast, transcriptions are very good. The voice mail SPAM filtering is awesome. Calls from known SPAM numbers are automatically sent to the SPAM folder, you don't even hear the phone ring. And it's easy to block or mark as SPAM any other numbers with a simple right click.

Before: US$96.14/mo. including fees and taxes
After: US$ 1.50/mo. that's it!
Update: CallCentric now adds $1.00/mo. for the DID number, so $2.50/mo.

Obihai Google Voice porting tutorial:
http://www.obihai.com/porttutorial

Notes:
The ObiTalk service has reached its end of life and has been decommissioned as of Nov 1, 2024.

https://support.google.com/voice/community-guide/248839601/using-google-voice-with-obitalk-devices-after-10-31-2024?hl=en

Call Centric setup information, go to the last page:
http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=3640.240
-or-
https://www.callcentric.com/support/device/obihai/obi202

FAX line setup details:
https://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=10426.0

Comcast phone number blocking:
http://forums.xfinity.com/t5/Home-Phone-Features/Blocking-calls/td-p/1103051

Here's a good write-up on Google Voice Support:
https://support.google.com/voice/thread/18310665?hl=en

Be sure to rate, comment and share

And as always, thanks for watching

Intro:
Louisiana Fairytale by Austin Rogers
https://web.archive.org/web/20170402222425/http://drfiddle.com/show_tune.php?id=94

Видео Moving phones from Comcast Business Voice to Google Voice/OBi202 канала R Brown (4Crawler)