In the past the cost to make calls and sending faxes are pretty high, especially if it’s used for small businesses. To help people paying less bills, they can use ATA of Analog Telephone Adaptor. Using this device will reduce your bill significantly because your calls and faxes are sent over the internet. If you feel your phone bill is burdening, you should try this device.
In this article we will give you information about:
– What are ATA, Obihai 100 and Obihai 200
– What Obihai 100 and Obihai 200 can do
– Obihai 100 vs Obihai 200
About Obihai ATA
Obihai is a California based company which design and manufactures Analog Telephone Adapters or called ATA. These devices is used to turn regular landline phone into a VoIP phone, so you can achieved cheap phone calls when connected to a VoIP provider. To enhance its ability you can connect the Obihai ATA to Google voice, so you can receive and make calls inside the US and Canada free of charge.
The way it works is by connecting your analog phone to Obihai and then to the internet. Obihai produced Analog Telephone Adapters or ATA. This ATA device function is to takes your existing analog telephone and converts your voice into digital format and then send it over to your connection. This technology is called as Voice over IP or VoIP, because the call are sent over the internet. This way you can make cheaper call or receive call than traditional service.
Next is about Google voice. The Obihai ATA only provide the hardware and software to make you able to take and receive call using your old telephone. The device can’t handle the actual routing of call into the PSTN, cell phones or other VoIP lines, this is why we need a VoIP service provider. The Obihai ATA actually can be used with other provider, such as 1-VoIP, ITP, Voipo, and AXvoice. But those provider are not free, so you have to pay to get their service, unlike Google Voice, which is completely free and makes you able to get free phone calls inside US and Canada, this feature is also combine with the low cost of international calls.
About Obihai 100
Obihai 100 is an Analog Telephone Adapter. The device contains a single FXS port for use with a SIP provider. You can use the device easily because it was designed to be easily configured and can be done in a few minutes. It’s more advance feature is that it also available to end users through the admin interface.
What it can do
You can use the Obihai 100 to make and receive phone calls using the VoIP services for free or cheaper than your traditional phone bills that you used to pay. The Obihai 100 is capable of supporting up to two VoIP services, such as Google Voice, RingTo, Anveo, Phonepower, OneSuite, OneSuite or other SIP internet phone services. You can also use Obihai 100 to call other Obi user via Obihai free OBiTALK network.
To set up this device, you can follow these simple step that only requires few minutes:
– You should login to OBiTALK website
– Add your Obi device and select Google Voice as your service
– Later you can confirm your account with Google.
About Obihai 200
Taken from Obihai, Obihai 200 is similar to Obihai 100, this is a device that you called ATA. With this device you are going to be in control of your digital and analog communications life. Aside from Google voice you can also use up to 4 available VoIP services, with this device you will have the power to make and receive phone calls, faxes, bridge mobile, fixed line and internet telephone services. The Obihai 200 also supports the T.38 fax standard for reliable facsimile calls over the internet.
The USB port in Obihai 200 serves multi purposes. You can use it as a Wi-Fi that can be reached within 802.11b/g/n access point. The USB also can be connected to storage device, so you can access your stored file over the internet. (Read also : OBI200 vs. Ooma)
If you are going to use Google Voice, here is some simple step to follow:
– First, create a Google Voice account if you don’t have it yet. You will need a Google account like Gmail to sign up and your phone number. Follow the process and you will also need to fulfill some verification steps before you are given your new phone number.
– Second is create an OBiTalk account, you can register using your Google account and sign in to OBiTalk. After you sign in you can add your device. There will be a tutorial that you can follow at their page.
– At the configuration option, you should check Google voice for your device and then click next.
Obihai 100 vs Obihai 200
Conclusion
You might already can guessed which to choose between Obihai 100 and Obihai 200. Obihai has announced the end of life for Obihai 100 since 2016, this means that they are not going to develop and release software update. However Obihai 100 purchaser will still get 1 year warranty and technical support. The current version Obihai has is Obihai 200 and 202. So we highly recommend you to choose the newer Obihai 200 rather than Obihai 100.