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tired_runner
Premium Member
join:2000-08-25
CT
·Frontier FiberOp..

tired_runner

Premium Member

Localphone subscriptions

Forgive if this has already been discussed, but search function doesn't like me.

I noticed Localphone now has a subscription option that includes 800 minutes for $1.60 per month. This is for US-based numbers.

Does this mean I can use that as an outbound trunk on my PBX to place calls within the US for that price?

Do they support CID spoofing?

TIA
twinclouds
join:2010-06-12
San Diego, CA

twinclouds

Member

Yes. This has been discussed previously. All the answers to your questions are Yes.
Stewart
join:2005-07-13

Stewart to tired_runner

Member

to tired_runner
Localphone works fine with Asterisk, FreeSWITCH, 3CX, etc. I don't see anything in their ToS that would preclude using a subscription for business or with a PBX, though I'm not a lawyer. You are limited to two channels.

You can set (via the website) any caller ID that you have verified on your Localphone account. I don't believe that you can choose among those dynamically, but have not tried. If you need to send arbitrary caller IDs, e.g. to show the original caller's number when forwarding to your mobile, AFAIK that's not possible with Localphone.

If most of your calls are to mobiles, you can achieve an average cost of $0.002 or less with Alcazar Networks, see »www.alcazarnetworks.com/ ··· tion.php , or Anveo Direct, see »www.anveodirect.com/pric ··· outbound . These services also permit (and indeed require) sending an arbitrary caller ID. However, for calling to landlines or VoIP, Localphone's subscription prices are a helluva deal.
tired_runner
Premium Member
join:2000-08-25
CT
·Frontier FiberOp..

tired_runner

Premium Member

My setup is: two Google Voice DIDs; one for home, one for my cell.

With impending shutdown of XMPP, I need an inexpensive workaround for outbound calling. With inbound, I'm alright forwarding my DIDs to IPKall, then to my PBX. This is how I've been testing it and despite lacking CID from time to time, it doesn't get better than free for my trouble.

I don't call much, but I really hate the thought of metered calling. I know many folks outside the US are used to this. Me personally, I can deal with a monthly ration of free minutes and adhere my calling habits to that.

I really like the 800 minutes for $1.60 per month. It's very fair and suits my usual calling patterns. Plus keeping my Google Voice DID where it is allows me to keep texting via Google Voice app, or possibly Hangouts very soon if it comes to that. Most VoIP providers I believe charge per message for SMS.

twincouds, thank you for chiming in.

cb14
join:2013-02-04
Miami Beach, FL

cb14

Member

They allow you to set Caller ID to one of the numbers you registered with them- can be your DIDs, your cell phone etc. Those numbers are real, as opposed to spoofing where you create fake CLID for usually illegal purposes.

sammoats
Premium Member
join:2014-02-16
Winchester, VA

sammoats

Premium Member

I'm not from localphone or related to them but I can see why they would do this. We used to require customers to register their numbers with us to prevent fraud and abuse.
That worked if it's a private residential customer or a small business service with a few numbers but we found some customers do have a legitimate reason to use lots of caller IDs. Mostly large corporate PBX users or users providing cloud PBX services using the service for the outgoing. Preventing abuse in that environment boils down to watching call patterns and knowing your customers.
tired_runner
Premium Member
join:2000-08-25
CT

tired_runner

Premium Member

Yeah... I agree with the registering the number.

It would suck to have my DIDs associated with telemarketing or spam dialers.

I suppose I call it spoofing 'cause from a technical perspective, that's really what's going on.
twinclouds
join:2010-06-12
San Diego, CA

twinclouds to tired_runner

Member

to tired_runner
said by tired_runner:

twincouds, thank you for chiming in.

You are welcome.
I though about localphone and felt it was a very good choice. However, then I found vestalink, which is even a better deal, so I went for it.
I guess you are aware of my blog: »hobbiesbytwinclouds.word ··· ut-xmpp/. If you can do it, it will be all free, as far as we understand today and, of course, if Google does not screw up us again .

brg
Premium Member
join:2001-01-03
Chicago, IL

brg to tired_runner

Premium Member

to tired_runner
Unsolicited thumbs-up for twinclouds' blog efforts. I followed his postings and ressurected my Dockstar as an asterisk-driven GV callback appliance. Works as well as my Obi100 set-up.
brg

brg to Stewart

Premium Member

to Stewart
said by Stewart:

If most of your calls are to mobiles, you can achieve an average cost of $0.002 or less with Alcazar Networks

For a mobile that I call regularly, I'm seeing a rate of "$0.00072". As in .072 of a cent. As in a bit more than 7 hundredths of a cent. Really?
Stewart
join:2005-07-13

Stewart

Member

said by brg:

For a mobile that I call regularly, I'm seeing a rate of "$0.00072". As in .072 of a cent. As in a bit more than 7 hundredths of a cent. Really?

I know little about the financial / regulatory side of VoIP; perhaps one of the VoSP owners can jump in here. I vaguely recall that there is some sort of agreement that the mobile carriers themselves must provide free termination. However, they can be picky about their peers, so what you are seeing is a small markup for some CLEC and for Alcazar.
tired_runner
Premium Member
join:2000-08-25
CT
·Frontier FiberOp..

tired_runner to twinclouds

Premium Member

to twinclouds
said by twinclouds:

I guess you are aware of my blog: »hobbiesbytwinclouds.word ··· ut-xmpp/. If you can do it, it will be all free, as far as we understand today and, of course, if Google does not screw up us again .

Sometime ago someone posted Google Voice via Asterisk and Python. I started reading it and my ADD quickly kicked in.

I suppose as the deadline draws closer I will have to make a choice. I will read your blog and see if it's something I can do.

brg
Premium Member
join:2001-01-03
Chicago, IL

brg

Premium Member

"Try it; you'll like it."

Yes, it's GV and Asterisk and Python, but twinclouds lays it all out nicely, and it's very easy to follow and implement. I did it on an embedded device -- even more challenging -- and I can be all thumbs!
tired_runner
Premium Member
join:2000-08-25
CT
·Frontier FiberOp..

tired_runner

Premium Member

Alright, but will it work with FreePBX?

The blog suggests to edit sip.conf and extensions.conf. The custom edits I did on Asterisk to get it working today had to be done on different files that worked with those two. And most of the PBX administration I do is via GUI.
twinclouds
join:2010-06-12
San Diego, CA

1 edit

twinclouds

Member

said by tired_runner:

Alright, but will it work with FreePBX?

Essentially they are the same thing. Since I am not familiar with FreePBX, I'd rather not to touch it.
My purpose was to make it simple. FreePBX is certainly more powerful but if one only need to set up a few extensions for home use, I think it is overkill. For people don't have already installed FreePBX, it is simpler to implement too.
I am not a FreeBPX guy so I am not familiar with its GUIs. My blog aimed to a "minimum implementation" for people like me. It should be almost foolproof, at least I hope. Of course, if you need the functionality of FreeBPX and already know it, integrating with FreePBX can give you a more powerful system.
said by tired_runner:

The blog suggests to edit sip.conf and extensions.conf.

You can edit these two files to make it work. However you will lost the functionalities of the FreePBX. The files you edited is just the extensions of sip.conf and extensions.conf, anyway.
I did one experiment. I downloaded RaspPBX for RPi and installed Python on it. Then I just edited the two files. The set up works fine. However, I don't know what FreePBX's functionalities will still be there.
tired_runner
Premium Member
join:2000-08-25
CT

tired_runner

Premium Member

Alright. How do you invoke an outbound call with this method?

My setup has two extensions: one SIP client that runs on my cell phone and an ATA that sits behind the same network where the PBX lives. Both register directly to PBX.
twinclouds
join:2010-06-12
San Diego, CA

twinclouds

Member

said by tired_runner:

Alright. How do you invoke an outbound call with this method?

Can you elaborate? Not sure what is exactly your question. I actually have more extensions than what shown on the example of my blog. For example, I have my cellphone logged into one and 2 ATA also logged into two other extensions. You just make one call at a time.
tired_runner
Premium Member
join:2000-08-25
CT
·Frontier FiberOp..

tired_runner

Premium Member

For example; my cell phone runs CSipSimple, and it's configured to register an extension on the PBX.

When I place a call from CSipSimple, I dial the number and hit call. This makes a TCP connection to the PBX, which in turn makes the PBX place the call to the GV trunk via Jabber.

That last part; PBX connecting to GV trunk; is what I'm wondering how it would work with the tidbit in your blog using Python. How would it show in the Trunks configuration? Or how would an extension in the PBX use it to place a call?
tired_runner

tired_runner to twinclouds

Premium Member

to twinclouds
Alright... So I read that other page I referenced before again and this time my ADD didn't kick in... The way it's done via Python is as they said here:

[custom-gv-trunk-username]
exten => _X.,1,System(gvoice -e username@gmail.com -p userpassword call ${EXTEN} gvregphonenum code &)
exten => _X.,n,Set(DB(gv_dialout_username/channel)=${CHANNEL})
exten => _X.,n,Wait(20)
exten => _X.,n,Noop(Never received callback from Google Voice on channel ${DB_DELETE(gv_dialout_username/channel)} – exiting)
exten => h,1,GotoIf($["${CHANNEL(state)}" = "Ring"]?:bridged)
exten => h,n,Noop(Hangup on channel ${DB_DELETE(gv_dialout_username/channel)})
exten => h,n,System(gvoice -e username@gmail.com -p userpassword cancel &)
exten => h,n,Hangup()
exten => h,n(bridged),Noop(The channel has been bridged successfully)
 

Basically, you're adding an additional context inside extensions_custom.conf referencing your GV credentials and DIDs as specified within the parameters.

And without willingness to putz around with my PBX now to see if it will work, I wonder how this will impact my existing dialplans. The way I have it set, each extension has its own dial plan which is an identical set of rules for each with exception of the extension number referenced in the dialplan. This was the only way I can tell the PBX for example; extension 201 dials via GV trunk 718-555-1001, extension 202 dials via GV trunk 718-555-1002, and so on and so forth.

*sigh*
twinclouds
join:2010-06-12
San Diego, CA

twinclouds to tired_runner

Member

to tired_runner
The process is exactly the same. (Actually, this portion of your set-up is the same as mine.) Once you dial the number and hit send, the PBX will engage the python script to dial, at the same time, it will set the channel to be your extension and go to a wait state. The Python script will let GV place two connected calls, one to the number you dialed and the other will dial your DID number. When your PBX sees the incoming call is your DID number, it will bridge the channel that is assigned to your extension making the outgoing call and the DID handling the dialback. Thus your extension is connected to the number you dialed. I hope this answered your question.

Edit:
Just saw you latest reply. I think what you want to do has been described in the "How used to be done ..." blog. I have never did that way so I cannot give you my suggestions. You just have experiment and figure it out. Good luck!
tired_runner
Premium Member
join:2000-08-25
CT
·Frontier FiberOp..

tired_runner

Premium Member

I just installed the Python modules on the PBX. That seems to have worked.

Sometime before May I need to sit down with a bottle of aspirin and work my way through the context examples posted in that "How it used to be done" blog.

I shall post my progress. Thanks for the well wishes. I will need them.
twinclouds
join:2010-06-12
San Diego, CA

twinclouds

Member

It should not be that difficult. From the TechNotes blog, it seems others have implemented successfully. Some investigations are needed though. Looking forward to hearing about your success story soon!

cb14
join:2013-02-04
Miami Beach, FL

cb14 to Stewart

Member

to Stewart
said by Stewart:

If most of your calls are to mobiles, you can achieve an average cost of $0.002 or less with Alcazar Networks, see »www.alcazarnetworks.com/ ··· tion.php ,

It seems to me that CWU premium rates to cell phones in European countries are lower than Alcazar's.
Stewart
join:2005-07-13

Stewart

Member

said by cb14:

said by Stewart:

If most of your calls are to mobiles, you can achieve an average cost of $0.002 or less with Alcazar Networks, see »www.alcazarnetworks.com/ ··· tion.php ,

It seems to me that CWU premium rates to cell phones in European countries are lower than Alcazar's.

The OP was asking about Localphone subscription to US numbers and my reply was in that context. I agree that Alcazar's international rates are not very aggressive.

CWU's international rates are remarkably low, given that they are a full service provider. If e.g. you want to forward a US DID to a France mobile, you'd need your own PBX to do it with Voxbeam or Alcazar. On Anveo Direct, they seem to block that just to be mean, though with some trickery, you can forward DIDs from other providers (including Anveo retail). On CWU, it's straightforward to set up and just works.
PX Eliezer1
Premium Member
join:2013-03-10
Zubrowka USA

PX Eliezer1

Premium Member

said by Stewart:

On CWU, it's straightforward to set up and just works.

I may be missing something, but how do you set up call forwarding on CWU (Call With Us) without a PBX?
nitzan
Premium Member
join:2008-02-27

nitzan

Premium Member

In the DID screen, the "Ring To destination" field. These capabilities are built-in to A2Billing.
PX Eliezer1
Premium Member
join:2013-03-10
Zubrowka USA

PX Eliezer1

Premium Member

Thanks.
tired_runner
Premium Member
join:2000-08-25
CT
·Frontier FiberOp..

tired_runner to twinclouds

Premium Member

to twinclouds
said by twinclouds:

It should not be that difficult. From the TechNotes blog, it seems others have implemented successfully. Some investigations are needed though. Looking forward to hearing about your success story soon!

Alright, so I tried firing up this thing tonight. When I dial from CSipSimple on cell phone, I get a 10 second pause followed by "The party is not answering." The call terminates and that's that.

When trying the test call from CLI I get this:

root@pbx:~ $ gvoice -e xxx@gmail.com -p xxx call 1718xxx6050
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/gvoice", line 79, in <module>
    login()
  File "/usr/bin/gvoice", line 49, in login
    voice.login(options.email,options.passwd)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/googlevoice/voice.py", line 70, in login
    galx = re.search(r"name=\"GALX\"\s+value=\"(.+)\"", content).group(1)
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'group'
 

Ehh?
twinclouds
join:2010-06-12
San Diego, CA

twinclouds

Member

I think you skipped the last line in Step II. D. i.e. the patch: "sed -i 's| galx.*| galx = re.search(r\"name=\\"GALX\\" type=\\"hidden\\"\\n *value=\\"(.+)\\"\", content).group(1)|' /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/googlevoice/voice.py" was not done. Please take a look of (»stackoverflow.com/questi ··· n-python) which explained why this is necessary.
Obviously, you didn't do "# gvoice -e [gvusername@gmail.com] -p [gvpassword] call NXXNXXXXXX 253xxxxxxx 1" on your PC first either. My blog is a step by step guide so please don't skip any of the steps.
Good luck.
tired_runner
Premium Member
join:2000-08-25
CT
·Frontier FiberOp..

tired_runner

Premium Member

Sorry, must have missed it.

Tried the fix. This is what happens.

root@pbx:/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/googlevoice $ gvoice -e xxx@gmail.com -p xxx call 1718xxx6050 206xxx8034 1
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/gvoice", line 79, in <module>
    login()
  File "/usr/bin/gvoice", line 49, in login
    voice.login(options.email,options.passwd)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/googlevoice/voice.py", line 70, in login
    galx = re.search(r"name=\GALX\" type=\"hidden\"\n *value=\"(.+)\"", content).group(1)
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'group'
root@pbx:/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/googlevoice $