As Obihai announced on its blog page, Google Sets the Date for the End of XMPP with Google Voice (GV) to be 5/14/2014.
http://blog.obihai.com/2013/10/important-message-about-google-voice.html
After I read it, I decided to port my number out of GV to ANVEO (http://www.anveo.com/) since they are running a porting promotion at the moment (porting request must be submited before December 31st 2013). I can enjoy one year of unlimited incoming calls at ANVEO for $24. The terms for the free porting is copied below from their website:
* Free Porting Specific Terms: When the FREE porting is complete the phone number will be pre-paid for 12 months and account will be charged a non-refundable $24 (12 x $2/month) for Personal Unlimited rate plan
Otherwise porting a US number needs $15 porting fee without the promotion. Another option to keep the old GV number working is to order a new phone number at ANVEO and forward the GV number to the ANVEO number. There is no setup fee for a new ANVEO phone number when it is ordered on 'Personal Unlimited' rate plan ($2/month). However, I'm not convinced that free GV forwarding will last long therefore I chose to port the GV number out.
I first went to the following web page to unlock my GV number. It was unlocked immediately after I paid $3 to Google for porting it out.
https://www.google.com/voice/unlock
I need to submit a copy of the GV confirmation page for unlocking the number to ANVEO together with the porting request. The ANVEO porting request form can be downloaded from here. I submitted the porting request on night of 10/31 and added $30 into my ANVEO account with google checkout. I received an email from ANVEO on 11/5 saying that "the phone number porting is almost complete and it will be switched to our carrier within 48-72 hours. The phone number is now in your account."
I tried to use the ANVEO number in Asterisk and it worked. Before I can used it on a SIP device, I needed to activate SIP service at ANVEO website under Account Options->SIP Device
Registration. An SIP password is generated after the activation and Asterisk needs this SIP password to register for SIP. The username for a SIP device is the ANVEO account number.
The following are the context for ANVEO in users.conf for Asterisk
[general]
hassip = yes
hasiax = no
registeriax = no
callwaiting = yes
threewaycalling = yes
callwaitingcallerid = yes
transfer = yes
canpark = yes
cancallforward = yes
callreturn = yes
call-limit = 100
qualify = yes
disallow = all
allow = ulaw,alaw
type = friend
[anveo]
host=sip.anveo.com
port=5010
username= {account number}
secret= {SIP password}
insecure=port,invite
group = null
hasexten = yes
canreinvite = yes
callcounter = yes
disallow=all
allow=ulaw
context=anveo-in
registersip = yes
And the following is the context in extensions.conf for ANVEO incoming calls(6666 is the extension number of my home)
[anveo-in]
exten => s,1,NoOp(From Anveo ${EXTEN})
exten => s,n,Dial(SIP/6666)
I prefer Nonoh for outgoing calls, which currently offers free calling to countries such as US, Canada and China for 120 days after a credit (10 Euro minimum) is bought. And I found it a good idea to set the caller ID for outgoing calls to the ANVEO number at the Nonoh account settings.
The following are the context for Nonoh in users.conf for Asterisk
[nonoh]
host = sip.nonoh.net
username = {nonoh username}
secret = {nonoh password}
group = null
registersip = yes
canreinvite = yes
insecure = port,invite
hasexten = no
And the following is the context in extensions.conf for Nonoh (assuming the numbers dialed start with 00 then country code)
[DLPN_6666]
include = CallingRule_Out
include = default
include = parkedcalls
include = conferences
include = ringgroups
include = voicemenus
include = queues
include = voicemailgroups
include = directory
include = pagegroups
include = page_an_extension
[CallingRule_Out]
exten => _00[1-9]X.,1,Dial(SIP/nonoh/${EXTEN:0})
It is also possible to use ANVEO for outgoing calls, which costs 1 cent/minute in the US. The SIP device settings for outgoing calls can be found at
https://www.anveo.com/faq.asp?code=faq_sip_config
ANVEO also provides E911 service for $0.8/month per address and a bunch of add-ons for additional services.
