
Ask HN: Google Voice as the main phone solution for a small business? - dhruvkar
We use Google Apps for our 15 person company. We currently get separate phone service from ATT&#x2F;local VOIP provider. I was thinking about moving all of those lines to Google Voice as our primary number(s), to save cost. If you&#x27;ve set this up, how has it fared? Is it reliable&#x2F;enterprise-ready in such a context? Did you set up landline phones with it? Or just had headsets to go with the laptops?
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philiphodgen
The quality of your telephone service -- voice quality and can people even
reach you? -- is powerful marketing or antimarketing for your business.

If I am a customer or prospect and I call you, what will it sound like? Is
your self-hosted solution the best use of your time? What if your VPS provider
gets a DDOS attack and your VPS and phone service is unreachable?

An executive's time is worth millions. Don't piss it away saving $25/month per
employee.

Oh. And Google Voice. A steaming pile of telephone call spam and text messages
is what it turned out for me. Avoid.

Serious people use serious tools.

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tracker1
I haven't noticed the spam at all, I have my GV set to block spam calls, and
have mostly enjoyed it with google hangouts app... I don't like that sending a
text message in the desktop chrome/hangouts requires a weird UI, or that the
contacts removed the send sms option.

I've been using GV since it was Grand Central before Google bought them out.

Although I wouldn't use it for a multi-user business, it's been pretty nice
for me, since you have filtering options, can set custom outgoing messages per
caller, and can keep the number while switching your mobile carries (T-Mobile
-> Boost -> Simple Mobile -> Verizon) all while keeping my GV number as my
main contact number.

I use an Obihai box at home connected to a regular pots cordless phone, and
that has been pretty nice.

Weird thing, it will drop a call if you're on longer than 2 (or is it 3)
hours, and if you're calling someone else on an IP/wireless phone, the
lag/conflict can get interesting. Works better on obihai than cell phone, for
example.

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dhruvkar
This is useful. I ported my number to Google Voice in 2011, and have used that
as my main number ever since (Iphone), changing providers quite a few times in
the middle. Never used an IP phone with it, but this use case would require
it.

>if you're calling someone else on an IP/wireless phone, the lag/conflict can
get interesting

Good to know, didn't realize this was an issue.

~~~
tracker1
It's just that each hop adds latency... cell phones are bad enough, and cell
to cell is worse... gv is effectively cell + IP ... and with the two on either
side, it's wild.

If you ever notice when you and someone else start talking, and step on
eachother... it's mostly because of the additional latency cell and IP phones
tend to add on top of what POTS phones would have.

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tracker1
I'd probably lean towards using a virtual PBX hosted on digital ocean using
something like twilio (OpenVBX) or tropo (TropoVBX). From that, you should be
able to use most IP phpnes or use soft phone on a computer, combined with a
decent headset.

That's a relatively inexpensive option, that would allow you to grow.

