Do you still have a land line phone? Have you made the jump to VOIP with Vonage or a similar service? Have you dumped the land line in favor of your cell phone, but still long for a home phone?

Well, I wanted to share a hack that I discovered and promptly jumped on.

We dropped our home service years ago and kept our cell phones as a primary means of contact.  This worked well for us for quite some time, but my recent career change requires more phone time than my cell phone plan allows.  It only took one month of overages and several low battery beeps for me to search the Internets for cheap phone service.  Enter the OBi110 by Obihai Technology, Inc.

The OBi110 is an ATA analog telephone adapter and service bridge.  I am not smart enough to know what that means, but apparently you can have the device act as a bridge between your phone and your voice over internet protocol (VOIP) service provider.

What intrigued me most about this unit is that you are able to connect it to your Google Voice account.  This enables you to make free calls using Google Voice utilizing a corded or cordless phone.  At the end of this post is a video detailing how to do just that.

The unit itself runs for about $50 on Amazon.  You can get a free phone number from Google by visiting www.google.com/voice.  Google will be offering Google Voice for free through at least 2012.  There has been no word as to when or if there will be a charge in the near future.  So, for the initial investment of $50 you can have free telephone service for the next year or so.  The only item of note, and it is an important one, you cannot make 911 emergency calls utilizing this service.  Otherwise, once configured, you can make regular telephone calls like you would with any other service. You pick up the phone and are met with a dial tone as if it were Ma Bell providing you the service.

I made a few practice calls and the response has been pretty good.  I spoke with a coworker today utilizing the service and she said she couldn’t tell the difference.  Another person said the sound was crystal clear and wanted to get one.

For those looking to cut expenses, this is probably the best option for you.  There are other units out there that offer free to low-cost service.  Despite the hard sales pitch, I have been told magicJack: PC to Phone Jack works fairly well.  The downside is that you have to have your computer running in order to use the service.  There is also the popular Ooma Telo.  At $200 this unit cost 4 times the amount of the OBi110.

In conclusion, being that emergency calls cannot be placed utilizing Google Voice and the OBi110 device, you might not want to completely cut all your services in favor of this option.  If you’re looking for a compliment to your current array of telephone services and a way to save a few bucks, well, you should take a long, hard look at the OBi110 if your intent is to configure it with Google Voice.

What are your thoughts on this configuration?

Below is the video on how to set up the OBi110 with Google Voice: