FOOD FOR THOUGHT Google Voice Max Channels

ChildOTK

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Good Day All,

Using Google Voice, how many maximum concurrent calls can one have going at any time?

Thanks!
 

siliconvalley785

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You can have 2 channels/calls going at once with Google Voice, regardless of direction (in or out).

Pritesh
 

restamp

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After not being able to get a definitive answer to the question of how many channels a Google Voice trunk will support, I did a bit of experimenting on my own this evening. My conclusion is that Google Voice will support 3 outgoing channels and 2 incoming ones. (I suspect, though I did not test, that each incoming channel counts against one of the outgoing ones.) After three outbound calls, the fourth attempt was met with some Google intercept and then a busy signal. On incoming, I believe I was given a message that the party was busy and directed to Google Voice Mail.

I then went into the web interface "Connectivity > Trunks" and set the Max Channels for each GV trunk to 3. After this, attempting a 4th outbound call gave the expected "All Circuits are Busy" message. I then went into "Connectivity > Outbound Routes" and added my second GV line as an overflow to the main one (under "Trunk Sequence for Matched Routes"). After doing so, I was then able to make 4 outbound calls simultaneously, with the 4th seamlessly overflowing to the 2nd GV line.

I think I'm going to leave it this way for a while to see if any glitches show up, but this seems like a reasonable routing arrangement for my purposes.

Oh, one more thing: I noticed that when I tried a second incoming call to my Hylafax line, it rang busy. I suspect this is due to Hylafax turning off call waiting, and thus I wonder if whether deactivating this feature on a normal call might have the same effect of blocking the second incoming channel.
 
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tycho

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My conclusion is that Google Voice will support 3 outgoing channels and 2 incoming ones. (I suspect, though I did not test, that each incoming channel counts against one of the outgoing ones.)
Interesting sleuthing; thank you.

I believe I read what you stated correctly, but just to clarify: regarding the above, you are saying a max of 3 outbound total, or a max of 2 inbound total, right? I'd be rather amazed if GV supported 5 concurrent call-paths... :)
 

restamp

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Yes, Google Voice appears to allow three outbound channels (if no inbounds are in use), and two inbounds (if no outbounds are in use). I did not test whether all three outbounds could still be accessed while inbound calls were in progress, but my guess would be no. (In other words, I would not be surprised if the limit were three concurrent calls, with a maximum of two inbound.)

If you think about it, two incoming channels are needed to support call waiting, and I *think* at one point GV was claiming support for 4-way calling, so that could explain the 3 outbound channels. (Today, if I understand their current stance correctly, they are pushing the conferencing capabilities of their "hangouts".)

I am in the process of setting up an automated conference-call dialplan. I expect that with two GV lines I'll be able to support up to a 7 party call (with myself as the 7th person, participating via an Asterisk extension). I haven't brought this plan to fruition yet, but if there is interest, I'll let you all know the outcome when I do -- probably sometime later this week.
 

tycho

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I haven't brought this plan to fruition yet, but if there is interest, I'll let you all know the outcome when I do -- probably sometime later this week.
By all means, do report. Thanks!
 

restamp

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An interim report: It appears that although one can eke 3 outgoing channels out of a GV line, Google seems to have problems handling simultaneous call setups: I am currently using the "channel originate" CLI command to place the outgoing calls. If I hit the CLI with three (or more) call requests in quick (or even not-so-quick) succession, the first call almost always succeeds, the second sometimes succeeds, and the
third almost never succeeds. However, if I wait until the first round of call(s) have time to have been well established, then I can generally add a 2nd and/or 3rd channel without any problems. I'm trying to implement a dial-out-and-invite (as opposed to a dial-in) conferencing scheme. As such, this GV behavior is not (yet) a complete showstopper, but is problematic in my situation, as I have no way of telling with this interface whether a call has failed, was busy, or was simply declined. My other three options seem to be (1) use the Originate() dialplan application, (2) use the Asterisk Manager API to dial out, or (3) use Call Files. The conundrum is that it appears that, whichever I choose, in order to get the call's termination status (presuming the called party does not end up in the conference), I'll have to serialize the call set-ups, and this will delay the proceedings significantly. But if I parallel the process, as I have been doing, I cannot discern each call's outcome. This project is mainly as a learning experience for me, but I am open to any suggestions folks might have.
 

ChildOTK

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Thank you for all the information everybody!

I just signed up on simonics.com for a SIP trunk and my Google Voice account. It is working very, very well. My welcome message I needed to have a silence of about 2 seconds to allow for the final handshaking to complete, but otherwise I am very happy with it so far.

I have very little activity on my Google Voice account, so for now not having any issues with calls. Using the Google Voice number more now, though, so hoping to get more traction with my Google Voice number.

Thanks again for everyones help!
 

chris_c_

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An interim report: It appears that although one can eke 3 outgoing channels out of a GV line, Google seems to have problems handling simultaneous call setups: I am currently using the "channel originate" CLI command to place the outgoing calls. If I hit the CLI with three (or more) call requests in quick (or even not-so-quick) succession, the first call almost always succeeds, the second sometimes succeeds, and the
third almost never succeeds. However, if I wait until the first round of call(s) have time to have been well established, then I can generally add a 2nd and/or 3rd channel without any problems. I'm trying to implement a dial-out-and-invite (as opposed to a dial-in) conferencing scheme. As such, this GV behavior is not (yet) a complete showstopper, but is problematic in my situation, as I have no way of telling with this interface whether a call has failed, was busy, or was simply declined. My other three options seem to be (1) use the Originate() dialplan application, (2) use the Asterisk Manager API to dial out, or (3) use Call Files. The conundrum is that it appears that, whichever I choose, in order to get the call's termination status (presuming the called party does not end up in the conference), I'll have to serialize the call set-ups, and this will delay the proceedings significantly. But if I parallel the process, as I have been doing, I cannot discern each call's outcome. This project is mainly as a learning experience for me, but I am open to any suggestions folks might have.

Using the old AMI might be the reason for the channel originate call setups failing when placed quickly one after the other.
Why not use the new ARI interface to originate the calls and setup the conference.
It's better than the AMI which is outdated and going to be phased out sooner or later.
 
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chris_c_

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@restamp
Watch this video, start at 5:33 until 7:45 , it explains how the new version of ARI allows you to get the channel back immediately. In he past you only receive the channel back after it answers. So your custom conference call parallel outdoing dialer app will be able to work as you want it to.
http://blogs.digium.com/2016/09/16/20764/
 

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