[General Topics] copticwalad:
Where is this Google Voice boat sailing?

I'm in the same boat as everyone, and this can be so frustrating. My two big issues:

1. Obihai + Google Voice for my Uncle who lives in Egypt - no idea how I'm going to setup Anveo or Phone Power remotely from the states as I need it to be as simple as possible for him to use google's international rates.

2. GrooveIP + Google Voice on $30 5GB T-Mobile plan with 100 minutes.

Any advice or feedback is appreciated but my experiences might be able to help somewhat.

My father's phone is currently using GrooveIP reliably for incoming and outgoing phone calls with his google voice number (which I ported over a year ago from Sprint). He's on the 5GB $30 + $2 tax plan and I even had calls forward to his native t-mobile number (which he didn't use) as a backup. GrooveIP works great on wifi and HSPDA+(4G) but obviously won't work after May 15 with XMPP being disabled. I figured I would tri WiFi calling, which I found out later is pointless as on prepaid plans it uses your minutes despite using wifi. I found the 100 minutes vanished when using this feature. Now I did read that one post early about CallCentric and using the embedded dialer settings for SIP incoming and outgoing at 2cents a minute and it is quite tempting and an impressive workaround but when my father makes a phone call I don't want him to have to choose every single time whether to use google voice for reliable signal limited to 100 minutes on t-mobile plan or to use SIP which may not be as reliable.

The goal for my dad's phone is to have unlimited minutes and worry free data (2gb) for under $49 a month with no contract. I was just talking to T-Mobile support regarding their $40 new Starter plan with unlimited minutes, and 500mb of 4G data but found out that it's capped and after 500mb would message you to upgrade to their $50 a month plan. I told her it made no sense to go from a $30 5GB 4G plan to a $50 1GB simply for minutes. I'm looking somewhat into Net10, SimpleMobile, StraightTalk, MetroPCS, but I just can't get past the throttled speeds and terrible value in general with everything. My father uses Wifi 85% of the time so any suggestions? I might reactivate his old phone on Ting and forward his Google Voice to that for a few weeks just until we see what Google does, I really hope they bring VOIP integration into Google Voice/Hangouts.

Priorities: Google Voice Number is main and only number I care about, all voicemails handled on there, texts on there and in Google Hangouts (which is actually pretty good now if you didn't like it before). All phone calls showing with Google Voice number (which needs GVoice app and minutes or a time-consuming method such as sip with caller id spoofing).

*In case anyone is wondering, I currently have a Sprint plan under contract where years ago I ported my number to Sprint and am using Google Voice - Sprint integration which makes things easier (only exception is when I roam and make phone call it does not show my GVoice Number). However I'm under contract and use the phone significantly much more than my father along and have a 23% employee discount. I considered adding him to my plan but it would still cost over $50 more a month because the way Sprint's new plans are designed it's so they give you less employee discounts.