HP ending OBITalk Portal
Posted . ~2min read.
I still remember when I first saw OBIHAI… at a ClueCon well over 10 years ago. I’ve seen many phones and it generally takes something extraordinary to impress me.
The Obihai phones absolutely impressed me. Out of the box opus (unheard of at the time), simple TLS/SRTP, and a great feel/quality of the the device.
It was not shocking that Polycom would eventually buy the company. Of course, Polycom turns to Poly which turns to HP.
HP, which hasn’t made a “must have” product since the LaserJet 4P (what a great printer) has not been a great steward of the Obihai technology. It’s no secret that Polycom will be discontinuing support for the Obihai stack in the future… and today I received this lovely notice:
We are writing to inform you that the OBITalk.com portal, which you have used to configure your OBiHAI phone and/or ATA, is quickly approaching the end of its life, and will be officially shut down on Oct 31, 2024. After this date, the portal will no longer be accessible, and its services will no longer be available for use. Your device(s) should continue to operate but HP provides no guarantee of continual operation after October 31, 2024.
We encourage you to make any necessary adjustments or backups before the shutdown date. Below, we have written the top 3 frequently asked questions for your attention. We have also linked to a detailed FAQ for additional information. If you are no longer utilizing your devices you may ignore this message with no further action necessary.
We understand that this may be an inconvenience, and we want to thank you for being a valued customer these past 14 years.
Sad to see…
Still a great phone… although this will certainly make it more difficult for many people to remotely administer. It is what it is.
Another reminder as to why so many of us are reluctant to rely on any service/feature we do not host ourselves.