Absolutely not. The OBi is a stand-alone, dedicated device, built with a high-performance 'system on a chip' platform to ensure high-quality voice conversations. The OBi has high availability and reliability. It is 'always-on' to make or receive a call. With the OBi, a computer is not required and a computer does not need to be on to talk on the phone or use the OBi's powerful service bridging features. With an OBi, you can make outgoing calls through one of your configured VoIP services e.g. Google Voice.