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Making Free Phone Calls With Google's GrandCentral
Posted by
timothy
on Sat May 03, 2008 05:41 PM
from the you-will dept.
from the you-will dept.
andrewmin writes with an enthusiastic pitch for Google's closed-beta call-aggregation service called GrandCentral, for which we non-beta-testers can at least reserve a number. Specifically, he's using GrandCentral in combination with Gizmo5 to make free VoiP calls. Excerpted: "Most of the time, I'm at my computer. Or near it. And if I had an internet device like a Nokia N810 or an iPod Touch, I'd have it with me 24/7. And since most of the time I'm at a place where there's a WiFi network, it makes sense for me to use VoIP rather than a regular phone line. ... I'm talking about making and receiving calls that are completely free (that is, $0.00/minute) forever (that is, no 30-day demo) for as much as you want (that is, no 30-day trial or five hour/week limit)."
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Not available outside the US ... (Score:3, Interesting)
So much for 95% of the world ...
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Re:Not available outside the US ... (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't go to Japanese sites expecting freebies from Japanese companies for my American ass.
If it is in Google's interest to offer this product/service to <insert your country>, they will.
It's like the Japanese video game market. A ton of crap gets dumped in the Japanese market, because most of the companies are a) in Japan, b) it's cheaper and easier to test a new game in a local market - before potentially pissing away money on a failure.
Parent
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Could you imagine, Hey this is my new number that will be able to contact me anywhere I am at, you just have to call california at 10-15 cents a minute or more. but you can reach me at that number.
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Some of the rest of the world already has free VoIP, though. For instance, ~50% of French households have broaband, and the typical monthly fee of 30 bucks includes free VoIP (and numeric TV).
Not only that, but the calls are free when calling no less than about 50 countries, US included. With some providers, you can can connect to your number through SIP from basically anywhere and place calls for free. Wish I had that here in Canada, where I get charged long distance whenever I call out of city limits.
Innovation (Score:2)
Damn it! (Score:3, Funny)
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Re:Damn it! (Score:5, Funny)
PEnnsylvania 6-5000. And get off my lawn.
Parent
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or reseserve (589)793-2385
VoIP+WiFi=mobile phone? (Score:3, Interesting)
Anyway, Grand Central may be a replacement for a land-line phone, but I think Andrew is being a bit optimistic about the adequacy of using it as a "mobile" phone.
Re:VoIP+WiFi=mobile phone? (Score:4, Informative)
1. Give GrandCentral all your phone numbers (Home, Cell, Work, etc.)
2. Tell GrandCentral when you will be around each phone
3. Tell all your contacts you have a new phone number, and give them your GrandCentral one
4a. Someone calls at a time which you told GrandCentral you would be at work, so your work phone rings.
4b. Someone calls when you're on your lunch break, out of the office, and your cell phone rings.
4c. Someone calls when you're at home, and both your cell phone and land-line ring.
4... Repeat for whatever configuration you have set up.
From TFA:
All your calls through a single number. Add your other numbers to your GrandCentral account and then make your own rules for how and when your phones ring.
All your voicemails in one place, saved for as long as you want. If you don't answer a GrandCentral call, your callers will be sent to your GrandCentral voicemail. You can then check messages by calling your GrandCentral number, by logging into your account, or by checking the GrandCentral notification email.
Handy features that work the same way across all your phones:
*ListenIn as callers leave you a message
* Record calls on the fly so you never have to fumble for a pen again
* Switch phones mid-call without your caller knowing
* Block annoying callers at will
* Record custom greetings for different caller or groups of callers
Later in TFA:
Also this:
Sorry for so many quotes, but if people won't look at the website they're commenting on, perhaps they'll read this...
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
You missed one of the slickest features of GrandCentral, one which is not highly advertised...
Let's say you have your Work, Mobile and Home numbers registered with GrandCentral.
You receive a call to your GrandCentral number, which rings in your office at 4:50pm, and you need to catch the train down the road at 5:30, and it's a 20-minute walk.
You accept the call in your office, have your conversation, then TRANSPARENTLY switch the call to your cellphone, continue talking there, without ever dropping th
Re:VoIP+WiFi=mobile phone? (Score:5, Informative)
Not only VoIP, but any real-time application is useless on nearly all current implementations of 802.x due to two major reseason:
* Response time is too high irrespective of bandwidth. Lag is not acceptable in situations where you can't buffer. Your YouTube playback will not suffer because even a tiny buffer can eliminate the problem, but you can't buffer RT applications.
* Most importantly, the concept of QoS, while theoretically feasible on 802.x, is completely absent from the current implementation. I have heard but I'm yet to see a real Wifi device with QoS. Without QoS, VoIP sucks.
And then, there is also the issue of enhanced emergency services compliance, or what's in US called E911. In Australia where I live, most VoIP providers either completely block calling '000' (our emergency service number) or require you to submit a physical address for your static IP and REMAIN in that location.
To sum it all up, if you're holding your breath for VoIP on Wifi, dream on. I've tested various VoIP clients (from the top of the market Siemens and Snom IP phones with Wifi to softphones like Counter path, etc) using various VoIP servers (Asterisk, Cisco, Nortel, etc.) using various UDP protocols (SIP, AIX2, H.323, Skinny etc.) and it DOESN'T WORK(TM).
Until we have full end-to-end QoS support on wireless networks, or something like WiMAX which promises to drastically lower response time and lag, VoIP on wireless will remain a toy for geeks to play with and nothing more.
Parent
FreeWorldDialup, Asterisk and IPKall (Score:3, Informative)
It works great with any VOIP SW or HW or Asterisk for a fancy home answering machine.
If you need the POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) world to call you, http://www.ipkall.com/ [ipkall.com] will give you a free Washington phone nuumber.
Re:FreeWorldDialup, Asterisk and IPKall (Score:5, Funny)
That just doesn't have the same feeling of excitement as getting up at 2am in the pouring rain, going to a telephone booth with a 555 timer chip and piezo, making freaking calls with your computer next to you plugged into the 12V socket of your car, then posting abusive messages anonymously on your favourite BBS. And all for free, man!
Parent
Only Free?!? PAY US for info harvested from calls! (Score:2)
so can it (very likely) continue to earn even more, eg, automatically listening-in on our future phone conversations - using well-developed voice-to-text technologies - to gather valuable information from them.
Perhaps we should be -paid- for each use of Google's "free" VoIP service, ie, if/when it is unfolded before us... more as harves
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Right now there is no advertising on the website or inserted into your calls.
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Please qualify the statement... (Score:2)
Specifically, he's using GrandCentral in combination with Gizmo5 to make free VoiP calls
He's making free phone calls to the USA. I am pretty sure he cannot call Benin or Nepal free of charge. That is the nature of the industry. Once this Google product is out, free calls will not be to every device that can receive them all over the world. Free calls will be to USA and Canada.
By the way, can anyone tell me what determines the cost of an international call? My provider (Sprint Canada) charges an average of 49 cents/min for a call to Asia though you can use some of the many pre-paid phone car
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One thing to be aware of is the prepaid cards are generally given the lowest quality of service routes. The phone company already has your money, so it doesn't really care whether the call goes through or not. If you are placing the call on a billable basis then the phone company doesn't get any money if the call doesn't go through.
EPIC is coming... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
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