Making Free Phone Calls With Google's GrandCentral 144
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)."
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:Please qualify the statement... (Score:3, Informative)
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.
Re:Only Free?!? PAY US for info harvested from cal (Score:3, Informative)
Right now there is no advertising on the website or inserted into your calls.
Re:Not available outside the US ... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Not available outside the US ... (Score:2, Informative)
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...
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.
Re:VoIP+WiFi=mobile phone? (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 the call. You take your train home and reach your house just as your cellphone battery is dying. You then transparently transfer the call to your home phone number, and continue to talk there. The whole time, the call was never dropped, nor did you ever lose connection.
THAT, in my opinion, is the slickest part of GrandCentral.