Google Voice is a free service offered by Google and is designed to help you manage your phone calls. When used for its original intended purpose, Google Voice can add unlimited calling to and from US phone numbers to any landline. With a little more effort, that benefit can be extended to cellphones with "calling circles", or plans that allow a certain number of non-free phone numbers to be converted into free calls. With even more effort and a suitable phone, the feature can be further extended to not only maintain free calling even after a carrier decides those calls should no longer be free, but to also maintain free calling while roaming outside of the United States. Finally, with the greatest amount of effort, one or two lines with unlimited calling 24x7 can be added to any home or business.
2. Free Calling from a Landline
Google Voice offers two ways to enable 24x7 free inbound and outbound calling for landline phones based in the US. First is a method that works the same way no matter what kind of phone you end up using to make a call. From the main Google Voice web page (
http://voice.google.com) you are able to enter phone numbers or choose contacts from your Google Voice contact list. With the phone number entered or selected, click the Call button or link.
When viewed on a full PC browser, you will be asked which phone you would like Google Voice to ring. When viewed on a mobile phone browser, Google Voice will dial the phone number currently selected in the "My Mobile Number:" line on the Settings page. No matter which version of the website you use, ensure that your landline is selected as the phone you want to use for the call. Start the call and the selected phone will start ringing. As you don't get the option to choose which phone to ring when using the mobile browser, you must ensure you have the correct phone line selected prior to initiating the call.
Once Google Voice calls you, answer the phone. You will immediately hear the ringing sound of an outbound call. This is Google Voice connecting you for free to the number you entered or selected on the website. As landlines don't typically incur any charges to receive calls (except "collect calls" where the recipient is asked to pay), there are no special steps to take to receive calls for free. If you are home quite frequently, don't have unlimited long distance calling on your house line, have access to the web on your cellphone, but don't have a lot of cellular minutes to spare, this is a great way to make unlimited free long distance calls from your home, without giving out your home phone number.
Just pull out you cellphone, bring up the Google Voice page, make sure your house phone is selected as your Mobile phone number, and enter or select from the directory the phone number you would like to call. This method works regardless of whether or not your Google Voice number is a local call to your house number since all calls will be inbound to your landline.
The second method is entirely different, and is most beneficial if the Google Voice number you selected at signup is a local to you and you don't have long distance service. It is also much simpler to use. Just pick up your phone and dial the Google Voice number you selected. From the main menu, press the number 2 and you will be asked to dial the number you wish to reach. Google Voice then connects you, for free, to the number you dialed, so long as the number is in the US.
If your landline already has unlimited long distance or the numbers you call are within your local or regional flat rate calling area, the main benefit of using Google Voice is to mask your home phone. The people and businesses you call will see your Google Voice number on their caller id, and will only need to know one phone number to reach you.
3. Free Calling from a Cellphone (using the Voice plan)
Central to Google Voice is the ability to manage your phone calls and SMS text messages. Just as when using your landline, Google Voice can also help you mask your personal cellphone number to other parties,showing them just one phone number for reaching you. With a little planning (and a little cooperation from cellphone companies), Google Voice can help you turn your cellphone into a flat-rate, unlimited use phone line. There are generally two ways this can be achieved.
Cellphone usage is priced differently in the US from almost every other country. In general, US cellphone users are charged minutes for both incoming and outgoing calls. The same is true for text messages, although unlimited text messaging plans have been available across all of the major carriers for many years. To help retain and build their customer bases over the years, cellphone companies began by offering unlimited calling to other cellphones operating on the same network. Even that wasn't even enough eventually, and companies began allowing customers to select a handful of out-of-network phone numbers and designate them as effectively being "in network". The out-of-network numbers don't have to be other cellphones or landlines -- users can generally pick any set of numbers they like, and they will never be charged for the minutes used during calls to or from the numbers on the list.
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