Calling across the planet... for free!

Let me introduce you to two wonderful VOIP technologies, Grand Central, and Gizmo Project.

Grand Central
Some of you may have heard me reference this in the past. What this is, is a beta service recently purchased by Google that gives you a consolidated phone number. Instead of giving people your cell phone, home phone, and any other phone, you give them your GC number. They call that number, and depending on rules you can set up, their call will ring one, all, or even none of your phones.

By default, if a phone number is not in my address book, it goes straight to voicemail. This is awesome for recruiters. My friends will ring my cell phone, and my family will ring all of my numbers.

But GC has another neat feature, it will call out on your behalf, and then connect to one of your phones. This feature would probably be particularly useful for people with PDA type phones. There are a number of other features, like switching phones during a call, recording calls, and picking up a call while it's leaving you a voicemail. (Like answering machines back in the day!)

Unfortunately GC is only available for American numbers. And, I think the beta is closed now. I'll see if I can send out invites if you'd like to try it.

Gizmo Project
There are several internet phone services. Skype is probably the champ right now, but my personal favorite is Gizmo. In a previous life, it was called "SipPhone". I prefer it because it's standards-based, unlike Skype, and that means something to IT geeks like me.

Since it's SIP-based, it interconnects with any other SIP service for free. Otherwise, you pay like 1 cent/minute to dial out. Still a fairly decent rate.

The great thing about Gizmo is the price model. Instead of paying a huge single fee every month like most services, you can elect for the parts you want to pay for. Like if you want an incoming phone number, then you can pay for that. If you only are calling out, then you don't need that feature.

Essentially, you can use Gizmo for free if you limit it's use, or only ever call SIP numbers.

How it works
Grand Central can connect to Gizmo as one of your phones. So if you were to call my GC number right now, odds are my computer would ring.

So, what I do, is use GC to dial out to people in my address book. I then have it connect to my Gizmo phone, and now I'm using my computer to dial VOIP for absolutely nothing.

Yeah, it's a bit complicated, but I know a few of you are IT types, and might find it useful.

BTW, the same radio station that played Luniz a little while ago, is now playing Total Eclipse of the Heart. Awesome...