Google's Free Phone Service
RIVER BENDER - February, 2011
Another free phone service? Yes, but this one is from Google as of last August and it's really great! For one, it doesn't require you to be destitute in order to get it free like the government cell phone service I wrote about last October and it's not like Skype that requires both parties to have a computer and be members of Skype. Read on. You'll like Google Phone, but I'm not sure it will last. Google said it's only good through 2011. The phone companies may not be happy about completing calls over the last mile to your house for free that costs them billions.
Google Phone allows you to use your computer and call any phone in the US or Canada providing you have a microphone, speaker or headset and broadband Internet service with Windows XP and later. Yes, your call goes directly to a phone and the receiving party doesn't even need a computer. Calls are made over the Internet using VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) by users of Google's Gmail service to an ordinary phone.. Surprisingly, friends I called said it sounded like a regular phone call. Does anyone remember how awful VOIP calls sounded a few years ago?
Let's get started. Go to http://www.google.com/chat/voice/. It gets a little messy installing Google's free phone service and the web pages are confusing so I'm not going to attempt to provide step-by-step instructions because they differ depending on what you already have installed. Since Google's free phone service is integrated into their Gmail service you're going to end up needing a Google account and Gmail after which you'll have to download software that adds Google Phone. If you have problems you might get help at Google's support forum for voice & video chat at http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/chat. Seems Vista users might have a problem.
If all goes well you'll end up with the words "Call Phone" shown under "Chat" on your Gmail webpage. Clicking on it will bring up a dial pad from which you can dial any number in the US after making sure your speaker is on and a microphone or headset with a mike is connected and activated. Check if it's activated by clicking on your volume control icon on the taskbar (lower right on desktop). If you don't see microphone shown after clicking the volume icon click on Options/Properties and place a check by microphone. If you don't have a volume icon on your Taskbar go to Control Panel/Sound devices and add it.
If you call friends with Caller ID they will see 760-705-8888 (CA) calling and may not answer so let them know about the number. There is a recorded joke emergency hotline at 424-202-6981 you can dial into as a test. By the way, Google’s phone service doesn't work from mobile phones. You can call someone else’s cell phone, but you need to make the Google call from a desktop or laptop computer. You can also use Google phone to make international calls but it will cost as little as 2-cents per minute.