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Google Grabs 1 Million Phone Numbers for Google Voice

18 points by nreece 17y ago

empone 17y ago
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/061809-google-voice-launching-this-week.html http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/061809-google-voice-la...
- TrevorJ 17y ago
  Long story short, nobody know when it will launch.
notauser 17y ago
1 million numbers is not a great deal - Level 3 charges around 3 cents per month for a US number in volumes of 1000+. $30k a month should be noise for Google, compared to the cost of running out of numbers. I'm actually surprised they didn't buy more.
- buugs 17y ago
  Maybe they are going "small" beta.
angstrom 17y ago
It's already active as of April if you had a previous account with GrandCentral. They've polished the interface some and added some features like transcription which I don't believe was available (at least not in the free version of GC). The 2 main reasons I see using it are: 1) As a one to many phone number that lets people dial your home, work, cell numbers simultaneously. 2) As a filter so you won't get unwanted calls at inconvenient times ie recruiter cold calls during work hours. There's more, but these are the 2 ways I used it before Google basically let the service die so it could be absorbed and reworked. In order to keep your original phone number still secret you currently have to have Google connect you and the number you want to call. I can see this being handled by a dialer app on the iPhone or seamlessly on an android phone in the future. There's no cost for US only calls.
- rufo 17y ago
  There's already a pretty decent integration app for iPhone: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=309836317&mt=8 http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftwa... There also seems to be a similar app for Android (no full integration yet): http://www.cyrket.com/package/com.evancharlton.googlevoice http://www.cyrket.com/package/com.evancharlton.googlevoice
oomkiller 17y ago
I for one can't wait for Google Voice, it should help cut down on some of the robo-call spam i've been receiving lately! Not to mention the other AWESOME features it has. Honestly when I first heard visual voicemail, I assumed it used speech recognition to convert voice to text. That isn't what it turned out to be, but luckily Google had the same idea and built it. Great for people who HATE listening to voicemails (like me)
- viraptor 17y ago
  To be honest there's nothing "new" in their offer. Look for business voip providers in your area and you'll see that those "awesome" features are simple things that you can get from almost anyone. Disclaimer: I work for a VoIP company and you can get almost all the features for ~7£/mo. Yes - it costs you more than google will charge you probably, but at least we have a support number if anything goes wrong ;) Also you can keep adding more PSTN numbers to that account. Google voice wants to support only one as far as I can tell. The only features from Google Voice list we don't support are: 'Listen in' (which I think would be illegal in UK), 'Personalize greeting' (noone asked for it really). 'Phone switch' is possible, but not as smooth as with GV. In general, I don't see anything new in their offer. Sure - it will be cheap, but also it won't be easy to get support if anything goes wrong (and do you really want to risk your main phone number this way?) They may advertise it as a new service, but in reality they're only catching up to the features others already have. Only thing I expect them to do better is "user experience" in configuring all this stuff. (but don't worry - normal VoIP providers will copy their control panel ideas in no time) Ah - just in case you think of VoIP that has to be transmitted over internet - stop. If you get a "proper" account from a provider who uses his own lines rather than forwarding trunks to some other company, your traffic doesn't have to touch the "best effort" internet at all. Your call will come in directly to the company over a guaranteed channel line, get routed and will leave over another guaranteed channel. (if you forward the call to your real mobile / other phone, that is)
- rufo 17y ago
  Don't get your hopes up too much about the transcription - you still need to listen to them to get the details. It's fine for getting a vague idea of what the call is about, but otherwise it really isn't very good. Also, if you get phone spam, GV will only help you if they let you port your number to them (which hasn't been the case in the past) - otherwise they're still going to call your direct number and bug you.

18 points by nreece 17y ago

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/061809-google-voice-launching-this-week.html http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/061809-google-voice-la...

TrevorJ 17y ago
Long story short, nobody know when it will launch.

notauser 17y ago

1 million numbers is not a great deal - Level 3 charges around 3 cents per month for a US number in volumes of 1000+. $30k a month should be noise for Google, compared to the cost of running out of numbers. I'm actually surprised they didn't buy more.

buugs 17y ago
Maybe they are going "small" beta.

angstrom 17y ago

It's already active as of April if you had a previous account with GrandCentral. They've polished the interface some and added some features like transcription which I don't believe was available (at least not in the free version of GC). The 2 main reasons I see using it are: 1) As a one to many phone number that lets people dial your home, work, cell numbers simultaneously. 2) As a filter so you won't get unwanted calls at inconvenient times ie recruiter cold calls during work hours. There's more, but these are the 2 ways I used it before Google basically let the service die so it could be absorbed and reworked. In order to keep your original phone number still secret you currently have to have Google connect you and the number you want to call. I can see this being handled by a dialer app on the iPhone or seamlessly on an android phone in the future. There's no cost for US only calls.

rufo 17y ago
There's already a pretty decent integration app for iPhone: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=309836317&mt=8 http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftwa... There also seems to be a similar app for Android (no full integration yet): http://www.cyrket.com/package/com.evancharlton.googlevoice http://www.cyrket.com/package/com.evancharlton.googlevoice

oomkiller 17y ago

I for one can't wait for Google Voice, it should help cut down on some of the robo-call spam i've been receiving lately! Not to mention the other AWESOME features it has. Honestly when I first heard visual voicemail, I assumed it used speech recognition to convert voice to text. That isn't what it turned out to be, but luckily Google had the same idea and built it. Great for people who HATE listening to voicemails (like me)

viraptor 17y ago
To be honest there's nothing "new" in their offer. Look for business voip providers in your area and you'll see that those "awesome" features are simple things that you can get from almost anyone. Disclaimer: I work for a VoIP company and you can get almost all the features for ~7£/mo. Yes - it costs you more than google will charge you probably, but at least we have a support number if anything goes wrong ;) Also you can keep adding more PSTN numbers to that account. Google voice wants to support only one as far as I can tell. The only features from Google Voice list we don't support are: 'Listen in' (which I think would be illegal in UK), 'Personalize greeting' (noone asked for it really). 'Phone switch' is possible, but not as smooth as with GV. In general, I don't see anything new in their offer. Sure - it will be cheap, but also it won't be easy to get support if anything goes wrong (and do you really want to risk your main phone number this way?) They may advertise it as a new service, but in reality they're only catching up to the features others already have. Only thing I expect them to do better is "user experience" in configuring all this stuff. (but don't worry - normal VoIP providers will copy their control panel ideas in no time) Ah - just in case you think of VoIP that has to be transmitted over internet - stop. If you get a "proper" account from a provider who uses his own lines rather than forwarding trunks to some other company, your traffic doesn't have to touch the "best effort" internet at all. Your call will come in directly to the company over a guaranteed channel line, get routed and will leave over another guaranteed channel. (if you forward the call to your real mobile / other phone, that is)
rufo 17y ago
Don't get your hopes up too much about the transcription - you still need to listen to them to get the details. It's fine for getting a vague idea of what the call is about, but otherwise it really isn't very good. Also, if you get phone spam, GV will only help you if they let you port your number to them (which hasn't been the case in the past) - otherwise they're still going to call your direct number and bug you.