Google Voice May Have Started Rolling Out Its Service Today!

[macman4hire]

According to a statement made by Matt Lauer on the Today Show Google will make its service available today. What this exactly means remains to be seen. I suspect that Google Voice will start to offer invitations to people who requested an invitation from either the Grand Central or Google Voice websites. The process could take some time before it is widely and immediately available to the general public like Google's G-Mail service. At any rate this is good news for all the dissatisfied MagicJack users who are looking for alternatives. Google Voice allows for you to place calls for free by using either a computer with a web browser or by calling your Google Voice phone number. Google Voice also allows you to forward your calls to Gizmo5 account on an ATA and the call quality is excellent. Google Voice offers customized voice mail greetings based on user created groups, call forwarding to SIP(Gizmo5) and or PSTN based on created users or groups, call blocking from unwanted callers and more. The real kicker is that the service is absolutely free. Google Voice does what MagicJack does and much more. The only value I see left in having a MagicJack account is to obtain to an inexpensive phone number in one of the over priced DID markets like New York city and to forward that number to a Google Voice account. For $20.00 a year you can have phone number in one these over priced DID markets. This is an awesome value barring one does not experience MagicJack's notoriously unreliable call forwarding performance issues. If this news is accurate it could be the straw that breaks the dongles back!

[Valiant]

yea this is ok and i hope i get an invite,thanks for the info

[VoipDude]

Google's plan is to provide invites first to those who had requested an invite while GrandCentral was still active.

After these, I assume they will handle invite requests in the order they receive them. So it could be awhile before the general public receives an invite

[Rowdy57]

I didn't have grandcentral and got my google voice # today.

[macman4hire]

I didn't have grandcentral and got my google voice # today.

How long ago did you place your name on Google Voice's request list?

[Rowdy57]

How long ago did you place your name on Google Voice's request list?

maybe a month ago? might had been a little longer I've had gmail a long time and use it all the time

[novaflare]

How long ago did you place your name on Google Voice's request list?

maybe a month ago? might had been a little longer I've had gmail a long time and use it all the time

A guess they will give preference to gmail users etc after the grandcentral peeps and the like probably hand out in bulk. Like account name email address
If you email was [email protected] youd get a invite before 1b 1c etc etc just a guess there though. But would make sense to me. And likely previous gmail users and batched out on day to day basis or week by week etc .

[tony]

According to a statement made by Matt Lauer on the Today Show Google will make its service available today.

Don't remember when I signed up for an invite, but it's been several months. Anyways, received an invite today but it's for people in the US only. I'm guessing Google Voice can tell by IP address when you respond to the invitation. Have to wait for numbers to be available outside the USA.

[bigfatqueenofeverything]

I don't understand how this is a phone service. It is more like a fancy switchboard or something to manage your incoming calls. You would still be using the MJ network on your MJ line, which is my problem.

[macman4hire]

Hi Pamela,

The reason I choose to forward a MagicJack number is so I can have a local number and a business presence in high density market areas (NY City, LA, Chicago, etc.) that rings my ATA(analog telephone adapter) in my office, cell or home. I do not and have not had MagicJack ever installed on a computer that runs 24/7. To me it seems wasteful just to run a computer 24/7 for phone service. By having a MagicJack number forwarded to my Google Voice account and then finally forwarded to a Gizmo5 account configured on my ATA I do not have pay for land line and can set it up at multiple locations. As far as placing a call I would have to turn on my computer any way to use the MagicJack dongle so I loose nothing and gain nothing by using my Google Voice account on my web browser. I hope this clarifies how I am using my setup.

macman4hire

[SocalDad]

Google Voice is not a service like MJ. They have no phone lines. What they do is allow you to organize your phone numbers under one number that you select from them. It is all free.

I have been unable to get a local number with MJ since I signed up 14 months ago so I still have a land line for Family, Friends and Neighbors to call me without running up their phone bill.

I now have a local number through GV and I have listed my MJ number and cell number with them so that they all ring my MJ phone. I now give my GV number instead of a landline or cell number and have it ring in all three places. Sounds complicated but it works (so far). Now maybe I can finally get rid of my landline.

[riverdaze]

Got my invite this morning after repeatedly posting requests since I read about GC 20 mos. ago. Think it had something to do with having an active gmail account?? I have it set up on my windows mobile phone with an app called "gvdialer"

Set up my GV number as one of my "Friends and Family" for Verizon and with gvdialer I can choose to have my calls go thru the GV# or (for VZW to VZW calls which use no minutes anyway) use my cell phone directly. I make a LOT of business calls from my cell to landlines and non VZW cells. Hoping I can reduce my cell bill significantly.

Have never given out our MJ number because it is not local but now I can give out the very local sounding GV number and forward it to the MJ which is wired to work as a home phone. We have not had a landline for about a year now. When it works...technology is cool.

[tazxx]

I think it's just random, I requested an invite on an AOL email account 2
weeks ago and recieved one on the 6th. I also had requests on a few
gmail acounts for more than a year or so and nothing.

[dallasib1485]

For those that are using GV already, how bad is the delay between dialing the GV number and getting your actual phones to ring? Just curious, i have used services in the past that took about 10 seconds before anything would happen.

[Darkman90808]

For those that are using GV already, how bad is the delay between dialing the GV number and getting your actual phones to ring? Just curious, i have used services in the past that took about 10 seconds before anything would happen.

Little, if any, as far as I can tell. I will dial a forwarded number and I'm amazed at who quickly it goes through. Almost seamless, as far as I can tell.

[SocalDad]

For those that are using GV already, how bad is the delay between dialing the GV number and getting your actual phones to ring? Just curious, i have used services in the past that took about 10 seconds before anything would happen.

Since I can't get a local number from MJ I use the local number that I got from GV. Calls are great so far, inbound and outbound.

[callontom]

I finally got on invite, signed up and i'm disappointed.
To test it i set up my wife as a contact and when she calls the google number to ring my Magic jack, home phone and my cell. It takes forever. Like 12 rings before it hits to voicemail. I would give up by then. I'm new to it and just adjusting the settings, so I may have missed something that can set it to leave a message in 5 rings or so.