Took some time this week to investigate some Google Voice features on my Gmail account ..
This from my G+ post: "testing out google voice options. there is currently some goofy restriction on only activating 'US based' numbers. why? meanwhile, my google voice account uses a MT (406) area code and forwards to my google chat, or to my burner US (406) cell phone, or to my magicjack UT (801) number .. which forwards to my AB (403) home phone .. which can simul-ring to any of my other phones as needed. also places a call-me widget on my ssdirect.com site. I wonder if it is working .."
Meanwhile, it is working a bit .. kind of. This post documents a bit of what it took.
This from my G+ post: "testing out google voice options. there is currently some goofy restriction on only activating 'US based' numbers. why? meanwhile, my google voice account uses a MT (406) area code and forwards to my google chat, or to my burner US (406) cell phone, or to my magicjack UT (801) number .. which forwards to my AB (403) home phone .. which can simul-ring to any of my other phones as needed. also places a call-me widget on my ssdirect.com site. I wonder if it is working .."
Meanwhile, it is working a bit .. kind of. This post documents a bit of what it took.
First off, let me say I am a fan of most of what Google is doing. I know that they make money by making me their product, but knowing that, I appreciate much of the functionality Mr Google brings to my internet life. Email .. cool. Picasa .. wow. Search .. of course. Google+ .. it is coming along. Some of my current learning curve is on implementing and using Google Voice (formerly GrandCentral .. not to be confused with Google Talk or Google Video Chat).
Some background: My brother has been raving on this service for years. It works great for him. It was of interest to me - but never of much practical use. Why? Brother Greg lives in the USA. I live in Canada .. and that has made all the difference. He gets a free local number that he can give out to clients. He can configure all his other phone numbers to ring simultaneously when his local Google Voice number receives a call. Then he can choose to answer and receive the call on any of those ringing phones or through the web-based app or just forward it to voicemail. Received calls may be moved between configured telephones during a call. Voice mail is transcribed to text and saved in his gmail account. Very cool. As for me. I can (and did) set up a free US Google Voice phone number, but cannot forward it (without special tricks outlined below) to my phones up here in Canada. Also, that number is mostly useless since it is not local to my customers here, they are unlikely to call me long distance to use my cool free Google Voice number.
So here we sit 30 miles too far north to be permitted to use this function. Ouch. What hurts even more is that it used to work here. Someone in Google Admin has arbitrarily decided to cut us off. Fortunately, there is a bit of grandfathering left in place .. the Canadian numbers I confirmed in the past still work, but Google Voice no longer lets me add and configure numbers 'not in your country (US)'. Waaa.
Some background: My brother has been raving on this service for years. It works great for him. It was of interest to me - but never of much practical use. Why? Brother Greg lives in the USA. I live in Canada .. and that has made all the difference. He gets a free local number that he can give out to clients. He can configure all his other phone numbers to ring simultaneously when his local Google Voice number receives a call. Then he can choose to answer and receive the call on any of those ringing phones or through the web-based app or just forward it to voicemail. Received calls may be moved between configured telephones during a call. Voice mail is transcribed to text and saved in his gmail account. Very cool. As for me. I can (and did) set up a free US Google Voice phone number, but cannot forward it (without special tricks outlined below) to my phones up here in Canada. Also, that number is mostly useless since it is not local to my customers here, they are unlikely to call me long distance to use my cool free Google Voice number.
So here we sit 30 miles too far north to be permitted to use this function. Ouch. What hurts even more is that it used to work here. Someone in Google Admin has arbitrarily decided to cut us off. Fortunately, there is a bit of grandfathering left in place .. the Canadian numbers I confirmed in the past still work, but Google Voice no longer lets me add and configure numbers 'not in your country (US)'. Waaa.
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