Google Voice to offer free calls, centralized number
— -- Google wants to be your phone provider. And to get your business, it has a very enticing offer.
Not only will its new Google Voice service give you free phone calls within the continental U.S., it also assigns you a new phone number that forwards calls to your cellphone and land line. And it transcribes your voice messages into e-mail.
"We've all got a zillion different phone numbers. This greatly simplifies dealing with all those numbers, and consolidates them into one place," says Tom Austin, an analyst for researcher Gartner.
Google Voice, announced Thursday, will be available to the public within a few weeks, says Vincent Paquet, a Google senior product manager.
"Google gives you ways to manage your e-mail and photographs, and we think there's a need to manage your voice mail," said Paquet. "We want to get all your messaging in one place."
Digitizing your voice mail means those messages can be posted on blogs or shared via e-mail, Paquet says.
Google Voice will compete with Internet phone providers such as eBay's Skype and Vonage, which lets subscribers make Internet phone calls from their land lines. Analyst Greg Sterling says Skype and Vonage could "really suffer" if Google Voice becomes successful.
How it works: Sign in to voice.google.com, choose a new phone number in your local area code, and assign your various phone numbers to it. Hand out the new number to friends. When they call you, all your phones will ring — land line, cellphone, etc. If you don't pick up, and it goes to voice mail, the messages are transcribed for free. They instantly show up in your Gmail e-mail box, as well on a voice.google.com page.
The free phone calls are placed from the voice.google.com site, where you type in the number, and choose which one you want to make the call from — cell or land line. Once the call is placed, your phone rings, and the call begins. The same process is used for international calls — but for those, you need to buy at least $10 worth of phone credits.
