Life of a Technologist

You're all probably aware how big a Voip proponent I am. Ever since being an enthusiast of the Dialpad and Net2Phone days (mid-late 96-97), I have been fascinated with Voip in general and learned a lot over the years. For about the past 3-4 years I have using a variety of voip services with mixed experiences from all. Only recently (24 months) have I had some consistency in using voip as my primary phone service - aka went with Vonage and Skype. However, Vonage, like many other commercial Voip services has its shortcomings.

- No SIP solution
- Expensive (yes, I thought this was affordable 2 years back but no longer the case)
- Customer Service is a bunch of clueless Indian brothers (the sisters are a little more knowledgeable) and this is coming from someone who takes pride in our offshore support.
- Call quality not as great as Gtalk (yes, I'm big on XMPP's Jingle libs) , but comparable to Skype and Microsoft Live Messenger.
- Variable and fluctuating costs: I don't think anyone likes to pay more for something.

But the one reason I stuck with Vonage:

- Excellent support for SimulRing(TM) : I flip flop between many of my numbers back and forth almost daily, and being an unlimited free calling plan for North America, Vonage is the best solution in that sense.However, that last feature alone is worth the $40/mo I've been paying. Lately though, I have been having a hard time justifying the cost with other comparable products in the market.

So yesterday, off I went on a searching spree. I already had a $19.99/year (unlimited US/Canada calling) with Skype, but no SkypeIN number. So in order to replace my Vonage, I needed a free or comparable service which wouldn't charge me more than $10/mo. SkypeIN with a new SkpyePro deal ($3/mo) would still cost me about $40 for the number (setup fee) and still doesn't offer the flexibility of Vonage.
Enter, GrandCentral....

It gives me exactly what I want:

- Single Number w/Simulring: One single number with Simulringish technology and Free Voicemail (Visual VM in fact - boooyaaa! iPhoners :P). You can setup the number to forward to any number in US/Canada.
For Canadians: Give your US friend/family a local US number which forwards to your Canadian number. Sorry, but at this time only U.S numbers are supported and not the other way around :(

Note:For those with T-mobile, they will welcome the possibility of having one number (your GC number) in your myFaves list and pretty much save a ton on incoming/outgoing calls.

- Call Screening: Love this free - keep private numbers at bay.

- Live Call Switch: Cell phone's battery down and still want to talk, no problem, just hit "*" while talking and it will ring other numbers in your GC list, simply pickup - your callers won't even notice the switch (sweet!)

- Gizmo Setup: Gizmo is not the Skype replacement quite yet, but its getting there and its the only SIP client that I know offers the number of skypish features we all need. This will certainly come in handy say when you're out of the country and don't want to incur that ridiculous international roaming charge, simply setup your Gizmo SIP number in Grand Central and you're good to go.


- Web Calling: Free incoming web calling directly from your Blog/Website. Allow your customers, friends and family to call you directly. (Check my embedded GC calling applet in the bottom). P.S: Embed it in your Myspace/Facebook profile without sharing your number. The user inputs their number and name (if its something bogus then it won't work ;), and then Grand Central places the call for them; it first calls the user's number then it will call your GC number. Neat, eh :)

- Choose who you want to talk to: Say you're in a meeting and only want to receive important calls. A random numero calls your cell and it goes on a buzzing blunder (be careful not to set your T-mobile phone to the default ring at work - err Qwest Employees :P), you really want to know who it is but don't want to talk. Pickup the call by pressing the "*" and "3" key, and you'll be able to listen the person on the other line leaving a message, if you want to talk to them, then just hang up and they won't notice a thing, if you want to talk, press "*" again and you're talking to the person.

One downside though, Grand Central doesn't offer any free Canadian DID (Direct Inward Dialing) numbers. So while you can forward your GC number to a Canadian number, the reverse can't be done. So for now, I'm just going to live with it until I can get a Canadian DID setup with Grand Central or a similar SIP service (http://www.didww.com does it but its a Gizmo-only integration :( )

Saving the best for last, did I mention, it's FREE !!

There you have it, I promised my last commenters I'd so easy on the long posts :P. At this point in time, GrandCentral is in invite-only state. If anyone wants an invite, email me: salah[at]ahmeds.name and I'll send one your way :)
One more week of testing time and Vonage is going - bye bye!

P.S: I have my asterisk box setup at home, and with a bit of work, Gizmo can be setup to use this number with multiple DID channels (multiple lines in laymens terms) AKA setup your very own home PBX :) For a big family, this really cuts down on the cost. Throw in a Skype Gateway adapter (VOSky/Dlink) and you’ve got a phone bill of $10/mo for the entire household with Unlimited US/Canada calling.