One user reports that free inbound/outbound calls can be made without a third-party provider.
An interesting discussion on the Broadband forum of DSLReports.com documents how to reach a Google Voice number via a SIP phone. “this is a direct connection, without going through Gizmo or any other SIP provider,” the user claims.
Although I have a Google Voice phone number, alas, I don’t have a SIP phone at the moment to
The method, as reported by DSLReporters user Casey Doug it this:
“I just checked the logs of my VoIP adapter and got the IP address, then used the speed dial feature of my adapter to dial the URI. This is a direct connection, without going through Gizmo or any other SIP provider. From there I was able to get to my voicemail, press 2 to dial out, etc. There were a few hiccups because GV didn’t recognize the “phone number” (so, for example, I had to enter my PIN to get to voicemail), but I suspect even this can be corrected.
“What this means, of course, is that you can basically get totally free phone service using a telephone rather than a computer. I don’t know whether the IP addresses will change or Google will otherwise block this method of making outbound calls. …”
Others on the site were saying that it is possible to configure the open source VoIP product Asterisk with a “dialplan context” to dial out.
And as long as I’m blogging about unverified tricks to make freebie calls to POTS phone numbers via SIP/Google Voice, let’s conjecture that iPhone partner AT&T found out about it and, in a fit of rage, pressured Apple to yank Google Voice wares from Apple’s store. This likely isn’t so far from the truth. The trick above documents how to use a SIP phone without Gizmo’s Voice service. But a few days before Apple yanked Google from its stores, Gizmo Voice released Gizmo5 for Google Voice for the iPhone, which allows iPhone users to use Google Voice for free calls.
Step by step details are available from this TMCNet post. If you try it out, please drop me a comment and let me know how it worked, and if you foresee any implications for the enterprise.
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