Google Turns Grandcentral Into Google Voice

I had the need to log into my Grandcentral account today and discovered that it is transitioning to Google Voice. Google Voice takes many of the great features of Grandcentral like call screening, listening in to voicemail, call blocking, sms alerts, phone routing, and call forwarding, amongst others; and adds features like voicemail transcripts, personalized greetings… per person, and conference calling.

The big announcement was made yesterday on the Google Voice Blog. Today, they posted some tips on upgrading your account from Grandcentral to Google Voice when your turn comes around. I checked and my account is not ready to upgrade. Still, I can’t help thinking that when it does it will be more awesome.

If you want a quick introduction to all the features, you can view videos that show you what the new Google Voice service will do. Here is one exciting feature of the new service involving Google 411

From what I have been able to find, Google Voice will continue to allow you to make free phone calls in the United States. They will charge low rates for international calls; I have not yet found a chart that shows those rates. According to the instructions, you’ll be able to call your Google Voice number and use it like a calling menu. It does make your calling experience a two-step process; but the benefits of this are significant.

The new Google Voice calling menu will be good for people who have a service like T-Mobile’s myFaves, Alltel’s My Circle, or Verizon’s Friends & Family. You can add your Google phone number as a favorite to send and receive calls without racking up your mobile minutes. In addition, it almost eliminates the need for a smart phone because all your calls are logged. This should allow you to save phone numbers straight to your Google Addressbook. I don’t know that you can, yet. As soon as my account can be upgraded, I will make the switch to explore all the features and think up unintended uses. Overall, I think Google Voice will ultimately be the final piece that was missing for unified communications by Google. OK, never mind; there is no fax option… yet.

BTW, you can receive updates by following Google Voice on Twitter.

Switching to T-Mobile @Home

We are planning to save some money on communication.

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UPDATE

Running T-Mobile @Home through my cable internet service has been good thus far. The quality of the connection is good, without any jitters or other artifacts that come with VOIP services. I’ve been using the service for most of my phone calls rather than my mobile. I may be able to reduce my monthly rate plan further. With T-Mobile @Home, I am saving $20/month by adding the monthly cost and subtracting the savings from a higher rate plan. If I save more mobile minutes, I may be able to reduce my plan further and save more money.

There are other factors that figure into this. T-Mobile treats your @Home service as a mobile phone, so calls to other T-Mobile phones fall under the unlimited mobile-to-mobile feature. We also have a family plan with MyFaves, which means more minutes saved on the most frequently called numbers.

Another trick up my sleeve is that I have my Grand Central number forward to both my mobile and @Home phones. When calls come in, both phones ring and I use the unlimited @Home line to take those calls.

Finally, when calling those numbers that keep me on hold forever, you can bet I’ll use my @Home service. For only $10/month, T-Mobile @Home more than makes up its cost in savings. Even the most basic landline costs more than that with none of the features.