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Google has launched a phone/landline service for its Google Fiber customers, called Fiber Phone. It allows you to use a "cloud-based" phone number from any tablet, PC, or phone:
For $10/month, you get unlimited local and nationwide calling, and the same affordable rates as Google Voice for international calls. You can keep your old phone number, or pick a new one. You can use call waiting, caller ID, and 911 services just as easily as you could before. Fiber Phone can also make it easier to access your voicemail—the service will transcribe your voice messages for you and then send as a text or email.
[...] Your Fiber Phone number lives in the cloud, which means that you can use it on almost any phone, tablet or laptop. It can ring your landline when you're home, or your mobile device when you're on-the-go. [...] To stay updated on the latest, sign up here.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday March 30 2016, @05:55PM
It’s like Google Voice on bad steroids.
Isn't it just ... google voice?
I mean, I've been using GV as a front end since the really old days when I think it was called "grand central" or something. I've been thru three cell phone companies since then, and I just keep forwarding my cell to a new number. It can send my incoming cell calls to my home phone, which was nice when I had a cell provider with awful coverage at my house but pretty good coverage everywhere else. I like its voicemail quite a bit. Its also pretty good at blocking telemarketers. Its nice enough.
Anyway the point is I have years of experience as a GV user and I think I already have all the features mentioned other than not being a customer of google fiber?
Before all the squawking about the big evil google stealing my soul to sell, its 2016, I haven't used legacy "phone" to communicate in years, other than elderly relatives who don't use more modern stuff, or work calling to report an emergency. I mean, if they're selling it, I feel bad for them because they can't be getting much for it.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday March 30 2016, @06:06PM
I started using GV when we moved into a house with a metal roof - good coverage outside from any provider, but spotty anywhere inside, so we dusted off the old 5GHz Panasonic wireless phone set, bought new batteries for the handsets and an Obihai VoIP access box, and haven't had to pay for or maintain anything since then, and the 5GHz phones work anywhere in the house and yard without a problem.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/06/24/7408365/
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Wednesday March 30 2016, @11:28PM
How does that work? I have a gvoice account, but what info is programmed into the obihai to make it connect? Was it easy to figure out? Sounds very interesting!
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0x663EB663D1E7F223
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday March 31 2016, @12:01AM
Just Google search for the instructions - it takes less than 10 minutes.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/06/24/7408365/
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 30 2016, @06:20PM
gvoice is the one google product I use too (since grand central first opened their doors too)
I would switch if there was something with at least the same set of features and the same ease of pseudo-anonymity.
I can buy a burner phone to create a new gvoice account (you need a working legit phone to create a new gvoice account now) and then let the burner expire and keep the gvoice account for texting and/or hook it up to an obihai routed through a VPN so even if you have multiple obihais they don't share the same IP address as far as google knows and since it is "free" I don't have to worry about payment info being used to unmask my privacy either.
That lets me use different phone numbers for different parts of my life and firewall even the meta-data