At 28 Jun 2009 12:35:16 -0700 SMS wrote:
> 1. Sign up for Alltel $0.75/day prepaid.
>
> 2. Choose "Unlimited to Favorite Number (1 Number)" and "Unlimited Text
> Messaging" as your "Free Pay-Per-Day Feature Choices"
>
> 3. Sign up for Google Voice (available soon, in the mean time you can use
> MyGlobalTalk or VoiceStick and pay a small amount per minute).
>
> 4. Set your "Favorite Number" on Alltel to your Google Voice number.
>
> 5. Forward your calls from your Google Voice number (your Alltel
> "Favorite Number") to your Alltel cellular number.
>
> 6. Give out your Google Voice number as your cellular number.
>
> Free incoming: Calls forwarded to your Alltel number from your Google
> Voice number are free because your Google Voice number is your Alltel
> "Favorite Number."
>
> Free outgoing: Call your "Favorite Number" (your Google Voice number) and
> place calls through Google Voice.
>
> Get this fast before Verizon destroys Alltel's prepaid plans.
>
> You can't sign up for Alltel plans unless you have a credit card with a
> billing address in the Alltel service area.
You can do it on T-Mobile as well, albeit more expensively, with a MyFaves
plan ($39.99/month.)
The two biggest problems with it:
1) You lose caller ID. Every call you receive will display the same CID,
your Google Voice number since you have to set Google Voice to display the
GV number as the CID to "fool" the cellco into thinking it's a free
incoming call from a favorite number.
2) Outgong calls are low quality. Unless Google has improved on the Grand
Central infastructure, outgoing calls initiated through GC had huge latency
delays fom the "double VoIP" nature of the call- you to GV and GV to your
intended call recipient. I felt like Neil Armstrong calling from the Moon.
(Or if you're Larry, like Neil Armstrong calling via tape delay from the
abandoned Lunar surface set of Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey.")
....and I'll add a less important third problem: I don't know about Alltel,
but with T-Mo, such trickery is a ToS violation of their MyFaves plans!