Anyone using Grand Central from Google?

If yes.... how liking it?

see link

http://www.grandcentral.com/home

At 08 Jan 2008 14:21:13 -0600 me@privacy.net wrote:
> If yes.... how liking it?
>
> see link
>
> http://www.grandcentral.com/home


I signed up before Google bought them, and only to give my Mother in Rhode
Island a local Providence number to call me on to avoid LD charges. It
rings my Denver-based landline and Kansas City-based cell simultaneously.

She uses it very seldom, but it works as advertised.

On 2008-01-08, Todd Allcock <elecconnec@AmericaOnLine.com> wrote:
>>
>> http://www.grandcentral.com/home
>
>
> I signed up before Google bought them, and only to give my Mother in Rhode
> Island a local Providence number to call me on to avoid LD charges. It
> rings my Denver-based landline and Kansas City-based cell simultaneously.
>
> She uses it very seldom, but it works as advertised.

I tried to check it out but they only took my name and email address to
notify me when they had local numbers in my area. (I gave them my Gmail
address.) They don't seem to be accepting new signups right now, unfortunately.




--
Steve Sobol, Victorville, CA PGP:0xE3AE35ED www.SteveSobol.com
Geek-for-hire. Details: http://www.linkedin.com/in/stevesobol

Todd Allcock <elecconnec@AmericaOnLine.com> wrote:

>At 08 Jan 2008 14:21:13 -0600 me@privacy.net wrote:
>> If yes.... how liking it?
>>
>> see link
>>
>> http://www.grandcentral.com/home
>
>
>I signed up before Google bought them, and only to give my Mother in Rhode
>Island a local Providence number to call me on to avoid LD charges. It
>rings my Denver-based landline and Kansas City-based cell simultaneously.
>
>She uses it very seldom, but it works as advertised.
>

Ok trying to figure exactly how I could use it.... what
benefits it would give me.

I have a cell phone only... no landline at all

At 10 Jan 2008 08:54:42 -0600 me@privacy.net wrote:

> Ok trying to figure exactly how I could use it.... what
> benefits it would give me.
>
> I have a cell phone only... no landline at all


I'm not sure there's a compelling reason- essentially it's just a free
forwarding service (with voicemail) that includes an incoming phone number
from virtually anywhere in the US you can direct to any phone number you
wish.

The only practical use _I've_ really found for it is to give me a local
number in a different market, sparing my family from paying LD to call me
from their landlines.

Some people, however, have used it with cellular "Circle/Faves" plans from
Alltel and T-Mo to get unlimited incoming calling (although it's
technically a violation of the companies' rules.) The scheme works like
this: you can either set Grand Central to pass the original caller's CID to
you, or your GC number (to identify the call is being forward via GC.)
Since T-Mo and Alltel give you unlimited incoming/outgoing calls to/from
your 5 or 10 "favorite" numbers, you give everyone your GC number, set GC
to report your GC number in the CID, and make the GC number a "favorite."
Every incoming call to your GC number is forwarded to your cellphone, and
"looks like" it's your GC number that is calling you, which is a free call
on your favorites plan. You give up caller ID with this scheme, (all calls
say they're from the GC number- not the actual caller) but some find
unlimited incoming calls to be worth the tradeoff.

On 2008-01-10, Todd Allcock <elecconnec@AmericaOnLine.com> wrote:
> I'm not sure there's a compelling reason- essentially it's just a free
> forwarding service (with voicemail) that includes an incoming phone number
> from virtually anywhere in the US you can direct to any phone number you
> wish.

There are some reasons for certain people. I'm planning on using it with
the phone line for our small Jewish congregation here in Victorville. I have
no way of getting notified when their Verizon landline rings or has a voice
mail message sent to it (and we're not big enough to have people employed
full time, and I'm the one tasked with checking voicemail). This is just one
example; I'm sure there are other good ones.

I'd like to have more than one number, though, like a Cleveland number in
addition to my Victorville number so I can be local to people back home who
want to call me. Maybe at some point they could offer that as an extra-cost
option.

Also, they mention free incoming minutes on phone calls to the GC numbers.
But they mention nothing about outgoing. Does this mean they're planning on
charging for the outgoing leg on each call??

--
Steve Sobol, Victorville, CA PGP:0xE3AE35ED www.SteveSobol.com
Geek-for-hire. Details: http://www.linkedin.com/in/stevesobol

At 10 Jan 2008 23:39:37 +0000 Steve Sobol wrote:

> There are some reasons for certain people. I'm planning on using it with
> the phone line for our small Jewish congregation here in Victorville. I
have
> no way of getting notified when their Verizon landline rings or has a
voice
> mail message sent to it (and we're not big enough to have people employed
> full time, and I'm the one tasked with checking voicemail). This is just
one
> example; I'm sure there are other good ones.


How do you plan to use it that way? Use the GC number as the "new" number
for the congregation and set it to ring the landline (and your cell), or
set the landline to forward to GC if unanswered and notify you via e-mail?

> I'd like to have more than one number, though, like a Cleveland number in
> addition to my Victorville number so I can be local to people back home
who
> want to call me.

That's a problem. I tried setting up two GC accounts but they won't allow
two GC numbers to forward to the same physical line.

> Maybe at some point they could offer that as an extra-cost
> option.


That'd be nice.


> Also, they mention free incoming minutes on phone calls to the GC numbers.
> But they mention nothing about outgoing. Does this mean they're planning
on
> charging for the outgoing leg on each call??

Perhaps, but given that they claim all features will be free during the beta,
and Google's propensity for "permanent" beta testing, I'm not sure we'll
have to worry about it in our lifetimes! ;-)

Todd Allcock <elecconnec@AmericaOnLine.com> wrote:

>The only practical use _I've_ really found for it is to give me a local
>number in a different market, sparing my family from paying LD to call me
>from their landlines.

Well that's a pretty good strategy!

At 14 Jan 2008 09:56:33 -0600 me@privacy.net wrote:

> >The only practical use _I've_ really found for it is to give me a local
> >number in a different market, sparing my family from paying LD to call me
> >from their landlines.
>
> Well that's a pretty good strategy!


Yeah, but probably just illustrates my lack of imagination! I'm sure
others have found far more imaginative uses for GC.