Hi,
Since with Android you have a choice for your calls to go thru Google Voice (totally - only international or not at all) I was wondering how it works with AT&T.
If you call another AT&T cell phone it doesn't count in your minutes plan but what if you go trhu Google Voice? Is that consider like a landline to a cell phone? Or AT&T "sees" that you are using a AT&T cell and count the time has cell to cell ?
I hope I was clear in my explanation
I honestly don't know.
This has been discussed before on AT&T's forums.
The question on those forums were posed as: " If I use Google Voice and add that phone number to my "A-List" could I technically get unlimited calls to anyone?"
I'm pretty sure the answer was no. And therefore, I don't think AT&T sees the Google Voice number as anything but a forwarded call.
So if the calls are forwarded, you pay according to where it is forwarded.
Example: All of these go THROUGH Google Voice:
I call another AT&T cell from my AT&T cell. Same network = FREE M2M
I call a landline from my AT&T cell, no M2M, pay for call
This is also equal for when someone dials your Google Voice number.
It does leave questions on how international call are worked out. But I think that is on Google's end, not AT&T's
mymansionisabox said:
I honestly don't know.
This has been discussed before on AT&T's forums.
The question on those forums were posed as: " If I use Google Voice and add that phone number to my "A-List" could I technically get unlimited calls to anyone?"
I'm pretty sure the answer was no. And therefore, I don't think AT&T sees the Google Voice number as anything but a forwarded call.
So if the calls are forwarded, you pay according to where it is forwarded.
Example: All of these go THROUGH Google Voice:
I call another AT&T cell from my AT&T cell. Same network = FREE M2M
I call a landline from my AT&T cell, no M2M, pay for call
This is also equal for when someone dials your Google Voice number.
It does leave questions on how international call are worked out. But I think that is on Google's end, not AT&T's
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not sure that is correct, because when you place a google voice call, gv is actually calling you and then calling the other party and joining the calls. So for international you have a incoming local call and you get to pay GV low rates. I have a PBX at home that uses free incoming minutes and therefore with GV free unlimited calling.
Since we have android the callback is in the background, unless you have the update that allows you to call a GV number with a access code assigned to each contact so you don't have to wait for the callback and have a much faster connection.
just checked my usage... bad news...
making calls through GV counts against your minutes... each of my GV calls is going to a GV number and then going to the party i called (even though they're on AT&T as well)...
so, if you're calling an AT&T subscriber, just use your normal dialer... if you're calling any other carrier subscribers (or landlines) use either, depending on what number you want shown on potential caller ID's
just place the call through the GV web app then.
The way to get the free unlimited calls is to go into GV settings and have all calls from GV display on your phone as the GV number. You then give out the GV number as your main number, all incoming calls hit your phone and the number they came from is GV.
Also, when you make out outbound calls, you use GV to set up the call - it rings your cell and comes from your GV number, then connects to whoever you call.
If the GV number is one in your circle, or faves, or whatever ATT calls it, then all are free - but of course you lose caller id on incoming calls.
I have a Sprint data card that I use Skype with. A one and a half hour call through Skype only uses 25MB. Sprint is not able to "see" that I am using VoIP because Skype encrypts the data. This way I make somewhat free calls and its real cheap considering the data from my alloted 5gb. I am anxiously waiting for Skype to start working on ATT Smartphones. I did wonder how GV would work but I'd prefer Skype and use my Skypeout number.
alphadog00 said:
The way to get the free unlimited calls is to go into GV settings and have all calls from GV display on your phone as the GV number. You then give out the GV number as your main number, all incoming calls hit your phone and the number they came from is GV.
Also, when you make out outbound calls, you use GV to set up the call - it rings your cell and comes from your GV number, then connects to whoever you call.
If the GV number is one in your circle, or faves, or whatever ATT calls it, then all are free - but of course you lose caller id on incoming calls.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly, this also give you the option to press "4" during the call and record the call at GV!
kyphur said:
Exactly, this also give you the option to press "4" during the call and record the call at GV!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the press 4 trick.. i had no idea.
alphadog00 said:
The way to get the free unlimited calls is to go into GV settings and have all calls from GV display on your phone as the GV number. You then give out the GV number as your main number, all incoming calls hit your phone and the number they came from is GV.
Also, when you make out outbound calls, you use GV to set up the call - it rings your cell and comes from your GV number, then connects to whoever you call.
If the GV number is one in your circle, or faves, or whatever ATT calls it, then all are free - but of course you lose caller id on incoming calls.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah that is the best way to do it if you want to do a regular voice call. I didn't know ATT had the fav option!
Also what I do is use freepbx at home in a VM with a GV setup so I can make free VOIP calls to anyone in the US. I have voip phone at home and voip software on my phone. I still use GV for voicemail.
In this case i use SIPDROID.
AT&T added a fav option for higher dollar plans. I am not sure what they call it, but they did it keep up with VZW and TMo
at&t's version is called A-List. IIRC, you need to be on a $60 monthly or higher plan. You get to list 10 numbers on your account (not per line) and all in/out calls to those 10 numbers are treated as m2m...
The google voice app has never worked on my phone, always giving me some message about it being for US only.
But today i tried it from my phone and it actually allowed me to set up an account. It stopped at the screen where i was setting up my voicemail pin and said "We have a problem. Your phone number could not be verified. Please try again.". So far i havent been able to get past that screen.
I was able to make google voice calls on my laptop today so it seems like they are allowing use in Canada finally. Does anyone know if its possible to use google voice on mobilicity or wind?
I am curious because mobilicity has a new plan with unlimited calls texts and data for 25 a month, but no voicemail. If i can use google voice as my voicemail then obviously that wont be a problem.
don't know if you checked this out already, but read the post below...I think it should explain what you're looking for....
http://community.windmobile.ca/windmobile/topics/using_google_voice_on_your_phone?from_gsfn=true
Thanks, its too bad that the workarounds discussed in that post still dont offer a solution for voicemail, but that will probably be useful information for future reference.
I did find a solution to this problem without using google voice if anyone is interested. I may as well share it.
To those who are interested in this plan but wont sign up without voicemail:
- You can get a free phone number and a customizable answering machine from http://www.freephoneline.ca/ (if you cant get a toronto number you can use thornhill, richmond hill, etc to avoid forwarding to a long distance number)
- Then set your phone to forward your unanswered, busy, and unavailable incoming calls to your freephoneline number.
- Then set your voicemail access number to the corresponding number on this list http://www.freephoneline.ca/vmAccessNumbers
- Also make sure to set your freephoneline to only ring once before going to voicemail, you can do this by logging into your account on their website and going to your settings
- You now have $25 BTS + Voicemail! When people call your regular phone number and you dont answer, it will forward them to your voicemail on your freephoneline number, and you can check your voicemail from your cell phone the same way you always would.
I believe they also provide the option to automatically transcribe your voicemails and email them to you in text form.
EDIT: Apparantly call forwarding is $5 more, if thats true this wouldnt work. Another option would be using Dell Voice on the android market.
Its an app gives you a canadian number with the area code of your choice and can be used to make and receive calls anywhere in canada and US for free, and customizable voicemail. It uses your carrier data to do this, but since this plan has unlimited data that shouldnt be a problem. The only problem is you would have to get used to making and receiving all your calls through an app, and using your dell voice number as your primary number.
Might be worth the extra $5 to get call features and add the freephoneline voicemail via the method above, the $5 call features addon on the mobilicity website includes Call Waiting, Call Forwarding and 3-Way Calling, (plus voicemail via fpl). Thats basically $30 for the $29 plan i currently have with wind except that it doesnt expire in a year and go up to $45 =/
Hello,
I know this isn't the right forum for my question, but it is still related to phones/network/sms and maybe you could help me.
We want to be able to receive SMS of high volumes through an SMS Inbound service from all over the world and transfer the user phone number in our database. With high volumes I am talking about up to 50,000 SMS/minute per long number.
I found this definition:
Long Number: A long number is a phone number connected directly to a SMSC (a SMS Center, the servers used by mobile carriers to manage SMS) and is, therefore, able to manage a high number of SMS (similar in terms of capacity to a short code). Caution: some providers are just using a SIM card in a modem and selling this as a “long number” but a SIM card has limited capacity. Try to receive 100 SMS in less than one minute on your phone; you will understand why there is a difference. Long numbers are usually reachable from other countries. For example, Spanish Mobile user can send an SMS to a UK long number. Sending a text to this UK long number will cost the same as sending a text to a UK mobile user (standard international rate).
Now we have several questions:
1.) What is the usual maximum of receivable SMS we can expect from a long number? Can they catch up with our requirements?
2.) Do the network operators have somekind of a SMS anti-spam protection? Will we trigger it?
3.) Is it true that a long number can be reached from any country or are there limitations?
Can you recommend any SMS inbound provider?
Your help will be grately appreciated. Thank you.
push
I've had the same number for over a decade on 3 different providers. Several years ago I ported that number to Sprint and ever since the Google Voice and Sprint integration option was available, I've been using it. I really like all of the features such as being able to send texts on the Google Voice website from my "primary" number and when people call my "primary" number it not only rang to my phone but it would also pop up as an incoming call on Gmail, etc. I just switched to T-mobile today and ported my number over to them after cancelling the Sprint/GV integration. I didn't think this all the way through before doing so unfortunately.. Now I have a plan and a phone that I really like but I'm basically stuck with Google Voice Lite which leaves a lot to be desired since I liked ALL of the features of Google Voice I used to have and not just the voicemail forwarding feature....
I'm assuming that it is possible to get all these features back by doing the following:
- add a second line to my T-mobile with a new/different number and put that SIM card in my new phone
- port my old "primary" number that I just brought over to T-mobile to Google Voice for $20
- Set up google voice to forward all calls and text message going to my old "primary" number to my new T-mobile number
The only question I have is whether after doing this, is there a way to make the functionality EXACTLY the same as when I was on Sprint with my Sprint/GV number integrated? I.e. When someone calls me on the number I ported to GV# it rings to my computer if I'm sitting in front of my Gmail as well as my phone... all text messages to my GV# will go to my phone and can be read/replied to on the google voice website the same as it used to, etc. My understanding was that the GV/Sprint integration was just an agreement that the two companies had where Sprint "owned" the number but it could also be used as the GV number through some carrier-specific forwarding agreement that they had. I'd like to know if I do the above-mentioned steps would I get the same result or is there some drawbacks to having a different carrier with a different number and now GV "owns" the number and is just forwarding the data in a similar fashion? The main drawback I foresee would be that if i make a call or send a text message from my phone it would show up as the new T-mobile number instead of the GV# and people wouldn't know who it is until everyone in my contacts list got used to it. I think this could be avoided by using Google Hangouts or something as my primary dialer and text messaging app but then I'd be using up my data for VoIP and MMS messages which would otherwise be free on my T-mobile number. Anyone been in a similar situation and have some info/advice? Thanks
Is there a way to change the outgoing caller ID on my cellphone to my business number?
The reason I am asking is because I have a VoIP-based business phone system (we host it ourselves) and my extension forwards to my cell phone when I am not in the office. It would be nice to be able to call people back from my cellphone and have it show my business number so that customers don’t inadvertently wind up with my cellphone number.
Right now I call back into our phone system and then place an outgoing call from there. But that means I cannot simply call using the dialer app and it’s difficult to do via the Bluetooth in my car because the second number (the customer’s number) as to be manually entered on the phone. It would be a lot nicer if Bell Mobility (or any carrier) could just replace my cell phone number with our business number.
Ideally I could do this for all of our technicians (who have company cell phones) so that their cellphones just becomes another extension on the system.
The Fish
They can replace your number, port it. Outside of that nothing you can do because they don't know what a business call is and what a personal call is to try and switch back and forth between your CID.
What we would do on FreePBX is create a account for the cellphone, have the boss use a SIP app on his phone, and then set the outbound CID for the account, that way when your calling someone back you just dial through the SIP app and select the outbound he wants (was running 4 companies at once and just had to use a prefix to set the ID he wanted) vs calling in and having to do a bunch of extra steps. Only thing is setting up policy for his phone to connect. I had a web site that they could authenticate through an then would add that to iptables so that they could connect since your IP will probably change occasionally, check out Dynamic Good Guys
There's really no easy way to go about it and it's all personal preference, and I know what you mean about people getting your cell number. I did on-site business and customer repairs and second someone gets your number it's calls all hours of the night, where if they used business number after-hours ivr would have caught it and left me alone.