Google Voice working for Canadians… or free calls from your cell!

Also: How to make unlimited calls on your Canadian Cell phone… Well, let me clarify. 1 cent a minute to use your cell phone?

Grand Central was a terrific product. First off, I get an American number. Yay!

They had a little web site that you entered the number you wanted to call.

Grand Central phoned you.
Grand Central phoned the number you wanted to call.
Grand Central plugged the two calls together. Fantastic.

Google buys them. All of a sudden the ability for them to call back my cell phone doesn’t work. Damn.

But I can’t accept defeat that easy.

So, here is what to do if you are in Canada and want to make a lot of phone calls for free from your cell phone.

1) Get unlimited incoming calls on your cell phone (probably $10-$15 a month from Rogers or Fido… I imagine Bell and telus are comparable). The catch is that Google Voice CALLS you when you make a phone call. Every call is an incoming call.

2) Get a VOIP provider. An example is http://les.net but there are others. What you want to buy is a DID (Direct Inward Dial) phone number in the US. So you are buying a phone number in the US that you will forward to your Canadian Cell phone for 1¢ a minute.

3) Forward your Google voice number to the DID you just purchased.

4) Done.

So now basically when you make a call with google voice (which you make from their web page or a mobile app)

The call goes from Google -> Your Google Voice # -> Your American VOIP # -> Your Canadian Cell

The nicest part about this is that if you use the Google Voice App for iPhone you can also send and receive unlimited SMS messages. Nice to be able to communicate with your American friends…. but if your Canadian friends message you back our horrible horrible rates apply.

Good luck!