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David Gewirtz
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Google Voice: a cheapskate's guide to cheap VOIP

By | June 29, 2011, 5:00am PDT

Summary: In this article, we look at how you can make and receive Google Voice phone calls from any old wired phone you may have lying around your house.

This article is a continuation of our Google Voice series. In this article, we’ll look at how you can make and receive Google Voice phone calls from any old wired phone (including cordless phones) you may have lying around your house.

Read the rest of our Google Voice series:

This article assumes you’ve already got a working Google Voice account and it’s linked to your phone. If you don’t, please read the first article in this series.

Understanding the challenge

Let’s get this out there right now. I do not like my iPhone. I have an ancient iPhone 3G, which I’m waiting on upgrading until either the iPhone 5 comes out or I lose patience writing about Apple and decide to go get an Android phone, so I can spend all day and all night tweaking my launch screen.

I don’t like making or getting calls on my iPhone. I like making and getting calls on my old-school land line phone that I’ve used for years. It’s comfortable, has a great headset that sits properly on my head, with a mic that people can actually hear. It just works and I like it.

The challenge, of course, is now that I’ve ditched my land lines, my land line phone is a paper weight.

But what if I could connect my land line phone, complete with its RJ11 jack, straight into Google Voice? What if, when you call my office number, my old land line phone rings, I can pick it up, and talk to you? And what, if I want to make a call, I could just pick up that phone, dial a number on it, and reach you? And what, if when I make that call, you see my Google Voice number right there, plain as day, on your Caller ID?

What if? What if, indeed.

Oh, and what if we could do this fer cheap?

Next: A more expensive alternative ยป

More from “ZDNet Government”

Topics

Google Inc., VoIP, Phone, Google Voice, Call, OBi, Ooma, Obihai, OBiTALK, Telecom & Utilities, David Gewirtz

David Gewirtz, Distinguished Lecturer at CBS Interactive, is an author, U.S. policy advisor, and computer scientist. He is featured in The History Channel special The President's Book of Secrets.

Disclosure

David Gewirtz

At various times during his adult life, David has voted for both Democrats and Republicans, and has been disappointed by both. He is deeply disturbed by how partisanship has come before patriotism in America, which gives him the freedom to pick on both sides.

David is a frequent guest on TV and radio stations across America and can usually be heard or seen on-the-air at least once a week. He writes weekly commentary and analysis for CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 and has been interviewed by Fox News, CNN, various ABC and NBC affiliates, and Canada’s Global TV. He has been a featured guest on National Public Radio and has also been featured on Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and Radio Liberty where his commentaries on technology, industry, and emerging nations have been broadcast into 46 countries (all in their own unique translations).

David is the executive director of U.S. Strategic Perspective Institute, a nonprofit research and policy organization. He is the Cyberterrorism Advisor for the International Association for Counterterrorism & Security Professionals, a columnist for The Journal of Counterterrorism and Homeland Security and a special contributor to Frontline Security Magazine. He is a member of the FBI’s InfraGard program, the security partnership between the FBI and industry. David is also a member of the U.S. Naval Institute and the National Defense Industrial Association, the leading defense industry association promoting national security.

David is an advisory board member for the Technical Communications and Management Certificate program at the University of California, Berkeley extension. He is also a member of the instructional faculty at the University of California, Berkeley extension.

David’s “day job” is as publisher and editor-in-chief of ZATZ publishing, an online publisher of technical magazines. Other than than his ownership stake in Component Enterprises, Inc. (the parent company of ZATZ), David has no additional industry investments.

ZATZ has many advertisers who do, in part, provide for David’s lush income and extravagant lifestyle. Most of them are IBM and Lotus aftermarket suppliers, some of them make goodies for Microsoft Outlook, and a few make all sorts of strange mobile devices and add-on products. David has been a regular judge of the IBM Awards, but has no formal financial interest in or with IBM.

Because the ZATZ online magazines often review products, David and ZATZ are sent an overwhelming stream of unsolicited, silly, and often useless products to review. Because they’re such a pain to track and ship back, these products often wind up in a dumpster or fill up the corner of a large closet. Although David has no plans to review products in connection to his ZDNet blog, if he does do a product review, he will disclose any relationship completely in that posting.

Both through ZATZ and independently, David derives a small income through various advertising and sales relationships with Amazon.com and Google. These are minor relationships and they will not impede his willingness or ability to chastise either company should they deserve it.

David has many other business relationships, but none of them relate to anything he covers in his ZDNet blog. David does have a bit of the sales-guy bug and if he’s not doing a sales deal with someone at least once a month, he goes through withdrawal. He has a number of consulting clients, but none of them relate to anything he covers for ZDNet (and if they ever do, he will either disclose that fact, or decline to write about them).

Back in the 1980s, David held the unusual title of “Godfather” at Apple. He has written and published 40 incredibly simplistic applications for Apple’s iPhone.

Although David is forbidden to disclose the terms of his iPhone developer agreement, he isn’t drinking the Apple Kool Aid, will never be confused with a metrosexual, and feels free to mock Apple, and Apple users, any time the occasion permits, on alternate Tuesdays, or if he’s bored.

Biography

David Gewirtz

In addition to hosting the ZDNet Government and ZDNet DIY-IT blogs, CBS Interactive's Distinguished Lecturer David Gewirtz is an author, U.S. policy advisor, and computer scientist. He is featured in The History Channel special The President's Book of Secrets, is one of America's foremost cyber-security experts, and is a top expert on saving and creating jobs. He is also director of the U.S. Strategic Perspective Institute as well as the founder of ZATZ Publishing.

David is a member of FBI InfraGard, the Cyberwarfare Advisor for the International Association for Counterterrorism & Security Professionals, a columnist for The Journal of Counterterrorism and Homeland Security, and has been a regular CNN contributor, and a guest commentator for the Nieman Watchdog of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. He is the author of Where Have All the Emails Gone?, the definitive study of email in the White House, as well as How To Save Jobs and The Flexible Enterprise, the classic book that served as a foundation for today's agile business movement.

Talkback Most Recent of 36 Talkback(s)

  • RE: Google Voice: a cheapskate's guide to cheap VOIP
    David, what a great series! I was looking for this information on and off over the past couple of years, and nothing was pulled together as well or completely.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    WmTConqror
    29th Jun
  • RE: Google Voice: a cheapskate's guide to cheap VOIP
    Can the GoPhone still be used as a portable (old home phone number) after the transition to GV? Understood there would be a fee or usage charge. Also, could the Obi device be used with the fax machine?
    ZDNet Gravatar
    AK_Dragonfly
    29th Jun
  • RE: Google Voice: a cheapskate's guide to cheap VOIP
    as a true cheapskate what I want is a way to use my google voice number to make internet calls over my cell phone and not use up my minutes. I'm happy with the magic jack at $20 a year and it easily travels with me wherever I go.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    REDPINXC
    29th Jun
  • RE: Google Voice: a cheapskate's guide to cheap VOIP
    @REDPINXC

    If you have an android phone...

    Go into either Amazon app store or the Android Market Place. Purchase Groove IP, amazon has it on sale for 1.99, andorid market has it for about 4.99. Android Market does get updates faster but either way works.

    Log into your google voice account with your google voice number. Now, you can place calls using Groove IP without having a monthly fee. Groove IP uses cellular or wifi signal to make the calls, so it doesn't waste your minutes.

    Bonus: If you are a sprint customer, you can have it all on one line. It's pretty slick, considering that when I am in areas of no cell signal (basement) I still receive/take phone calls on my phone via wifi. The app runs in the background, so you're always ready to take the call. I've had it setup for about a week without any issues. The app even has settings to fix/tweak the audio settings.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    backwerds
    29th Jun
  • RE: Google Voice: a cheapskate's guide to cheap VOIP
    @REDPINXC If you have an iPhone check out Talkatone. It accesses Google Voice without using cell minutes.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    APH3
    29th Jun
  • RE: Google Voice: a cheapskate's guide to cheap VOIP
    @REDPINXC

    I just upgraded to Magic Jack +. It's $30 a year instead of $20, but the device no longer needs to be plugged into a computer to work. Not having to worry about a Microsoft update temporarilty killing my landline is well worth the additional $10.00 per year!
    ZDNet Gravatar
    dsf3g
    9th Jan
  • RE: Google Voice: a cheapskate's guide to cheap VOIP
    Know what? I just switched to Anveo last month from CallCentric as Anveo has support for sending/receiving SMS, but that's 4.4 cents to send/receive in the US and I did not look at the rates before I port my phone number, which costs me non-refundable $30 to do so. Better luck next time, but then Google Voice is not a VoIP provider, right? I have my phone number registered in e164.org (ENUM) and it dials my SIP URI, which connects to my Asterisk server and it dials my VoIP phone. ENUM is nice, considering that if someone's VoIP provider supports ENUM look-up (e164.org) and their VoIP phone supports HD Voice (G722) as mine does (Yealink SIP-T22P through Asterisk), the plain old telephone network can be bypassed.

    For those who are wondering on what's so great about HD Voice (or G722, for that matter), find a hardware phone that supports HD Voice (or similar naming) or use Ekiga for Windows/Linux which supports G722 and dial this:

    sip:wbdemo@conf.zipdx.com

    Press the # key to switch to wideband.

    Bear in mind that I doubt the plain old standard telephone supports high definition sound with a frequency response of 50Hz to 7kHz.

    Oh, if you have just plain Asterisk, put this in your extensions.conf in /etc/asterisk/. That goes in your internal context:

    47223366,1,dial(SIP/wbdemo@conf.zipdx.com)
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Grayson Peddie
    29th Jun
  • Ooma with GV is free, not $10/mo
    Sure you can login to ooma & pay for services, but Google Voice works free simply by pointing it at the OOMA number.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    flapinux
    29th Jun
  • RE: Google Voice: a cheapskate's guide to cheap VOIP
    @flapinux But can you then pick up your handset and dial out via Google Voice without paying?
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Force
    29th Jun
  • RE: Google Voice: a cheapskate's guide to cheap VOIP
    @Force

    If you have an android phone...

    Go into either Amazon app store or the Android Market Place. Purchase Groove IP, amazon has it on sale for 1.99, andorid market has it for about 4.99. Android Market does get updates faster but either way works.

    Log into your google voice account with your google voice number. Now, you can place calls using Groove IP without having a monthly fee. Groove IP uses cellular or wifi signal to make the calls, so it doesn't waste your minutes.

    Bonus: If you are a sprint customer, you can have it all on one line. It's pretty slick, considering that when I am in areas of no cell signal (basement) I still receive/take phone calls on my phone via wifi. The app runs in the background, so you're always ready to take the call. I've had it setup for about a week without any issues. The app even has settings to fix/tweak the audio settings.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    backwerds
    29th Jun
  • RE: Google Voice: a cheapskate's guide to cheap VOIP
    Having recently acquired and implemented an OBI110 on Google Voice, I think it's worth mentioning that it also supports other VOIP services. I use voip.ms as a second service and although it's usage based the cost is quite reasonable and they offer number porting and other services that Google Voice doesn't. Google Voice is my primary connection because I can make free calls to the USA and Canada (at least through 2011) but I can access my voip.ms service as a backup simply by dialing **2 in front of my number. The OBI110 is truly a slick device and the OBI100 is a mouse sized version without the RJ11 jack for a PSTN connection which would be great for traveling.

    Thanks for your articles. I already finished my setup but I'm sure lots of people will benefit from this information.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    rstucke@...
    29th Jun
  • RE: Google Voice: a cheapskate's guide to cheap VOIP
    Gee I made it even more simple!1 I just use the Call Phone feature in Gmail. I can all over the USA and Canada. I can talk as long as I want for FREE. Plus I found out the folks in Austrialia can also call the USA for FREE. KISS...as they say..Keep It Simple Sam..or put whatever word you want to replace the last word.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    antiqham@...
    29th Jun
  • It's not working for everyone...
    It's not working for everyone... there are several threads about many of us having difficulty porting mobile numbers to GV... search the forums for AT&T, problem porting, etc. http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/voice?hl=en
    ZDNet Gravatar
    mrtuba9
    29th Jun
  • RE: Google Voice: a cheapskate's guide to cheap VOIP
    Seems like an awful lot of work when you could just buy a magicjack and plug it in to make calls. Original cost $40...then $69 more for a total of 6 years of telephone service. Plug the magic jack into USB port, plug phone into magic jack...viola you are set up.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    suzette@...
    29th Jun
  • RE: Google Voice: a cheapskate's guide to cheap VOIP
    @suzette@...
    yes and w/Magic jack you have to keep a computer running constantly. Obi is cheap, simple, and plug directly into your router/modem. No need to run your PC constantly and no fees. Obi is not a phone service, it's a ATA device that let's you use Google voice or nearly any of the probably thousands of SIP providers out there. You're not stuck with Majic Jack's service with Obi.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    csb059
    1st Jul
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