I do not know why Google Voice allowed this to happen but here is how I did it…
Background:
I have a Gmail account that I setup many years ago. It was setup as a Canadian account, ie, in the ‘Country’ box of the setup I chose ‘Canada’.
On my PC, using HotSpotShield and this accounts Gmail address & PW, I ‘SIGNed UP’ for a Google Voice account. Recently, Google Voice allowed me to add my Canadian mobile phone number to my list of ‘Phones’ but it would not allow me to ‘Verify’ this Canadian number, so, it could not be used.
Note: To initially setup a Google Voice account, if you do not already have one, you still must have a US number for the initial verification process. After your Google Voice account is setup and verified, then you can add a Canadian number. GV will accept it but it will not verify it. The Google Voice app will verify it.
On my PC, I next downloaded and installed the ‘Google Voice’ app to my android cell phone from this link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.googlevoice. (I believe that this is the official Google Voice app that comes pre-installed on android phones.)
NOTE: Do not go to this website on your phone, go to it on your PC and install it to your phone from there!!!!
On my cellphone, in the Google Voice app, I did: Menu -> Settings -> This phone’s number, I selected: ‘Add this phone’. This added a new phone number to the list ‘Mobile: +1 514-592-nnn’, which is my Koodo mobile number that I had placed into my ‘Phones’ list on my Google Voice account that could not be verified.
When I logged back into my Google Voice account on my PC, my Koodo number was ‘VERIFIED’!!!
I dialed my home phone number on my cellphone and when chose ‘Call with Google Voice’ from the popup, my cellphone called & connected to my home phone – it worked!
I then used my home phone to call my Google Voice number, my cellphone rang and I was connected!
I checked my Koodo app and saw that I had not used any outgoing minutes. (Note: I have ‘unlimited incoming calls’. )
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!
Edit: Read this if you are unsuccessful – it’s down-right ‘uplifting’!
Because I couldn’t believe that just a few of us were successful, I decided to try a test. Here’s what I did:
I took the Koodo SIM out of my phone and replaced it with my Petro-Canada (PetCan) mobility SIM.
I set up a new Canadian Gmail account.
Using HotSpotShield, I used my new Gmail address & PW to sign up for a new Google Voice account. I used a US phone number that I had from Voip.ms to verify my new Google Voice account.
After my GV account was verified, and I got my new GV Number, I added my PetCan cellphone number (1 514 441-nnnn) into my ‘Phones’ list as a mobile phone. GV accepted it but would not verify it. I also checked ‘Google Chat’ – I don’t know if that matters or not.
On my cellphone, using the Google Voice I selected Menu -> Settings ->’Sign out’ (of the Gmail account that I was using previously on my Koodo SIM). As soon as I did that, the app went into setup mode, I selected ‘Next’ and then ‘Add account’ and added my new Gmail account that I created for this test; signed in; synced and then selected it and hit ‘Sign in’ yet once again. Then ‘Next’. Then ‘Add this phone.’ Then ‘Next’ and the app verified my cellphone number.
I checked my Google Voice account on my PC and sure enough, my Canadian cellphone number was ‘VERIFIED’.
I tried to make a call - it didn’t work. GV kept saying ‘We could not complete the call‘. I tried again – same thing. I check all my settings and tried again – same msg. I tried a few more times, gave up and went to watch ‘A Person of Interest, then Elementary’
Now, about 2 hours later, it works perfectly!!!!!
Google Voice now works on either SIM on two different Google Voice accounts.
I guess it takes some time for Google Voice to adjust to these cold, snowy Canadian numbers – I don’t know.
Edit:
Some people, who have Google Voice accounts, have reported success by simply:
- Downloading the Google Voice app from: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.googlevoice - use your PC to install it to your phone.
- Installing this app using their Gmail account that is attached to their Google Voice account.
- During the setup, selecting the ‘Add this phone.‘ option.
Also make sure that, in Gmail, your ‘Chat’ settings default to the ‘United States’:
And that: Settings –> Calls –> Call Screening is set to ‘Off’.
Additional info:
‘Side loading’:
For people who are having trouble downloading the ‘Google Voice’ app, you can try ‘side loading’ the app to your android phone.
Sounds ‘scary’, right?
It isn’t that hard at all to do it!
I never even heard of ‘side loading’ but here is a link to a tutorial: http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/how_sideload_android_apps
And here is a link to the Google Voice apk download: http://uploaded.net/file/dg34vvbu
And here is a link to the file manager referred to in the tutorial: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.metago.astro&feature=nav_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDNd
For a test, I deleted the Google Voice app from my phone and tried the ‘side loading’ technique as per the tutorial. I successfully re-installed the Google Voice app and, it work again.
Just got my Koodo bill:
Here are my ‘plan’ details:
Rate Plan: Canada Wide Double Promo 45
included features new features added
5pm Evenings & Weekends
Extra LD Rate (Cdn)
Data 500MB
US Roam Toll @ $0.00Cdn
Unltd Local Family Calling
Koodo Data & SMS Rates
Unlimited Incoming Calls
Text Messaging Services
Unlimited Canadian LD
PPU Call Forward Toll
Unlimited SMS and MMS
US Roam Air @1.50
911 Government Fee
Call Waiting
Conference Calling
Provisioning Service
Voicemail
Call Display Outbound
Call Display
Quebec Mu
Here is my bill:
So, 1111 minutes for $52.20, or, $0.047 per minute!
I used ‘Google Voice’ almost exclusively.
Caution:
Further analysis of my confusing Koodo bill leads me to believe that all you can accomplish by using the Google Voice app is to convert any out-going call, local or long-distance, to a local call using your local out-going minutes. This is to say that if you use it to call a local number, you will be charged for minutes on your cellphone plan. If you use it to place a long-distance call, you will only be charged for local local minutes, no long-distance charges.
So, the only way to get a real saving is to use the Voice+ (callback) app and you will be charged nothing, if you have unlimited incoming calls, for any call.
The bit about no minutes used – that does not make sense. The GV app from Google is not VoIP. It dials through a gateway using a voice call. However it does appear to use local CDN gateways so you would not have seen a long distance charge.
Hi Charles:
You may be correct, I am not certain.
I was under the impression that Google Voice used data to submit the number you dialed to the Google Voice world but I could be wrong.
I used this setup a number of times today and, when I check my Koodo app, it still shows that I have not used any minutes and that I do not have any chargeable amounts.
Rob.
Hi Rob, Google Voice uses data to inform Google of the number it’s trying to reach, and receives back a gateway number that it then dials as a voice call. No VoIP takes place.
You can confirm this for yourself by commencing a GV call and then disabling wifi and disabling mobile data while on that call. The call will not terminate – so you must be using voice minutes.
Hi Charles:
I see what you are saying…
My post is miss-leading because I have ‘unlimited incoming’ and that is why I see no minute usage on the Koodo app.
Not everyone has ‘unlimited incoming’. I’ll edit the post.
Thank you.
Rob.
Very nice, i just add my Fido number, but still can’t make calls
Question, my Canadian number just got verified yesterday too!
I’m in Edmonton and when I try to make the calls using voice I get the “Was not able to connect your call message…” Why would that be?
I got that message for a little while too, then it just worked.
I might have re-booted my phone, I can’t remember.
I’m happy. I dont use GV to make calls; just use it for push voicemail Telus does not offer. I’m back in business. Thanks
i verified my fido phone number last night. tonight i made a call using my android phone, i selected a contact, and clicked on the phone icon. under “settings” in the google voice app there are four choices: never use; always use; only use for long distance; or ask each time. i chose the last one and made a call. it connected and we talked. now i don’t know if my phone dialed a google voice access number in vancouver or elsewhere. the phone shows that it dialed the contact that i called. i will look on the phone bill. billilng cycle ends tomorrow and then it takes about 5 days before i get it. i’ll post here what number my phone dialed. if it’s local, that would be awesome. even if it’s canadian it would be great. i just hope it’s not a US number.
I just got my Fido bill this evening. I can confirm that when i used the Google Voice Android app, it dialed a 778 (vancouver) number and connected me to the number I was dialling. the number displayed on their phone was my Google Voice number (818, Los Angeles) this is amazing news as it means that we can now use google voice directly from our phones. no need to jump through hoops to make it work.
the only danger i see is that since it is completely transparent, i’m worried that i might dial a phone number elsewhere in the world thinking that i’m using my google voice for 2 cents a minute when it actually connects through fido and they ream me for an international call.
hard to believe mine did not work can u tell the complete 778 that dialed by that app.
I was able to add my Canadian Cell # then could not find the app on Google Play. I entered your link and installed the android app. It looks like my number is verified but not able to receive voicemail as it only recognizes American providers. I hope this works soon since GV sent me an email stating that in a month they will no longer forward to my disposable American cell # (which I no longer have) I still cannot remove that American # because they insist on having at least one verified # (even though my Canadian # is listed) perhaps this just takes a little while to set up on their end. That said, this is a step in the right direction.
After following my process as listed above I called my American GV # on my Canadian Office phone and my cell phone rang showing my office # in the Caller ID. Holy Cr@p! This works!
Mine is all working EXCEPT that I can’t get my Canadian cell phone to show up as the caller ID, my US GV number keeps showing up… Anyone know who to fix that?
So you are using your Canadian Cell to call using the GV option and your calls are getting through? It would seem to make sense that your GV # shows up no?
Yes, it is my Google Voice number that appears as my caller id.
I believe that this is a Google Voice ‘rule’ – you Google number will always appear, there is no way to change it. In the US, the way around this is to ‘port’ your cell phone number to Google Voice. I have tried to ‘port’ my Canadian cell number to GV in the past and it would not allow it – I haven’t tried lately but I doubt that it would work.
I do not think that it is possible to change the caller Id from your Google Voice number. In the US, people ‘port’ their cell phone number to GV and then it shows this ‘ported’ number as the caller Id
On my calls, only my GV number appears as the caller Id.
Ok, so this kinda works. As stated above my GV# was dialed and the call was forwarded to my Canadian cell. I have tried on a few occations to call out using GV on my cell but the call cannot be completed. I will keep trying.
I’ve had no luck verifying my cell phone (905) area code. It seems likely Google simply dropped a few area codes from their block list. Maybe the negotiated the appropriate deals to allow them to do so, or maybe it is simply an error in their database.
If this worked for me, it would be the best news in the WORLD. For the past several years, I’ve been using various Google Voice hacks from Montreal with a 403 number and different forwarding services to use the Voicemail.
When I try to verify my 514- number from my cell phone, I get “this number cannot be verified” when it tries to send a text message. Any ideas?
Hi Y H:
I have setup 2 514 numbers.
Did you try it like this:
Some people, who have Google Voice accounts, have reported success by simply:
Downloading the Google Voice app from: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.googlevoice – use your PC to install it to your phone.
Installing this app using their Gmail account that is attached to their Google Voice account.
During the setup, selecting the ‘Add this phone.‘ option.
Also make sure that, in Gmail, your ‘Chat’ settings default to the ‘United States’:
That is what I tried with my 905 area code. My guess is Google has only opened up the 514 and 403 area codes at this point. I notice if I try the voicemail link it tells me it thinks my service provider is FIDO_CA, not Telus, so the it could be it also only works with particular cell phone providers.
It’s working with my Edmonton area code too 780
Two questions that I have:
1. I have a Google Voice number that is a 406 (Montana area code) that I’ve associated with a 403 area code mobile number. I’d like to add another 403 forwarding number but I’m having trouble doing this at all. Is it possible?
2. The bigger deal for me would having a Google Voice number with a Canadian (again 403 ideal) area code…this is still not possible, correct?
Thanks Wilbour for your blog!
& thanks to all posters of their results!
Sorry Yukio, I cannot take credit for this blog.
Can you better explain (ie. in detail) how you added your mobile number to your Google Voice account on your PC? I keep getting the message “Country of the forwarding phone does not match your country” whenever I try to add my mobile number.
Here is what I’ve tried:
I have a GV number, which I managed to get via the 403 work around from a few years back. Long story short, I no longer have the 403 number associated with my account, so anything sent to my GV number gets forwarded to my gmail.
I tried to add my mobile number on my PC using a US VPN, leaving all settings at default (ie. receive sms is checked off, allow access to vm is checked off, the number type is set to mobile, it’s set to ring any time). Under my gmail settings, under the chat tab, the country was set to the US. When I tried to add my number, I got the error message I mentioned above.
So I went back into my gmail settings and changed the country to Canada under the chat tab, then tried to add my number again in google voice, and I got the same error message.
So I’m at a loss, where am I going wrong?
Hi:
Originally, I just added my 514 number to my ‘Phones’ list in Google Voice on my PC but, although I could add it, Google Voice would not allow me to verify it.
However, when I went to the US Google Play Store (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.googlevoice) and ‘Installed’ the Google Voice app to my cell phone, the ‘install’ process of that app gave me the opportunity to ‘Add this phone’, which I did. That verified my number.
I think that the ‘Chat’ setting in your Gmail account must be set to ‘United States’.
Note: I do no think that it is unnecessary to do anything on you PC, other than the Gmail – ‘United States’ thing. The Google Voice app takes care of everything.
If you do not have a cell phone number and if you cannot use the Google Voice app on that cell phone, I do not think that you can ‘Verify’ a non US number.
Rob.
Thanks, I got that part from the original post. I already have a verified GV US based number, that’s not the issue. Under the phone settings (same as the screen shot in the blog post) I currently only have my gmail set a the forwarding “number”, no other numbers. The problem is, I tried adding my Rogers 416 mobile number on this page and when I click save, the error message I mentioned always appears. I’m not even at the stage where the phone number is added and then verified through the voice app. I’ve read on hofo that others with 416 Rogers numbers have been able to add their numbers a couple of days ago…so maybe Google has re-enabled whatever filters they had in place before?
Hi again:
I am really sorry that this is not working for you, and others – I wish that I had a solution to offer you.
Personally, inconsistencies like this drive me crazy!
How is everyone able to install it from the playstore? I keep getting the “This app is incompatible with your Bell Samsung SGH-T989D” so I cant even highlight my phone to install – any tips please!
Did you go to this link? https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.googlevoice
Rob.
Yes… it shows that “This app is incompatible with your Bell Samsung SGH-T989D.
Bell Samsung SGH-T989D
This item cannot be installed in your device’s country.”
Well, you could try: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.googlevoice&hl=en
But I think that the problem is your phone or SIM. I am using a Samsung Galaxy SII GT-i9100 – I think that the ‘i’ means ‘international’ but I really don’t know.
If the app is incompatible with your device, then I think that you are screwed. The app also loads into my older Samsung Google Nexus phone and works there as well.
Sorry that I cannot help you. Have you tried Howard Forums: http://www.howardforums.com/forumdisplay.php/523-Google-Voice ?
Rob.
Download the apk and side load it
I never even heard of ‘sideloading’ but here is a link to a tutorial: http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/how_sideload_android_apps
And here is a link to the Google Voice apk download: http://uploaded.net/file/dg34vvbu
The procedure seems straight forward (I have not tried it) but you need to install a ‘file manager’ first. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.metago.astro&feature=nav_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDNd
Rob.
Edit: I deleted the Google Voice app from my phone and tried the ‘sideloading’ technique above and successfully re-installed the Google Voice app and it work, again.
Thanks again – was able to get it installed through side loading!
Doesn’t work using a 604 number – read that someone from BC was successful… maybe they had a 778 number…
all that work too!! Dang – Thanks again Rob for all your help though.
Cheers.
Well, at least I’m glad that you got the Google Voice app installed – who knew, about ‘side loading’ that is.
Thanks to ‘jordanhodges’ for providing us with the ‘clue’.
Been using and LOVING Google Voice on my GNexus over the last week or so! Free long distance with exceptional call quality from my cell phone!!
Phone registered (613 #) but Voice+ and call from the Webpage won’t work. Call forwarding of my GV # also works fine.
Im in the 613 area aswell.
What company is your SIM with? I have a feeling its Rogers related.
Have you tried porting/changing your GV # to your 613 # ?
You can find out the above with out paying and during the process Google will tell you if its possible.
Is there a way you could activate another SIM and I will pay you a premium? I dont care which carrier.
I tried with WIND. But I cant add a 613 # from the PC side.
Hey! I’m in the 613 too, any luck?
I have a gv #
Assuming I take my sim from my iPhone, put it in my friends android, to the PCM setup mentioned above, get my 514 fido verified…..will I receive calls once I put the sim back in my iPhone?
And once that’s done, can I add 403 number as another number to ring to?
Hi Jeffg:
I have read posts where people did exactly what you said about putting their SIM into an android to setup the GV app and then putting it back into their iphone and everything works fine – I have not done this myself.
I do not think that you can add your 403 number either through the app on your phone or directly on your GV web page.
Rob.
Doesn’t look like it works for 250 numbers yet. I have a Google Voice account with a US GV number but it won’t let me add my 250 number from my phone. I do have USA set under my Gmail Chat settings. Hopefully we get news soon, I would really like to have my Canadian number setup with GV.
Canadians have waited years for this to happen as have I. Still hasn’t happened.
How to by-pass the wait
1. Get an account with the best VOIP provider, ANVEO.
2. Ask them to setup a callback feature with the best Call Flow system in the world.
3. Your cell phone plan will have free incoming & then perform the call-back.
4. Your charged peanuts(cents) and you can keep your number.
5. Anveos’ Call Flow has many more capabilities than Google Voice.
I got the idea for this after reading all the latest ‘possibilities’ about this Google Voice for Canadians. Free is great but a few cents per call + 10 times the options and NO MORE WAITING is great too.
It works flawlessly. Im with WIND, $15/month free incoming, long distance & txt’s.
Big Thanks go out to Michael at Anveo for help in designing this Call FLow.
ps What are the odds Google buys Anveo one day after this? ie GrandCentral
Good Luck & Take Care
Hi Agostini:
How do you place an out-going call with this setup?
Rob.
With the WIND pay as you go plan you have free incoming calls.
So…
The Anveo CallFlow works like this…
When your Anveo # gets a call from your cell phone a Voice says ‘Thanks you will receive a call to enter the number.
You hang up your cell.
Your Anveo # calls you and prompts you to enter a number which it then connects you to. Your Anveo # shows up for the call.
You just get charged on your Anveo account about a cent a minute. Free or one penny, theres no diff.
Incoming text’s are free or $5 unlimited/month.
Either way you need a VOIP account cause Google Voice isn’t VOIP.
The features ANVEO has are truly endless. R&D at Anveo don’t even know the limitations yet. ie this app/callflow
I love Google more than any other company but to hell with waiting, its 2013 and this still won’t work for Canadians.
Your Anveo # would be your Google Voice #. So it routes calls to your cell or home. Transcribes voice messages, blahblah on & on. It does it all for penny’s.
Hi Agostini:
“…Your Anveo # calls you and prompts you to enter a number which it then connects you to…”
That is why I prefer the ‘Voice+’ app, you can call someone by just picking their number from your contacts, i.e. there is no need to manually enter their number.
Also, it is totally free.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Anveo and everything that you said about them is true. I use Anveo for VOIP calls on my Obi 110 and it is perfect.
Guys how does this work with sms? Say if i successfully added my Canadian number, do the sms get sent out with the US number? I would really just like to have free sms
Well, I have a valid US #and my Canadian cell verified. Although I cannot yet call out with my Google Voice on my cell I do receive calls placed to my US #. I just sent an sms to my US # from my phone and got it back. It had my cell # attached. Not sure if this answers your question. I did get an email sms as well
Hmm, yes it does. Thank you. I guess google voice just wont work for me right now. I need a new canadian number.. which google voice does not provide right now.
Thanks for the post, i tried verifying my montreal number from the google voice android app, however i get a message “We have a problem your phone number could not be verified please try again.”
i do not have a data connection i’m attempting to do it over WiFi, could this be the reason for it not working?
Thanks
DOESN’T SEEMS TO BE WORKING ANYMORE
I cannot even add Canadian Phones to the list (It says: Country of the forwarding phone does not match your country)
I tried using Default country: US and also with Canada…
Hi Marcelo:
I think that you are correct. It seems that you can no longer set up a Canadian number on Google Voice. And, if you did previously, it no longer works on Voice+ (Google CallBack), atleast mine does not.
The only way that I can use Voice+ is with a US number from a VoIP supplier or a free number from Voxox or ipKall etc.
I will change the title on this blog post.
Rob.
It’s no secret that GV engineers monitor this blog/mb among others, and patch up anything that Canadians seem to enjoy. Ie: 1st the FPL 403 loophole, now this, etc.
It’s also no secret -creepy as it may be- that Google speech-to-text bots monitor your GV conversations, VMs & SMSs in order to show you relevant ads on their portals (similar as they do for gmail msg headers).
Hence they offer free calling (…you think lunch is really free?!) and in theory they have no reason not to offer it to the rest of the world (at least where they have or can get an affordable fiber/CLEC presence …certainly Canada). However, since this form of voice ad profiling is still relatively new and not fully exposed & legally challenged, expect the Americans to continue to be the experimental Guinea-pigs for the time being.
As an IT exec who frequently travels between our two great nations, a single central phone #, such as GV, that can be fwded on the fly to both my US & Cdn cell #s is essential to me.
So are we saying that the cell phones we were able to forward to and successfully redirected calls to no longer work? Or are we saying that we can no longer add our unverified Canadian cell numbers? I have to wait until tomorrow to test this out but it worked just fine 3 days ago.
Hi Wilbour:
For me, Voice+ will no longer callback my previuosly verified (verified by using Google Talk app) Canadian number. Also, the GV web page still will not allow me to enter a Canadian number.
The Google Talk app will no longer verify my Canadian number when I select Settings -> This phone’s number -> Add this phone.
I think that the door has been slammed shut yet again.
Rob.
Just tried to call my home phone within Google Voice using my verified Canadian Cell and received an “error”. Worked with using Google Talk though
Just tried today and a call to my GV (American) # did infact ring my Canadian Cell # (previously verified).
i have gv phone number on a us gv account and i am not able to add my cell phone on the setting. Is it possible to do that ??
Hi Dominic:
What type of cell phone do you have?
Which ‘app’ are you using?
Rob.
I have a nexus s with the google voice app
Sorry Dominic, too many interruptions now – I’ll work on it and get back to you tomorrow.
Do you have ‘free’ incoming calls? If so, ‘Voice+’ is better because you do not get charged for minutes by your cell phone company.
Rob.
Hi Dominic:
I re-installed the ‘Google Talk’ app on my phone and used one of my ‘Google Voice’ accounts where I have a US Anveo (VoIP) phone number set up as one of my ‘Phones’.
I tried to call my home number in Montreal and it *did not* work. At one, time this scenario did work, perfectly.
Again I suggest that you turf the ‘Google Talk’ app and use the ‘Voice+’ app, particularly if you have a way to receive free in-coming calls.
Remember that when the ‘Google Talk’ app worked, it only saves you the ‘long-distance’ charges but uses your carrier minutes.
May someone else in Canada can suggest a way to make ‘Google Talk’ work, it’s got me beat!
Rob.
to be honest, i just want to be able to make call when i am on a wifi. I make the same thing with skype, but it not free !!!!
Then, I guess you could GrooveIP Lite from the app store.
[I posted this on Howard's forums and thought I would mention it here as well]
GV is dialling a local access number again!
when people started announcing that GV was working with canadian area codes, i managed to get my 604 (vancouver) number validated. i couldn’t initiate a call on the web page but i could call with the GV app on my galaxy nexus. when i make a call, i have it set to ask whether i want to make the call with or without GV. when i chose GV, it would call a local number and then connect me to the number i was dialling.
then a little while back it started dialling a US number (atlanta) to connect the call. good thing i noticed because calls to the US aren’t cheap on my plan.
but today i decided to have another look to see if anything has changed and it has! now my phone dials a local (778) number to connect my call.
i don’t know what i did that changed it but i did select Canada as the default country in the gmail settings page. then i signed out of the GV app on my nexus and signed back in again. then it worked. yay!
Awesome man! I was able to use a not registered phone number in order to activate my phone Google Voice app! Thanks!
Hello guys,
I think i read most but not all comments. I changed my chat setting to US, where it says choose device to install on, it says my phone but is grayed out. i cannot select it. any help?
I have a 416 area code…
Hi Sam:
I am not too sure that I understand ‘where’ you are changing your settings – on the GV web page or on your phone?
But, I don’t think that it matters because I have not been able to register a Canadian phone number anywhere in Google Voice for about two months – let us know if you succed.
Rob.
There’s no need to register a Canadian phone number. Just type and *do not* verify a US one!
I’m using Google Voice totally free of charge. I do not have any bill and I am making calls and sending texts every day.
For texts use the GV app. For the US number, just type a random number with your computer and *do not* verify it. GV app will work perfectly on your phone.
For calls use Groove IP.
My bil? $0.00 Enjoy!
Hi atcold:
There are a number of wifi/data apps for Google Voice such as Talkatone, PHONE for Google Voice & GTalk etc.
The problem with them is usually ‘Call Quality’.
I believe that you don’t even need a Google Voice account to use them, your plain old Gmail account will work.
A note about Texting: If you use your Google Voice account to text people in Canada, it costs you nothing. However, it may cost your recipeint money if they ‘reply’ to your text as their reply will be sent to a US number.
Rob.
I think I need the GV account for texting. Moreover, without GV I wouldn’t have a phone number where to be called.
I’m not that much of a online reader to be honest but your blogs really nice, keep
it up! I’ll go ahead and bookmark your site to come back in the future. All the best
Good Morning,
I just stumbled upon your blog and the information you’re sharing is exactly what I was looking for! THANK YOU!!!!!!!
My question to you is…
I would like to get rid of my landline and get cell phones for myself and my two kids on a Family Plan. The problem is we have a separate line for our fax. My husband is self employed and needs the fax to receive POs from his clients. Is there a way to get around this with VOip and/or Google Voice?
Having said this and reading about the savings, could you recommend a plan that my boys and I can use. I’m trying to cut costs – our fax line, home phone line with all its typical features and Fibe Internet are not worth what we’re paying. My kids talk to their friends via Skype and no one really calls us as we usually communicate via email.
Any feedback from you is greatly appreciated!
Warmest regards,
Monique
Hi Monique:
Before I make any suggestions, I ‘d like to know if your husband ‘sends’ a lot of faxes, or, just ‘receives’ a lot of faxes?
Rob.
Hi Monique:
About faxes: I use Anveo but VoIP.ms and other VOIP service suppliers are good too. I ‘rent’ one Anveo phone number for faxes and one phone number for my phone calls (actually, I ported my Bell phone number to Anveo). Any ‘incoming fax’ is sent to my email account. I do not do many ‘out-going’ faxes but when I do, I use Anveo’s ‘email to fax’ feature: basically, you ‘print’ whatever you are faxing to a PDF file and then attach it to an email that you send to Anveo and they fax it to where ever, ie., I am not using an actual fax machine.
If you want to connect a physical fax machine to VOIP, you must use an ATA which supports ‘fax’ – I would recommend the OBI 202. This ATA supports ‘fax’ (just plug the fax machine into it) and supports your phone at the same time. You can buy any OBI 202 from https://www.acrovoice.ca/obistore/
My Anveo phone line costs $2.80 USD per month plus ‘out-going’ usage at $0.005 per minute but I use GV on my OBI as well so, out-going calls are free.
My Anveo fax phone line costs $1.80 USD per month with 40 free minutes per day for incoming faxes – that may not be enough for your husband, in which case, he should use the $2.80 line and get unlimited incoming faxes.
If you are asking me to recommend a cell phone plan, I have to warn you that I am not an expert in this area. However, if you are wishing to use GV and the ‘Voice+ Google Callback’ app, on android phones, for inexpensive cell phone bills, please read my posts: http://googlevoiceforcanadians.com/2013/03/25/tweaking-your-canadian-cellphone-plan-so-that-you-can-use-the-voice-callback-app/ and http://googlevoiceforcanadians.com/2013/01/18/which-android-app-should-you-use-voice-or-google-talk/
I do not know much about the ‘family plans’ that you are refering to but I do know that if you wish to use GV to get unlimited ‘free’ calling, you need to get unlimited incoming calls, one way or another.
HTH,
Rob.