GrandCentral VOIP Becomes Google Voice

After a long time, Google finally rebranded GrandCentral, a powerful VOIP integration service into Google Voice.

Rebranding GrandCentral into Google Voice would open up multiple avenues for google in the coming years mainly in the integration space. It would be interesting to see if they would integrate Google Talk ingo google voice or add google voice to google talk. There were talks that Google Talk team doesnt do any further development and has been used by other teams possibly google voice team.

GrandCentral will continue to offer users with the same interface and its core feature, intregrating multiple phone numbers into one google voice number so you can manage your calls effectively.

Besides the standard features, Google Voice would also offer,

Call screening - Announce and screen callers
Listen in - Listen before taking a call
Block calls - Keep unwanted callers at bay
SMS - Send, receive, and store SMS
Place calls - Call US numbers for free
Taking calls - Answer on any of your phones
Phone routing - Phones ring based on whoConference calling - Join people into a single call
Call record - Record calls and store them online
Call switch - Switch phones during a call
Mobile site - View your inbox from your mobile
GOOG-411 - Check directory assistance
Manage groups - Set preferences by group calls
Forwarding phones - Add phones and decide which ring
Voicemail transcripts - Read what your voicemail says
Listen to voicemail - Check online or from your phone
Notifications - Receive voicemails via email or SMS
Personalize greeting - Vary greetings by caller
Share voicemail - Forward or download voicemails

Another important feature is obviously allowing totally free calls any USA number including mobile.

Unfortunately at this stage, google voice is restricted to existing GrandCentral users. However, let's hope they open up the doors to this exicting VOIP service to anyone anywhere in the world so anyone can leverage the benefit of having one number for call management.

We believe Google will now take up Google Voice seriously and would most likely integrate google voice voip service into other applications or services google offers.

Calling India Through VOIP Becomes Even Cheaper

VOIP has really broken into traditional telephony in a good way which saved everyone millions of dollars in each year which often ended up with greedy telecom operators. Most telecommunication providers in almost every part of the world have made enormous amount of money through traditional POTS lines and VOIP is a technology
of revenge. India is one such destination where VOIP did wonders.

I remember when IDD rates to USA were far out of reach of average indians and were quoted in the range of Rs. 40-50 per minute. Today, you can call USA for less than 1 cent or even FREE. Calling India was also very expensive however since last 6 months, more and more VOIP Providers are almost making India a free destination. We believe calling India at half cent per minute would be a dream come true, hopefully soon.

Today, we are announcing latest calling rates to India by LocalPhone and Mediaringtalk. Although, Mediaringtalk was always providing cheaper international calls to India, they now reduced the rate further to mere 1.7 cents per minute to Indian landlines/Mobiles.

LocalPhone, my personal favorite VOIP Provider has slashed their rate to just 2.9¢ now. I believe LocalPhone will push this to around 1.5 cents very soon if they continue to generate revenues and get large user base. They are currently one of the few VOIP Providers doing extremely well with their Service and Profits.

Lets' hope the price war continues so we have more choices to call India and of course, its a healthy competition amongst the VOIP Providers. Personally, I don't fall for cheap prices, I consider Cheap rate + Quality of Voice + Customer Service. LocalPhone has been excellent to me in all this categories, so I stuck to them even though I pay higher rate. I however strongly recommend MediaringTalk if you are looking for a cheaper alternative, the choice is yours