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With Google indicating Google Voice is just weeks away from being available to the public, I've started some research to be able to leverage their free unlimited outbound calls to the US.

My object is to get rid of my Vonage service that is already just ~$20/month after taxes, but still have a "home phone" that will ring all my analog phones at home.

Here's the plan so far given my limited research to this point:

• Purchase a SIP number from Gizmo for $3/month that will give me unlimited incoming calls from any phone in the US to an otherwise free SIP account. This is the only recurring cost.

• Setup Asterisk (open source phone system) on PC at home. This will be able to receive calls from my SIP number.

• Purchase a Cisco PAP2T-NA ATA Phone Adapter (<$60). This just plugs into my lan and to my phone punch panel to ring all the phones in my house. Asterisk will be able to send all incoming calls to this device on my LAN.

• Google Voice can then be configured to ring my home phone system by giving it my Gizmo SIP number. So we give people the Google Voice number so it will ring the home phone (as well as any other numbers we have configured with Google Voice).

• From what I've read, it seems possible to do a free SIP to SIP call to Google Voice (only from a Gizmo account) from Asterisk. Then Google Voice would automatically send out the call via its service... Free outgoing calls!

Anyone have any experience with this sort of thing and see any flaws in my logic?

Wow, that all sounds complicated

Afraid I've not heard anything about google voice to comment one way or the other, but sounds like it will work from what you have said here.

Only thing you have to remember is that your phone will go down if your pc breaks or the internet is out.

Dan

You do not need to do half that much to get free incoming calls. You only have to get Google Voice, and input your Gizmo number. Then, you can use an ATA or a softphone to register with Gizmo to take the calls.

Now, if you decide you want outgoing calls for cheap, you can install Asterisk to use whatever SIP service you want, create a dial plan, etc. Also, you may want to check out OpenWRT for your router, as you may not need a separate PC.

dgomill wrote:You do not need to do half that much to get free incoming calls. You only have to get Google Voice, and input your Gizmo number. Then, you can use an ATA or a softphone to register with Gizmo to take the calls.

Now, if you decide you want outgoing calls for cheap, you can install Asterisk to use whatever SIP service you want, create a dial plan, etc. Also, you may want to check out OpenWRT for your router, as you may not need a separate PC.

I thought it was the other way around. I thought Google Voice would be able to give you free outgoing calls via SIP to SIP from Gizmo, but incoming calls from Google Voice to dial the 'home' SIP number would require an actual SIP number that costs $3/month.

Here's the article I've found outlining this: http://nerdvittles.com/?p=605

And here's the best part of the story. The SIP call from your Asterisk server to your Gizmo number is free. The SIP connection from Gizmo transferring the call to your Google Voice number is free. And the phone call to any phone in the U.S. through Google Voice is free. FREE + FREE + FREE = FREE!

Seems that Google just over the weekend allowed free incoming calls to your 'free' Gizmo5 number. Before, you could only get incoming calls to your 'paid' Gizmo5 number. Here's an article that outlines how to get free incoming and outgoing calls via Google Voice, Gizmo5 and an Asterisk server. http://nerdvittles.com/?p=630

I have a Cisco SPA2102 ATA on order and will be trying this out!