Free Canada - USA Calls

Well at least for the time being. . .

A friend forwarded me an invite for the site grandcentral.com, which seems to be a recent google acquisition still in beta form. My apartment complex has a security door, and entering phone numbers into the system is restricted to the 425 area code for some reason. That is, it doesn't play nice with my cell phone since my wife and I don't have a land line. This site provides a convenient work around, and a little added bonus.

You can sign up for a US based number which acts as your primary contact number, setting it up so that it calls all your phones, or just a few, even filtering calls from your categorized contacts to a specific device. For example, I could forward all calls from family members to both Hide and my phone, while all friends just go to my phone.

So what about the free stuff?

Well, the web based interface gives you the ability to dial your contacts from any of your numbers. The system will dial your device of choice first before making a call to your contact, providing you escape from long distance charges.

If you are in the US, then the web interface will provide you with outgoing calls, but there's the added hassle of going through the web everytime (not a problem if you have a mobile browser on your phone). Another way is to have your contact set up an account with a number local to you. Anytime you call is then just a local call. Further, they can log into the site and use the web interface to dial you as a contact.

It'll be interesting to see if they change things once the site is out of beta. . .