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Google Voice Grabs 1 Million Phone Numbers

Posted by kdawson on from the is-this-the-party-to-whom-I-am-speaking dept.

alphadogg writes "Google has reserved 1 million phone numbers with Level 3, signaling that it may finally be ready to roll out its long-anticipated Google Voice service. The free service, announced in March, lets users unify their phone numbers, allowing them to have a single number through Google Voice that rings a call through to all their phones. Sources could not say when the 1 million numbers may be assigned. Level 3 has been supplying Google with phone numbers since the introduction of Google Voice, so the 1 million numbers are an indication Google is close to adding a significant number of users. A public launch has been anticipated since Google said in March the service would be 'open to new users soon.' One early user said: 'I've only been using Google Voice for a few months, but it's completely changed the way I use voicemail and communicate... When it goes public, I think the rush to grab Google Voice numbers is going to be stunning. I know some of my friends check the Google Voice page almost every day to see when they can grab a number and get started using it.'"

7 of 198 comments (clear)

  1. I wonder.... by Jaysyn · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ... how long it will be before we see a civil or criminal suit arising from a competitor, user or law-enforcement looking for a user.

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    1. Re:I wonder.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      We all wonder when posters will quit using the subject line for beginning a sentence. Aargh!

  2. Oh, that's just great... by rodrigoandrade · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Now telemarketers, religious freaks, and campaign-donation guys will be able to find me no matter where I am.

    I wonder if we'll be able to register that line on the DNC list.

  3. But I don't want you to call my mobile! by Anonymous+Monkey · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I only give my mobile number out sparingly. I tell most people to call my land line. I do this because I don't want to be accessible to every one all the time. Most calls can wait. If I had this service it would mean more relatives calling me up while driving to tell me to go on line and look at some random news story. Right now, I think I'll stick with having two numbers.

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    We are the Borg...
    1. Re:But I don't want you to call my mobile! by bennomatic · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That's the cool thing. You can set up profiles and automatically direct some people to only a specific phone, or right into voice mail. You can even set up personalized ring-back tones and VM outgoing messages so that if your father calls you, the VM says, "Hi Dad, sorry you didn't make it past the screen!"

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  4. Re:How big is the market? by Jason+Levine · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Even if you only have one line, you might like to use this. If a business asks for your phone number, you could give them the Google Talk number. Then, if they abuse it, you simply tell Google Talk to either always push them to voice mail or (better yet) to play the "this line is disconnected" message.

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  5. What happens when Google Voice is down? Privacy? by altek · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Just curious, if you are using a Google Voice number as your "one number to rule them all", and the service is down, what happens? Even if it goes down temporarily (as Gmail does constantly, ahem) does that mean incoming calls cant get to you?

    Also, since Google is obviously able to hijack the voice audio, what's to say they aren't listening to / recording calls? I realize they "aren't evil" but, still.

    I like the concept of this service, but don't want to have my incoming calls relying on Google's service to make it through.

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