Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Google Voice Opens To All

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

An anonymous reader writes "Google Voice is now open to anyone in the US, removing the need to search for an invite. At the Google Voice site, anyone with a US IP address and a US phone number can sign up for an account. Non-US IPs are blocked, and non-US-based phone numbers are prevented from attaching to Google Voice (with the single odd exception of the 403 area code of southern Alberta)." Good timing on the part of Frontier Communications Corp., which just filed a lawsuit claiming that the Google Voice feature connecting a user's home, work, and cell phone numbers to another number infringes one of their patents.

3 of 185 comments (clear)

  1. Re:WTF by Pootie+Tang · · Score: 5, Informative

    /. FAQ: http://slashdot.org/faq/editorial.shtml#ed850

    Slashdot seems to be very U.S.-centric. Do you have any plans to be more international in your scope?

    Slashdot is U.S.-centric. We readily admit this, and really don't see it as a problem. Slashdot is run by Americans, after all, and the vast majority of our readership is in the U.S. We're certainly not opposed to doing more international stories, but we don't have any formal plans for making that happen. All we can really tell you is that if you're outside the U.S. and you have news, submit it, and if it looks interesting, we'll post it.

    It is worth noting that there is a Japanese Slashdot run by VA Japan. While we helped them a little in their early days, they essentially run their own content without any real involvement from us... none of us can read Kanji! There are currently no plans to do other language or nation specific Slashdot sites.

  2. To anybody interested: by phyrexianshaw.ca · · Score: 3, Informative

    the patent in question was http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7742468.html

    which unless I'm HIGHLY mistaken was filed on 09/01/2009, well AFTER google voice was developed and released into beta. PRIOR ART MUCH?

  3. Re:It's good but it could be great by nazsco · · Score: 3, Informative

    1. No way to input digits in any system
       (office conferencing, home banking, etc)

    2. A HUGE delay in SMS.
        messages may arrive instantly, or take up to 12hours.
       (using the google voice app on the nexus one. can't get more compliant than this)

    3. Broken SIP support
       (can be worked around if you happen to have a Gizmo account from last century. no way to get one now)

    4. Call recording is only if you receive the call.
       (both ways are legal/ilegal in most country. but they decided to do evil and predict the law anyway)

    5. Still broken as hell for domains.
       (you just get a broken gwt ui. no content. no way to get a number now for your domain account. great way to recompensate for loyalty)