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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.

18 of 185 comments (clear)

  1. WTF by linhares · · Score: 5, Insightful

    since when US=ALL?

    1. Re:WTF by 7213 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Roughly, the end of WWII. Or if you're lazy, we'll just call it 1950.

    2. Re:WTF by Kitkoan · · Score: 4, Funny

      since when US=ALL?

      Reminds me of that joke about the UN poll.

      Last month, a world survey was conducted by the UN. The only question asked was: "Would you please give your honest opinion about solutions to the food shortage in the rest of the world." The survey was a huge failure...

      Africa they didn't know what "food" meant.

      Eastern Europe they didn't know what "honest" meant.

      Western Europe they didn't know what "shortage" meant.

      China they didn't know what "opinion" meant.

      the Middle East they didn't know what "solution" meant.

      South America they didn't know what "please" meant, and

      the USA they didn't know what "the rest of the world" meant.

      --
      Attention... all grammer nazi"s! Is they're anything; wrong with: my post,
    3. Re:WTF by linhares · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Allow me to introduce you to the concept of "context". This is a US-based, and US-centric site.

      Allow me to introduce you to the concept of "context". This is a US-based, and US-centric site, INSIDE the Internets.com!, which connects us all. The web is the context. If you think slashdot isn't a "global" entity because of its history and server location, tell me why it is always talking about things like Ubuntu or thepiratebay or linux or skype or; well i could go on but laziness is also global.

    4. Re:WTF by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      1) Slashdot has a significant number of users from other countries.
      2) Google is a multi-national corporation that provides most of its services to any country with Internet access that hasn't explicitly blocked them. The UK NHS isn't.

    5. Re:WTF by bernywork · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Apparently the Australians hung up when they heard the indian accent....

      --
      Curiosity was framed; ignorance killed the cat. -- Author unknown
    6. 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.

    7. Re:WTF by ashridah · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Allow me to introduce you to the concept of "context". This is a US-based, and US-centric site. Surely you can understand this.

      That, for some reason, keeps posting stories about Australia. Riiiight.

    8. Re:WTF by MBGMorden · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Indeed. Complaining about Slashdot's US centric state is a bit like going to a friends house and complaining about what they cooked. They don't mind you hanging out, and they don't mind you taking part in dinner, but if you don't like what's being served - shut up or leave.

      --
      "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
    9. Re:WTF by schlick · · Score: 4, Funny

      We are Americans... Stories about Australia are kinda like watching the show Cops. http://bash.org/?262417

      --
      "It's because they're stupid, that's why. That's why everybody does everything." -Homer Simpson
    10. Re:WTF by multi+io · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Allow me to introduce you to the concept of "context". This is a US-based, and US-centric site. Surely you can understand this.

      The fact that Slashdot is a US-centric site is obviously totally unrelated to the question of why Google opened Google Voice to US internet users only.

    11. Re:WTF by Eth1csGrad1ent · · Score: 3, Insightful

      except Slashdot is commercial enterprise, so its more like going to a friend's restaurant and complaining about the food that you ordered and paid for. They don't mind you paying to hang out, and they don't mind selling you dinner, but if you don't like whats being served - shut up or leave.

      and hey... nothing says you can't do that.

      But I would point out that the tag line ISN'T "News for Nerds (in the US). Stuff that matters (to nerds in the US)", and furthermore, that the site is built on and sustained by commentary, submissions and content from people ALL OVER the globe.
      ie. this "by Americans, for Americans" is pure BS.

  2. Still rather laggy. by jalano · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Google Voice has one critical flaw, and that is it has an inherent "processing delay" that it introduces into the voice path.

    The delay is slightly longer than the delay most cell phones have talking to another cell phone. When you add the Google Voice delay in, it's almost an unbearable 1/3 to 1/2 a second.

    I've used it from my land line calling calling out because of the free calling feature, and for that the delay is tolerable. But I can't justify having it forward to my cell phone because if anyone calls me from a cell phone, the combined lag makes the conversations really hard to have.

  3. On patents... by Skuld-Chan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I have the impression its impossible to do anything in this country without infringing on some patent somewhere.

    1. Re:On patents... by forkazoo · · Score: 3, Funny

      I have the impression its impossible to do anything in this country without infringing on some patent somewhere.

      Did you license having that impression? You probably should have.

  4. It's good but it could be great by eudaemon · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Grandcentral had consensus-based call filtering; numbers flagged by enough people as undesirable got added to a blacklist anyone could subscribe to and Google took it out, which is a shame. Google voice still has trouble turning off some call presentation features - for instance pressing "4" to toggle call recording. Every time you receive a call from an automated system that requires a 4 as input GV just eats the digit. They also removed SIP call handling for anyone but Gizmo 5, another damn shame. Having said that, it is free except for international calls and those are pretty cheap.

    On the upside they already handle texting, making those $20/mo unlimited texting plans redundant. Now we just need EU-like cell plans where "caller pays" and we'd be all set - you can complete google voice calls as inbound to yourself via the mobile and full web pages. Oddly the Android client doesn't offer this feature.

     

    1. 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)

  5. 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?