Free GV Calling to Canada

[wardmundy]

Just a heads up that Google expanded the free calling area overnight which should come as great news to our Canadian friends. You still need a working U.S. phone number to set things up. But we've gotcha covered on that front with SIPgate and IPkall.

 

[mark-hc]

Your an amazing individual Ward.

 

[vanDivX]

just a note from a Canadian friend

I tried to set piaf-gv up but got hung up on getting invited to google voice, also SIPgate is only for Americans, didn't try IPkall as yet, lets see if google voice comes through which I kind of doubt, its couple weeks anyway since I applied and still nothing and it all hangs on it, likely same policy as SIPgate...

I imagine not many Americans have need to call Canada but there would be more interest calling the other way, however we are out of luck it seems

 

[dobbs]

Yes, it is really slick. A word of warning though, IPKALL has been unusable for at least t few of us for days now. Once you set up your system, it doesn't seem you can switch to a different DID.

I tried moving from IPKALL to SipGate and it now only sort-of works. The part that's still unhinged seems to be the ringback. Rather than just putting the call on hold, ALL extensions ring and the person making the call has to hang up and then try to pick up the ringing call before someone else answers.

Maybe there's a way to fix it, but I haven't found it yet.

 

[wardmundy]

With IPkall, you've got a SIP URI link in your inbound route. It's different with SIPgate. Here's the info from the NV article on the Orgasmatron V:

Modifying Your RingBack Inbound Route. The last step in the setup process is to reroute your gv-ringback incoming route so that it points to a custom context to process your Google Voice ringback calls transparently. Log back into FreePBX with a web browser and choose Setup, Inbound Routes, gv-ringback. Change the Destination for these calls to Custom Destinations: Custom GV-Park. If you're using SIPgate instead of IPkall, be sure to change the other settings to look like this:

Description: gv-ringback
DIDNumber: *Your 10-digit-SIPgate-Number*
CallerId: *Your 10-digit-Google-Voice-Number*
​

Save your changes by clicking the Submit button and then reload your dialplan when prompted.

 

[dobbs]

Thanks Ward, my bad for not RTFM. Works like a charm again! Love it.

 

[drmurdoch]

just a note from a Canadian friend

I imagine not many Americans have need to call Canada but there would be more interest calling the other way, however we are out of luck it seems

I felt some people might be misled.

“It’s been an interesting couple of weeks watching many of our readers flock to Google Voice in order to make free calls in the U.S. and Canada. ”

This is a bit misleading. It hints that Google Voice is available in Canada, which it is not, yet !
Google voice allows American phone numbers to call the US and Canada for free. Google Voice is not available to Canadians.


By DrMurdoch, Wednesday, August 19, 2009 @ 11:29 am

 

[vanDivX]

thanks for confirming my experience setting this up in Canada, this country makes you feel like I felt when I still computed on a Macintosh many years back, you always feel left out from everything the rest of the world enjoys and get told how good is what you do have
basically the old debate PC vs Mac where Canada is the Mac

 

[grumpy]

I felt some people might be misled.



This is a bit misleading. It hints that Google Voice is available in Canada, which it is not, yet !
Google voice allows American phone numbers to call the US and Canada for free. Google Voice is not available to Canadians.


By DrMurdoch, Wednesday, August 19, 2009 @ 11:29 am

Maybe not in the TOS, but I'm Canadian and I have Google Voice, only took about a week from invitation to account creation. But also to be honest/fair I cannot remember if the call back number I used was 705 or 877, but all other information is the same as my gmail account and accurate. (Canadian)

http://www.freephoneline.ca

And this may take the place of sipgate or ipkall in Canada, not sure as I have not looked at it or the setup in PIAF.

 

[completetech]

I know nothing about calling prefixes and the such in Canada. So if I wanted to use my GV to make a call there. what should my outbound route / trunk setting look like?

 

[vanDivX]

same as in US, all numbers should start with 1, then area code, like Toronto has 416 and then 7 digit tel. #

altogether 11 digits which you always have to dial even if calling across the street
basically whole North America is one big telephone system into which Canada fits seamlessly, that is as far as calling numbers go, service availability is another thing

 

[kimkhan]

Google Voice is not available in Canada

When I tried to signup I got the following message:

"Google Voice is not available in your country.
Thanks for visiting Google Voice. We're not yet open for users outside the US, but are planning to expand our service to additional countries in the future"

 

[drmurdoch]

When I tried to signup I got the following message:

"Google Voice is not available in your country.

Google Voice is only available in the US.
Google Voice is NOT available in Canada.
American phone numbers can call Canada.

 

[MisterQ]

Google Voice is not available in your country.

Google Voice looks at the IP address that you appear to be coming from. If it is not in a known US Range, then it thinks that you are in another country.

If you were to go through a US-based proxy server, Google would think that you are coming from it, and as such, believe that you are in the U.S.A.

Google Voice does work from outside the continental USA (via PIAF).

 

[TDF]

Lots of people signed up no problem from outside the US, your IP is only relevant for the initial sign up.

http://www.megaleecher.net/Google_Voice_Outside_USA

A question though, the number they call you on to verify it, you can change this straight away ? I'm thinking of trying to find a kindly American to set up my account rather than mess with proxies.