My G1 no longer has cell service. Instead, I use it like a laptop to browse the net at the coffee shop, check sports scores, and read my email. The nice thing about the G1 though is it stays current thanks to the Android platform and all the apps available.
Until recently, I haven’t thought too much about using the phone for anything else. Then Lingo doubled the price of my phone service as well as increased the taxes and fees to a third of the bill’s total. I asked myself if phone service is really worth $400+ a year, especially when $100+ of it pays for absolutely nothing.
Hells to the no!!!
The whole idea of VoIP is it’s suppose to be less expensive than traditional phone service. When I started with Lingo in May 2009 this was true. The monthly total including a Canadian phone number, taxes, and surcharges ran less than $20.
Details of January 2010 Invoice
In December the bill jumped to $35.72 and the most recent was $36.10. I have a problem with this because the actual phone service itself is only $21.95, the additional $9.15 made up of taxes and surcharges ($5 of the total below is the Canadian phone number).
Like other companies confident with the high quality of their products and services, Lingo is trying to suckle an early termination fee to which I’m replying, “If thou raises thy fees, thy contract broken.” Try calling Lingo to speak with a human being about these issues and you end up on hold for absurd lengths of time, 35 minutes when I tried earlier today. I gave up and emailed the company instead.
Lucky for me I have a Google Voice account. I have a phone number in the area code of my choosing and forward calls to other numbers of my choosing. For example, when someone calls my GV number, I can have it forwarded to my girlfriend’s cell, mumsy & dadsy’s if I’m visiting the folks, work, and/or my home phone… all at once… or I can just let callers go straight to voice mail. 
Another service I signed up for but haven’t made much use of is Gizmo5. Similar to Skype, Gizmo5 provides a computer based client for placing phone calls. Unlike Skype, Gizmo5 is a more traditional SIP providing almost infinite possibilities (see Asterisk) for service.
Why This Matters
Imagine the single cost of an Android-based cell phone as a catalyst to free phone service. No minutes, contracts, or early termination fees to worry about. The biggest drawback of using Google Voice and Gizmo5 is the dependency on an internet connection; Wi-Fi if you use a phone and a headset of some kind if you use the Gizmo5 client with your computer. If you don’t see this as an issue read on…
To get started, you must have accounts with Google Voice and Gizmo5. The only way to get a GV account at the moment is to get an invite from someone who already has an account or through the GV website (there’s a waiting period). Gizmo5 is another story altogether. The company was acquired by Google and signup for new service has temporarily been suspended. You can signup to receive notification when they re-launch.
If you already have both services, you’re ready to start placing and receiving free phone calls. For those using the phone method, go to Android Market, search for SipDroid and install it.
Go to the Gizmo5 website and login to your account. You’ll need your Gizmo5 phone number to complete the setup of SipDroid. Open the SipDroid app, press Menu, and select Settings. Enter the following information:
Username: 11-digit Gizmo5 number
Password: Gizmo5 account password
Server: proxy01.sipphone.com
Change the Protocol from TCP to UDP. If the information is entered correctly you will see a green circle displayed in the notification area of your phone indicating successful registration. You’re now ready to send and receive phone calls. I no longer have cell service so I also changed the settings to indicate using only Wi-Fi connections to place calls. (Thank you to carlitobklyn for providing this information, originally found here).
The next step is to forward your Google Voice to the Gizmo5 number. This is done in the Settings/Phone section of GV. Once you’ve added the number, verify it to complete the setup. You will know everything is working correctly when you receive the verification call. I found this is much easier to do using the G1 than the Gizmo5 computer client which has no dial-pad for entering the necessary digits.
As far as setting up the computer software, it’s as straightforward as it gets. You download the installer, execute it, enter your Gizmo5 credentials, and you’re set. I paired my computer with a Bluetooth headset for even more convenience.
Receiving calls is built-in to the applications while placing them requires logging into Google Voice and entering the number you wish to call.
Here in Sumas, Washington we might possibly have the nation’s slowest “high-speed” service courtesy of Verizon, the sole provider of internet in this area. With breakneck upload speeds topping out at 156 kbps and equally deplorable download speeds, I’m still able to place crystal-clear calls while simultaneously downloading multiple torrent files.
That’s all there is to it. I’m now free to make phone calls from anywhere I have an available Wi-Fi connection. With an unlimited number of coffee shops though, finding a hotspot is never difficult.
