magicJack - the advent of truly portable, affordable VOIP?

When the nation’s second largest VOIP service provider bit the rocket (err… bullet) mid-July, it was time for me to start searching for another provider to satisfy my long distance calling requirements. My home phone is local only and I cannot use my cell phone for long distance.

VOIP providers lost no time in making attempts to woo ex-Sunrocket customers. Via talk was offering a ‘contract buyout’ of up to a year for those who got scorched by the rocket’s fumes, but that offer was cut overnight to a maximum of six months (I understand it was later cut down to three months)! This prompted me to start looking elsewhere for a solution that would work for me.

The search led me first to GrandCentral (see previous post), the telephone management company that was recently acquired by the ubiquitous Google. The concept was interesting but it still didn’t solve my problem, as it worked fine for incoming calls, but I wouldn’t be able to call long distance using the GC number.

Next, I took a look at Skype that I had first used a few years back when it was still a free service. I recalled that call quality was not that bad, but I didn’t get around to using it much at that time. This service doesn’t give you a dedicated phone line either. With Skype’s new avatar, it looked like I will have to pay about 60 bucks a year to have the ability to make unlimited incoming and outgoing calls within the US. And then I had also heard of complaints about their overall call quality.

A little more searching got me to what I might say is an interesting alternative in the form of magicJack. This is basically a VOIP solution, but it doesn’t involve an adapter or wires. Instead, it comes in the form of a USB device that has a phone jack on the other end. The first time you plug in the device into your computer, you will be allowed to choose a US phone number and you are ready to start making/receiving calls. You can receive calls either on the computer itself or on the phone that is plugged into this device. The only downside is that your computer will have to be constantly on (with an active broadband connection) if you need to make calls. Yes, traditional VOIP is portable, but magicJack goes one up here as there are no adapters or additional wires to carry around! The magicJack device includes voicemail and has a feature whereby incoming calls can be forwarded to another number. All this for a cost of $20 per year! Yes, that was not a typo; it is really supposed to cost you $20 a year for unlimited long distance within the US. As this company is still in beta, they have very few area codes available at this time.

An interesting possibility is the use of magicJack in combination with GrandCentral. Setup GrandCentral to transfer all incoming calls to the numbers of your choice (home/cell /magicJack etc.) and use the magicJack number to make your long distance calls. What makes it even more appealing is the possibility of using this device to call your US number from anywhere in the world provided you have a computer with a broadband connection. And setup is a breeze!

MagicJack even did it’s own bit in trying to attract Sunrocket’s ex-base by placing this humorous ad on it’s website.

GrandCentral - Manage your phones with one number!

Grand central has since been acquired by Google and is now called Google Voice.

Recently, I came across a telephone provider that had come up with an innovative approach of treating your phone number. GrandCentral operates on the simple concept that your phone number(s) should be tied to you, not the other way around!

What a neat concept! These days, most of us have at least three phone lines. Heck, some of us even have more phone lines than TV remote controls! How would it be if we can give out just one number to all of our contacts and that one number then manages the rest of our numbers? That way, regardless of the number of times our numbers may change, as long as the main number doesn't change, we don't have to communicate a number change ever again! That one main number is the number that you can now have from GrandCentral.

Once a GrandCentral (GCNumber) phone number is assigned to you, you can keep it for ever and you can link up all of your US numbers to your (US) GCNumber. Anybody calling your GCNumber will be forwarded to the (USA) numbers that you have asked your GCNumber to forward the call to. There are a host of other cool settings that can be setup right down to the individual contact level. You can record your conversation with a press of a button, have your voicemails forwarded in the form of emails, setup buttons on websites (like the one I have in the sidebar on this blog), transfer your call to another of your phones in the middle of your conversation and much much more.

Check out the demo that is posted on Tom's blog. For more information, goto the GrandCentral website or google 'grandcentral phone'.

Itching to check it out? Ever since Google purchased Grand Central early this month, signing up is by invitation only. I had been able to sign up thanks to Tom, and I now have a very few invites left. Just leave your full name and email Id. in a comment if you would like to be invited.