GrandCentral and Unlimited Mobile To Mobile Calling
If you like Google’s GrandCentral service (still in Beta) and plan to make a complete switch to make your GC number your primary phone number, I’ve discovered a small “gotcha” that you should make sure you are aware of.
As I promised in my First Impressions post last week, I did a little testing of GrandCentral’s implementation to determine whether the service is mobile-to-mobile (or AT&T Unity) friendly.
The simple answer is…well, there isn’t a simple answer. The answer is, “sort of.”
At 1:22 on Thursday afternoon, I placed a call from my wife’s cell phone to my own GC number. I answered the call on my own cell phone (both of our phones are Cingular/AT&T phones, so all mobile-to-mobile calls are “free”). The following day I checked my online call logs, and this is what I found:
The call placed to my GC number from my wife’s cell phone was recorded as a standard long-distance call (long distance is also free, so I was only charged for the minutes against my plan allotment).
The call received on my cell phone was recorded as a mobile-to-mobile call from my wife’s cell phone! So it was a “free” incoming call. No minutes were used.
So, if a person calls a GrandCentral number, the caller will not be able to take advantage of free mobile-to-mobile minutes. The caller will be billed for airtime and long-distance charges as applicable.
The call recipient, on the other hand, will receive all of the benefits of mobile-to-mobile calling.*
So, how do I feel about this? Personally, I don’t think it’s a big problem. It just means that if I think my Wife is near her cell phone, I’ll dial that first. If I get no luck there, then I’ll dial the GC number. I’ll continue to give my GC number out as my default number. I’ll let my family and friends who have Cingular/AT&T cell phones to try my cell first, but if no luck, use the GC number.
Bottom line: GrandCentral at this point is not the only phone number I’ll ever need to give out. It is, however still an awesome service and I will continue to use it for the foreseeable future. This slight downside is, I should add, through no fault of GrandCentral (in my estimation). It’s simply a limitation of what their software can do without direct access to Cingular’s internal billing systems.
*Disclaimer: I have performed only a cursory test of the GrandCentral functionality with two Cingular phones on an AT&T Unity calling plan. Your mileage may vary depending on a variety of factors, however I expect all U.S. domestic cell phone users to experience similar results. At any point in time, GrandCentral’s technology could change this behavior, for better or for worse. The words “better” and “worse” can have varying definitions depending on whether you work for GrandCentral, Cingular or neither. Readers are advised to perform their own tests with their own calling plans, and monitor their own phone bills regularly for changes. I am not responsible for any charges you may or may not receive on your phone bill, unless of course you loan me your phone for a few minutes so I can call my uncle in Oregon.
Technorati Tags: GrandCentral, Reviews, Warning
First Impressions: GrandCentral from Google
A few weeks ago, Google purchased a “little” startup called GrandCentral. I got my beta invite a few days ago and signed up. First Impressions says, “Oh, Yeah.”
At it’s core GrandCentral acts as a centralized phone number and voicemail system. One phone number rings you at home, work and on your cell, simultaneously. When you pick up, at whatever phone you happen to be near, the caller’s name is announced and you can choose to answer or send the call to voicemail (plus a few other options). If that were all, then the service would be worthy of attention, but here are a few more:
- Add up to 6 numbers to your profile
- An online address book (there is an import/export function, but no automated synchronization tool that I can see)
- Group callers in your address book according to 4 different categories: Family, Friends, Work and Other. Each group can be handled differently, routed to different phone combinations (example:Friends never ring at the office, but always ring cell and home)
- Each group gets it’s own voice mail greeting (Professional “Work” and “Other” greeting, fun or playful for “Friends” and “Family.”
- Individual callers can be blocked, routed or handled specially
- Automatic filtering and blocking of phone-spam and telemarketers
- Easy recording of phone calls
- Visual voicemail!
And, did I mention that it’s FREE?
There are many more features than I’ve listed, and I haven’t tried them all out yet, but this is a First Impressions review.
Here’s the downside, so far:
- GrandCentral is a beta product, so not all features are fully loaded and available yet
- Many of the nicer features will ultimately be part of a paid, premium plan. However, GrandCentral does not make it clear exactly which features will remain free, which will be paid, and how much the premium plans will cost. So, be careful what you get addicted to! (To be fair, they do make it clear that unlimited inbound calls, unlimited voicemail and access to core features will always be free. What “constitutes core features” is vague)
And here’s a big potential issue: My calling plan (AT&T Unity) gives me unlimited “free” calling between AT&T numbers everywhere, even on my cell-to-landline calls, and more importantly my cell-from-landline calls. Similarly, most mobile phone carriers offer free mobile-to-mobile minutes on their own networks. So there is a big risk that routing calls through GrandCentral will essentially bypass this feature. The research I’ve done so far indicates that there is hope on this front. I’m running some specific tests today and I’ll report back on my findings.
In a nutshell, GrandCentral looks great, and works as advertised. The service is highly customizable, and there are many more features than what I’ve listed here. Google’s acquisition of the company means the service should be around for a while.
GrandCentral is only available by invitation during the beta period. But each user gets a half dozen invites or so for now, and I’ve got a couple left. So if you’d like to try it out, drop an email to jumbis at jumbis dot com.
Technorati Tags: Reviews, GrandCentral, Technology
Ze and the Art of Procrastination
“If you don’t wanna run out of ideas the best thing to do is not to
execute them. You can tell yourself that you don’t have the time or
resources to do ‘em right. Then they stay around in your head like brain crack. No matter how bad things get, at least you have those good ideas that you’ll get to later.”
-Ze Frank
The Show, 7/11/06
One of the best reasons for procrastination I’ve seen in the last 5 minutes.
So, I guess I’m like, exactly 5 days ahead of being one year behind on this.