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