Google Voice

[Dave-in-Decatur]

I'm traveling outside the US for a few days this summer, out there amongst the rest of the human race, where they use GSM phones. I'll take my Stratosphere along, since it does so much else, but I know it won't make phone calls. I thought about subscribing to Google Voice, which I figured would let me make phone calls using the Strat over a data connection. However, from what I've read in Voice's online information, it won't work outside the US. Am I reading it right? Has anyone here used Google Voice? How well does it work (inside or outside the US)?

[maya0630]

I can't speak for outside the US but I've been using it in the US and it's been working great. I've heard that Google Voice is only available in the US and Canada. An alternative you might want to look at is Google Talk, which is available pretty much everywhere else as well. It allows you to IM as well as make calls through data connection/WIFI. Hope this helps.

[Dave-in-Decatur]

Thanks. I took a look at Google Talk, but it depends on a chat plug-in that's only available on PCs, not smartphones. I'll have my laptop with me, but some experiences with my sister calling me on Skype have kind of put me off that kind of thing. I'll probably get an international phone from Verizon to use while I'm gone, and just have to carry an extra device.

[AZSALUKI]

just a heads up.....be real careful with your stratosphere if you're taking it with you. make sure to always have it in airplane mode (disable the radio). i've seen horror stories of international roaming bills from users that never actually used their device. when you turn it on, you may recieve updates (apps), textxs, etc, etc. all of that will be roaming data so be SURE it can't access any network.

[Dave-in-Decatur]

Well, if I'd put it in airplane mode the whole time, why bother taking it? I guess the calendar alarms would still work.

Anyway, I did a little research on VZW's partially helpful Global Travel Program Website (http://businessportals.verizonwireless.com/international/Global_Travel/index.html) and called a more helpful CS rep, who e-mailed me a very helpful rate and dialing instructions sheet for my destination. It boils down to this:

• Verizon's CDMA network phones (e.g., the Stratosphere) don't do anything, call or data, in a GSM network country. How you could accrue data roaming charges when your phone can't even connect to the data network is beyond me.
• VZW will give you a short-term usage global phone (i.e., one that also works on GSM) for only the cost of shipping ($19.99 for 2-day). You can sync your contacts to it and use it like your regular Android phone.
• In my destination country, the call roaming rate is $1.29/min, but you can order a Global Value Plan for $4.99/month that brings the roaming down to $.99/min. At those rates, the Value Plan becomes cheaper after 16.63 minutes. But it's still awfully expensive.
• Texts, OTOH, are $.50 to send, $.05 to receive.
• Data is a prohibitive $20.48/MB on a per use basis, but a $25 Global Data plan gets you 100MB.

So, while Google Voice was an interesting thought, I'll need to do the above instead. If I understand all this right, I can leave the Strat at home and just use the global phone (probably a Motorola Droid 2) for all purposes. I saw this coming when we switched from AT&T (and its GSM network) to Verizon (and its more extensive network). It's a frustrating tradeoff, but we'll survive.

[AZSALUKI]

yeah....just getting something else temporarily is your best bet. however, you can actually set your phone to airplane mode and trigger wifi at the same time. typically, when you are on wifi, your the network radio is still active which his how calls and texts come through.....but you can set it to wifi in airplane mode so NO data, calls, or texts can go in or out over the "network," but you can still use wifi for things like browsing, email, apps (i was particularly thinking of skype). i don't travel abroad so i'm not familiar with all of the gsm and cdma stuff.....but i was thinking that their are places that have both networks (like here) and that is where i believe people get into billing issues. they take their phones and figure they'll just use wifi, but don't realize the phone's radio is still on so calls and texts come through and they get killed in roaming fees. i could be completely wrong about all of this, but i know you can trigger wifi while in airplane mode. i use settings to go into airplane mode every night at midnight, but once in a while i'm still up so i'll turn on wifi and play around, but calls can't come through. it's also useful now that some airlines actually offer wifi, but ask that you keep your "cell phone" off. so my point is that they are still useful, even in airplane mode, if you have a wifi signal. no network use, but plenty you can do (including skype, google voice, etc)

[PJNC284]

Google Voice isn't VOIP so it'd be useless for voice calls anyways.  You'd still need a voice network to go out on unless you used one of the other 3rd party apps in combination.

[QuietStormzx9]

Question: When your using google voice, Are you using minutes or data?

[AZSALUKI]

PJNC284 wrote:

Google Voice isn't VOIP so it'd be useless for voice calls anyways.  You'd still need a voice network to go out on unless you used one of the other 3rd party apps in combination.

yeah....i'm not sure what i'm thinking of, but doesn't google have some type of video chat? maybe part of g-talk?? i was thinking of their version of skype.

[Ann154]

You can video chat over Google Talk on your smartphone or use the Google+ Hangouts.

I have used the Google Talk to video chat once.