Is there any wonder why Google’s Eric Schmidt stepped down from the Apple board? If so, after reading this post you’ll be sure to wonder no longer. In late June of 2009, Google began accepting invitations to Google Voice. Google Voice is a free service by Google which provides users with a single telephone number which they can then forward to some or all of their various phones based on predetermined logic such as caller ID, time of the day, etc. The service also provides voicemail with automated transcription, and the ability to send and receive SMS text messages. An interesting feature Google offers is the ability to place outbound calls through Google Voice. This is implemented primarily through a website where you tell Google where you want to call and with which phone you wish to place the call. Google Voice then rings each phone, and connects the outbound call. Calls within the continental United States are free. Calls outside that area are billed per minute, but the rates are generally less than typical long distance charges.

Recently, Google released a Google Voice Dialer App for BlackBerry and Android phones. I can only speak for the Android phone version, which works very nicely. Basically the app integrates your dialer with Google Voice, so all the calls you place with the phone go through Google Voice. Instead of using the callback feature, the phone dials a phone number controlled by Google which reroutes your call through Google’s VoIP network and to the final destination. Your cell phone carrier charges for your call to Google and if the final destination is in the continental US there are no additional charges. Outside the continental US, you are charged by Google directly. One major reason to use the app even if making local calls is that your Google Voice phone number will show up on the receiver’s caller ID. The app also supports SMS which goes over the Internet then directly through Google’s system. This avoids any hefty SMS texting charges imposed by your carrier, and it ensures that the recipient sees your Google Voice phone number. Additionally, the app allows you to access your voicemail, including transcripts and audio. This is the app that Apple denied for its iPhone, causing an FCC investigation (a mixed bag at best for Google, whose best interest would be served by the FCC staying well clear of the VoIP space).

SIP or Skype?

The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is the primary open standard for voice calling over the Internet. In addition to voice calling, the standard provides for video conferencing and various other less common applications. SIP is referred to as a “signaling protocol” — the actual compressed voice data travels through a separate channel, typically using the Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP), which governs the peer-to-peer connection between the actual conversants. Sometimes the RTP data will pass through a proxy in order to better traverse firewalls, but the details of both SIP and RTP are far beyond the scope of this post. The primary competitor to SIP is the proprietary Skype standard.

Whether using SIP or Skype, or any other VoIP technology, some sort of device is needed to act as the “telephone”. The three typical solutions are a “softphone”, an “IP phone”, or an “ATA”. A softphone is simply a software program which runs on your computer and uses your computer’s microphone and speakers (or one you plug in, or possibly a Bluetooth headset or other similar device). Skype and Gizmo5 are two examples of softphones. An IP phone is a hardware device which looks like a typical phone and connects to your network typically via Ethernet or WiFi. Makers of IP phones include, among others, Cisco, Linksys, Netgear, and D-Link. An Analog Telephone Adapter, or ATA, is a device which converts a regular “analog” phone into a digital one. The typical Vonage router, which allows you to hook up your standard landline telephone to an Internet-based network, is an ATA. Perhaps blurring the lines a bit, there is software available for some smartphones which allows them to be used for VoIP. I suppose technically that would be considered a softphone, but the line between that and a hardware IP phone (WiFi phone) is thin (especially if and when the “software” becomes firmware).

To connect a SIP phone, or any other VoIP phone, to the PSTN (the Public Switched Telephone Network, or the “normal” telephone network) so that you can receive incoming calls, you need a DID number. DID stands for Direct Inward Dialing, a term derived from the old PBX world. With PBX, a large company typically has fewer physical incoming lines than they have phones on desks. However, it is possible for each of those phones to have a unique telephone number. That’s a DID number. VoIP services work similarly. They generally have fewer physical incoming lines than they have customers who need phone numbers, so they provide DID numbers for those customers. SkypeIn gives you a DID number for $5 or $6 a month. IPKall provides you with one to hook up to any SIP service, for free. Ditto with Sipgate One. These services have existed for a while and essentially provide you with free incoming phone calls. Outgoing calls do not require a DID number. Providers are basically free to send any number for the purposes of caller ID, or block the caller ID altogether. It is typical to set the outgoing number to either the individual DID number or to the number for the main switchboard, though new services offer all sorts of other possibilities (SkypeOut allows people to set the caller ID for outgoing Skype calls to their mobile phone number, after verifying control of that number through two text messages). Learn enough about how caller ID works and you’ll probably never trust it again.

Google’s angle on free phone calls

As it turns out, Google Voice, which was purchased from GrandCentral, makes heavy use of SIP technologies. In fact, before the holes were closed a few months ago, anyone in the world could hook up any SIP device to Google Voice. That loophole was closed (it was a security nightmare and “assume good faith” does not generally make for a good business model), but the one publicized feature remains — the ability to have Google Voice route your incoming and/or outgoing calls to Gizmo5. So in a sense, Google Voice can be added to that short list of free DID number providers. And better than IPKall and Sipgate One, Google provides free outgoing calls as well as incoming ones. However, unlike IPKall and Sipgate One, they only work (at least officially) with Gizmo5. (It is possible to get a DID number from IPKall, Sipgate One, Skype, or any other provider for that matter, and connect it to Google Voice. However, this introduces quite a bit of overhead into the mix, and in my experience the results are quite poor.)

Michael Robertson, former MP3.com CEO

Gizmo5 is a freeware application by the Gizmo Project, founded by Michael Robertson (who also founded Lindows and MP3.com, previously discussed on Akahele). It is a softphone which uses SIP technologies to allow voice (and other) communication with other Gizmo users, as well as with users on virtually any other SIP network. Further, the Gizmo Project offers its own SIP proxy, which allows you to use an ATA or IP phone to connect to others through the Gizmo network.

Another interesting development in the VoIP space is the Sipdroid app for the Android operating system. Sipdroid is an open-source (GPL) application which runs on Android phones and allows them to connect to any SIP network. This includes Gizmo5, so one can enter the Gizmo5 proxy information into Sipdroid and receive free incoming calls through the Gizmo5 network. When combined with Google Voice, that means free phone calls, incoming and outgoing, anywhere within the continental United States. No monthly fees, no per-minute charges, nothing. It even works through a WiFi connection with your SIM card removed, which is something I have personally verified. The only real catch is that you have to initiate the calls through the web interface, and of course none of it is guaranteed to exist a year from now or even tomorrow.

Robertson’s angle

Michael Robertson seized upon the Google Voice callback concept in two major ways. First of all, there is a freely-licensed app called GUAVA (which stands for “GoogleVoice UNAUTHORIZED Android Voice Application”), based on Sipdroid, which seamlessly integrates the process into your Android phone. The app is not found in the app market but can be downloaded through the web, and Android allows anyone to install any app which they download as long as they check a box in their settings to allow such downloads. With the GUAVA app, as long as you have an Internet connection, you simply dial someone in your contacts list just as you’d do with standard cell phone service. Incoming calls arrive just as they would if someone called you on your cell phone. At least, that’s supposedly how it works. Unfortunately, the service requires you to provide the Gizmo Project with your Google username and password, and I’m not willing to hand over that information to them.

The second way Robertson seized upon this was by creating Gizmo Voice. When Gizmo Voice was launched, it touted completely free inbound and outbound calling through the Gizmo softphone or any SIP device hooked up to the Gizmo network. At that point the service required you to provide your Google username and password, thus using Google’s undocumented APIs to essentially initiate the call through the web interface for you. One can only speculate as to why things changed, but within days, “completely free” turned into “free for 20 minutes”, which turned into “free for the first 3 minutes”, and then later the requirement to provide your Google username and password was removed. Sometime during this process the methodology changed so that Gizmo was no longer leeching off Google’s network, and instead routing its own calls. However, it still appears to be possible to get these free phone calls so long as you initiate the call through the web interface yourself.

Despite the removal of the service, the potential is there – perhaps for Google to provide an app itself, maybe even charging a nominal fee. A properly written app could easily be made seemless to the end user – no need to understand “SIP” or “RTP” or “peer-to-peer” or “ATA” or “DID” or any of that other technical jargon. Everything could work exactly like any other cell phone, except your “bars” would indicate the presence of an accessible wifi connection rather than a connection to a cell phone tower. Once you had the phone and the wifi connection, the rest would be very cheap, perhaps even free.

Fees and the FCC looming

As I said above, all of this is subject to go away at any time. In fact, the GrandCentral FAQ once said “Our accountants tell us that we need to charge a small fee for Click2Call and outbound calls in the future, but they are free for now and will be as low as we can make it when we eventually charge for it.” Seems reasonable. I hope they can keep from charging a monthly fee, though. Considering the FCC must be breathing down their necks, ready to charge Universal Service Fund fees, TRS fees, E911 fees, enforce CALEA compliance, etc., it might be tough to accomplish. Personally, I look forward to Google charging a small fee for their services. There’s quite a lot of room between the $24.99/month charged by Vonage and the $0.00 charged by Google. I don’t look forward to the FCC fees and regulations, though.

There’s a whole lot more to this story which I haven’t had time to get into. However, I’m going to experiment a little and give you an opportunity to call me directly if you’d like to discuss any of the above, or whatever’s on your mind. No guarantee I’ll answer the phone. In fact, there’s a good chance you’ll get my voicemail. But if you’re interested in trying out Google Voice, here’s your chance (continental US only, I presume, but you can always get a continental US-based DID from IPKall or Sipgate One).  Here goes:

Image credits:

• Photo of Michael Robertson, DuncanDavidson.com, all rights reserved, used with permission.