New Google Voice Option (ipkall.com)

Solution Since Gizmo5 recently announced they would cease operations and sipgate.com is currently not accepting new signups, options for a way to configure a SIP account with GoogleVoice to make free U.S. calls have become limited. We've tested an option some customers may find useful. We're not sure if we would necessarily recommend this option because there are a couple of drawbacks (we'll go over those below). But we want our users to be aware of every option available.

To use this method, you'll need the following.

- A U.S. GoogleVoice account

- SIP account with a provider that allows free calls within their network (whether you know it or not, most SIP providers allow free calls to other users of their service, you simply call them by their username. We personally tested with voipcheap and callcentric.)

- DID with ipkall.com

Why it works - To link a SIP account to GoogleVoice, you need to have an incoming U.S. phone number. With a few exceptions, most providers charge for this (if they offer it at all). But most SIP providers do allow you to call other users on their network for free. ipkall gives you a free DID (incoming phone number) that links to your SIP username so that when users dial your number, it is as if they are calling directly to your SIP username. Now that you can receive calls for free, you just need to link the phone number to GoogleVoice.

How to-

STEP 1. Configure the SIP Account in Acrobits Softphone or Groundwire. I tested this with voipcheap and callcentric, but it should work with any provider that allows free calls within their network. If you haven't set up a SIP account in the Softphone or Groundwire yet, check out the video below.

http://www.acrobits.cz/7/setting-up-your-sip-account-on-iphone

STEP 2. Link the account to a DID with ipkall. Go to http://www.ipkall.com/ and click on signup.

Here is what you'll need for callcentric and voipcheap, but it is relatively easy to configure no matter the provider.

Callcentric

Choose your account type: SIP
Choose Area Code for your IPKall Number: your choice
SIP username: callcentric number, starts with 1777
Hostname or IP address: in.callcentric.com
Email Address: any valid email address
Password: whatever you like
# of Seconds to ring before hanging up: your choice

voipcheap

Choose your account type: SIP
Choose Area Code for your IPKall Number: your choice
SIP username: voipcheap username
Hostname or IP address: sip.voipcheap.com
Email Address: any valid email address
Password: whatever you like
# of Seconds to ring before hanging up: your choice

ipkall will send you your new phone number by email.

STEP 3. Configure the account in Google Voice. We have step by step instructions in the article below. Remember when you configure the account in GoogleVoice to enter the DID you get from ipkall as the phone number.

http://www.acrobits.cz/hesk/knowledgebase.php?article=11

That should do it, you should now be able to place and receive GoogleVoice calls through the SIP account you have tied to an ipkall DID. Now for the drawbacks.

1. It seems like a lot of ipkall numbers are already connected to GoogleVoice accounts. We tried it with 4 different ipkall numbers and all 4 of them were already linked to googlevoice accounts. Two of them I was able to 'reclaim', the other two I was not. If you get a number you are unable to 'reclaim' in GoogleVoice, just cancel the ipkall account and create a new one. It may take a couple tries, but you should eventually get one you can at least 'reclaim'. This issue might also be related to the second drawback.

2. ipkall will reclaim unused numbers after 30 days. If we understand this correctly, this means they will cancel your account and take back the number if you don't use it for 30 days. That means this option will be not be desirable for people that only use GoogleVoice occasionally. I think this might also be the reason for the first drawback.

Please note, these are not complaints about ipkall. We think they offer a great service and they provide it for free. But we think users should be aware of these things in advance instead of being frustrated later.

3. Out of the two SIP providers we tested (voipcheap and callcentric), voipcheap seemed to be the more reliable (though I don't think either work as well as Gizmo5 did or sipgate does). Incoming calls to the callcentric account (either through GoogleVoice or directly through the ipkall number) were at best 50% reliable. We then tried calling directly from callcentric account to callcentric account and had no problems. We're not sure of the exact issue, but it may just be that callcentric has not adjusted to the increased traffic. ipkall has become extremely popular in just the last week (since Gizmo5 announced they were shutting down) and since callcentric is mentioned prominently on ipkall's website, they probably have had quite a lot of recent signups. We'll try to do more testing but that is all we know right now.

That about does it. Feel free to contact us and report your results using this set up.

Update 01/23/2012 - We have received some complaints about audio quality when using this configurations. If this is the case, you should test if recieving calls directly to the SIP Account without the ipkall DID fixes the issue.

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Article details

Article ID:	47
Category:	Google Voice
Date added:	2011-03-09 08:39:09
Views:	24724
Rating (Votes):	(54)

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