GrandCentral, one of several companies offering "single phone number" find-me/follow-me routing, has added support for SipPhone's free Gizmo Project VoIP service. SipPhone’s popular VoIP service allows users to make and receive free phone calls worldwide over the Internet on personal computers as well as select Nokia mobile phones and Internet Tablets.However, Gizmo charges $35 to add an inbound PSTN number to the free Gizmo account. Why would Gizmo shoot themselves in the foot by allowing GrandCentral to do this? Well, GrandCentral didn't exactly need to ask Gizmo's permission to do this. Since Gizmo is 100% SIP-based, it wasn't that hard to ride on top of Gizmo, though the two companies did work out some "bugs" together. By adding an inbound PSTN number, this service could allow users to receive free calls anywhere in the world where they have Internet connectivity.
Here's how it works:
Starting today GrandCentral customers can designate their free Gizmo Project profile ID (which appears like a 747 area code number in their Gizmo profile) as one of their destination numbers which will ring on their personal computers or select next-generation Nokia dual mode Nseries mobile phone or Internet Tablet, whenever a call comes into their GrandCentral number. Essentially, GrandCentral can route inbound PSTN calls to wherever you have logged on with your Gizmo profile, making it a free PSTN-to-IP call.
This new GrandCentral feature also provides existing Gizmo users with the ability to receive calls for free directly from the traditional telephone network (PSTN) on their Gizmo-enabled Nokia portable devices, Apple Macintosh and Windows PCs. Owners of next-generation Nokia dual mode N80-Internet Edition mobile phone and the Internet Tablet 770, and Nseries 800 Internet Tablet which access the Internet over Wi-Fi can also use versions of Gizmo Project on these pocket sized, portable handheld devices to receive calls without incurring any roaming charges or using any cellular minutes when connected to Wi-Fi networks.
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