TECHdodo

After my post yesterday about using free PSTN access numbers to call a gateway and enter a SIP number, I read about a feature Gizmo has implemented that is supposed to assign you an incoming number that anyone you call can use to call you back.

In principal, it basically gives the person you are calling a regular number they can call you back on with their phone. To get the number, you have to use the Gizmo Call service. You enter the number of the person you want to talk to and a number is generated that the person can call you back with from that phone. It is good as long as the person calls you at least once every 60 days. If they don’t you may have to get a new number for them to use. The number you are assigned calls your Gizmo SIP number. You can pick up the call for free with a SIP based phone, or you can forward your Gizmo account to a land line or mobile phone so you can pick up the call that way. For forwarding, the Gizmo rate of 1.9 cents per minute applies.

If a person truly got a local number for them though, this would allow free calls from them to you from their regular landline phone.  The number they are given, however, is not necessarily a local number for them. I am trying to wrap my head around the purpose of this service, but I am not sure I quite get it yet. I decided to try it just to see what would happen.

First, you have to go to the GizmoCall.com website and install their browser plugin which really seems to be a full blown VOIP application. In order to get the number assigned you have to use GizmoCall instead of GizmoProject. I had tried GizmoCall before, but I had removed it because I didn’t see the point of having the overhead of both GizmoCall and GizmoProject running all the time. If this local number thing worked though, it would be worth using it, at least long enough to get the free number. Once you have the number, you don’t need GizmoCall running anymore.

So, I let GizmoCall install again so I could sign in.

First…. I tried it with a person I call in New England. I entered their number on the GizmoCall website and hit the call button. A box popped up showing the number I was assigned for this person. If I give this person this number, they can call me from their landline phone and it will call my GizmoProject account. The number I was given was based in Florida. Again, Gizmo never said it was going to be a local number, but  what is the point? Unless you have free US long distance, this really hasn’t accomplished much of anything. I guess if you didn’t have an ipkall # or a GrandCentral # or a GizmoIn number, then this would let people call you from a regular phone, but ipkall and GrandCentral are both free and do the same thing. If people are going to have to call long distance anyway, you may as well just go get a GrandCentral number so you can give everyone the same number. If the idea is about letting them reach my Gizmo account directly with a local number, then people can call any of the free PSTN access numbers at Sipbroker from any phone, enter my SIP number and call me that way. If they are going to be calling long distance anyway, they could call any free PSTN access number in the country to do that. There isn’t a local PSTN access number that is a local call to this particular person that I am aware of, but to call any of them anywhere else in the country would cost them the same amount as calling this Florida number. Why not just make the Florida number a free PSTN access number so they can call any SIP or Gizmo user using the same number instead of just being able to call me?

Next I tried it with a contact I talk to in Asia. The number I was assigned that they could call me back with was an Indiana number. It wasn’t even a local number within their country. I have to guess that means they don’t have any local numbers in their country, which is not surprising at all to me, because that is one of the reasons it would be so great to have a local number there. There is no good way to call this country. Even with VOIP, it is expensive if the person you are calling has to use a regular phone. I also don’t know any local PSTN access numbers there.
So… I don’t really get this service. You get assigned a number that people can call. They can only call it from that one phone though. If they have a landline and a mobile or call you from different locations, they might get two different numbers to call you with, both terminating to the same place. If you have multiple contacts, they might all get different numbers. There is no guarantee the number they get is going to be a local call for them. At least with a PSTN access number and a SIP number, the number they call is always the same.

I don’t see why this service is needed. Just make the numbers you are using general PSTN access numbers instead. Then have the user enter the Gizmo Project number of the person they want to talk to.

As VOIP services go, this is one I don’t think I will be using. Now I have to remove that plug in again.