...and in the end. Gizmo, Grand Central, and Tracfone
I never realized how much I have ranted about SIP, phones, Gizmo and Grand Central. My poor wife. She has to listen to me speak about such topics - what a big ass snore.
I am proud to announce, though, that I have finally fit the final piece of the puzzle in place - the pay as you go phone.
In the last year companies, such as Virgin wireless and Tracfone/Net 10, with big players AT&T and Verizion, are publicly offering pay as you go cell services. The idea of "pay as you go" cell service is not new. The fact that you can't enter a department store without tripping over these phones is new. They have exploded, leaving little phone droppings in average centers of commerce. And, I am here to say, the service, at least in Tracfone's case, works darn well.
If your cell phone contract is up or coming to its end soon, I would urge you to start shopping around and paying attention to how you use your cell phones. You may find that a pay as you go service would be the best plan.
So in the end, here is a quick breakdown on how I am paying about $10 per month on phone service.
- Get a GrandCentral Number
- Get a Gizmo account
- Get a pay as you go cell phone
- Get a Grandstream Handitone 286 or similar device and an analog phone
- In GrandCental, attach Gizmo account and cell phone number
- Attach Handitone/Analog phone to Gizmo account
Then when your phone rings pick up the phone that will cost you the least. Hint: The Gizmo/GrandStream/Analog phone is free.
If you have a wife, duplicate everything, except forward all calls from the second Gizmo account to the Gizmo account you have the Handitone attached too, so you only have to buy one Handytone. You can do this in the Gizmo client under "Edit" -> "Call Forwarding"
The experiment is officially "done." I have blathered on, and on, in the past about this topic. Feel free to reach back into the archives for a good aprigliano rant. Tell me what works for you...
VOIP, SIP and the Never ending Sadness
SIP vs. Skype - is there "Technical Morality?"
Grandstream Handytone 286 and Gizmo/Sipphone
Grand Central and Gizmo - First Impressions
A Contract Sickness - There is a problem in the American Cell Phone Industry
Labels: cell, Gizmo, grand central, grandstream handytone 286, tracfone
posted by aprigliano at
6:10 PM
3 Comments:
I had GrandCentral, Gizmo and TracFone. I got the Grandstream and now GrandCentral calls my cell, my Gizmo phone, my landline!! Now I will try to figure out how to best use it all.
Thanks for the putting all the pieces together.
I am in the exact same boat as you... except for the wife part.
My solution was to sign up for T-Mobile's cheapest myFaves plan and get the unlimited data add-on. When I was buying my plan I asked if I could borrow a myFaves-capable phone to add and activate a single entry: my GrandCentral number. Now all the calls I make and receive on my phone count as "myFaves" calls, which do not take away from my 300 min/month allotment. So for $59.99/month + taxes and other fees, I have unlimited voice and data.
My Nokia E90 can browse GC's mobile website perfectly and play the MP3 voicemails. Its built in WLAN chip connects to my WPA2-secured wireless network at home where I receive calls on that same phone over VoIP (Gizmo has a native Symbian client). My wireless router runs DD-WRT and is configured to give my phone's wireless MAC address priority.
Your TracFone solution seems flawed. How do you access your GrandCentral contacts list with your phone? TracFone doesn't let you navigate away from their web server. You can't set your caller ID as your GrandCentral number with TracFone either.
I'm considering swapping my E90 for another Symbian or Windows Mobile smartphone with a smaller form factor, even if it means losing WLAN. Still, having such a large keyboard to type on is easy on the thumbs and eyes. I'll stick with my solution for a while, at least until the first Android handset hits the market.
ceej,
First, great My Faves tip.
I think you point out an issue with GrandCentral in that you need a web enabled device that can play mp3s off a web page to get at your messages. (Just tried it with my wife's Kindle. It could theoretically work, only they do not allow playing of mp3s in the "Experimental" browser.)
Honestly, I have never given much thought since I spend all my time at work and a healthy bulk of my time at home in front of a monitor near a phone (I will get the ring or the message) - and when I am not in front of a monitor the calls I receive can usually wait for me to grant them their necessary solemnity.
You are 100% right about Tracfone - a completely frill-less phone service. And do not bother to call Tech support unless you love disappointment. In my cut and dry universe, I need a cell phone for being contacted when I am not at home and the piece of guano Tracfone works well enough. In answer to your query, I manually program in my contacts, and save as they come. I am not so popular that this is a burden. We are not all me, I realize.
I guess it is lifestyle choice. It is very necessary for some folks to be able to be pinged at a moments notice.
Personally, I have been drooling over the idea of an unlocked iPhone with SIP software locked into Gizmo. But no matter how I cut it, I get a contract with At&T. I just left them - and don't like them - or contracts.
Still, great tip. And DD-WRT just kicks ass. QOS for free. Amazing.
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