Something's Up With Gizmo and Google Voice

Very quietly, Gizmo5 users in the USA have lost their USA dial in numbers. Without warning and no notice that my USA numbers would not be renewed I have lost my USA numbers assigned to two different Gizmo accounts. That of course leads me to suspect something is up. So here are a few thoughts:

1. The fact that GoogleVoice and Gizmo peer means that you can use your GoogleVoice number in the USA to receive calls and have them terminate on your Gizmo softclient.

2. Likely the integration is moving forward and you'll see the offer of a GoogleVoice softclient where the original Gizmo client goes through a face lift and gets some upgrades.

3.The fact that Gizmo In numbers are still available outside the USA likely means they can become GoogleVoice International numbers and that in the countries where those numbers remain will be some of the first to offer GoogleVoice International service.

4. Those numbers will allow you to then identify other numbers in that country to terminate calls to, so someone like me who travels often to France and the UK will be able to have GV terminate calls that originate in the USA in those countries as if they were originated in those countries.

What I believe is happening is that the USA numbers are simply expiring and not being renewed, but the lack of any email correspondence or any details on the web site means that in the absence of any information, that we'll all speculate what's up.

For die hard users of Gizmo5 there is a way around all this. Simply buy a DID from one of the better suppliers, like CallCentric, and then simply do a SIP forward of the DID number and you're all set.

Comments

[Winglazier]

I had a good thing going and let it slip away. I had an area 775 did gzmo number which allowed all incoming calls free So I gave peoplre my gizmo number as a phone number and when I called out I used GV to tie the out going call to the gizmo sip address. This gave me free incoming and out going calls except for the 3.95 for the DID.
But allas on missed payment and the number was pulled and no matter how I pleaded The Gizmo DID swich provider would not go baco the old arrangement. The Area 775 provider was Callwave.

[390904]

I just noticed that apparently as of yesterday, all of my gizmo5 email forwards have stopped. They aren't bouncing, they became black holes.

Grandcentral also used to forward email. Your phone number @grandcentral.com used to forward to whatever you wanted - and without warning or notification that stopped sometime after google bought it. Since google has bought gizmo5, I'm thinking this isn't a glitch, my gizmo5 email addresses may have just vanished forever.

[Dan Wright]

I still have my Gizmo5 account. I got my account around August of 2009, right around the time I got my Google Voice invite.

I too am excited to see what Google does with Gizmo integration, specifically how they plan to handle ATA's.

[Jeff B.]

I am eagerly awaiting to see what Google's plans are for GVoice, Gizmo5, and GoogleTalk integration.

I've been using GVoice since it was in GrandCentral Beta, and like it quite a lot. I've used GTalk since it's early days and am among the few that seem to like it. I started using Gizmo5 since its early days when they were offering free calls, just to compete with Skype. But, I was never a fan of Gizmo5 back then.

But, since Google bought Gizmo5, I swepted off the dust from my Gizmo5 client, updated it, and started forwarding my GVoice calls to my Gizmo5 client to give it another chance. And, I'm impressed with the way Gizmo5 is working these days.

I actually have 3 Gizmo accounts connected to GVoice.
I forward one to my GTalk account.
I forward one to my Gizmo5 client.
And, I forward one to my SIP ATA box.

Although CallCentric is one of my favorite VoIP providers, I currently forward my 3rd Gizmo5 account from GVoice to my ATA registered to SipPhone.

As you probably know, Gizmo5 was owned and created by SipPhone, until Google bought Gizmo5. Anyway, I register my SIP ATA using my Gizmo5 account number through SipPhone.com (proxy01.sipphone.com). Now, I can recieve my GVoice calls directly on my SIP ATA without being tied to Gizmo5, or the PC.

It will be great to see how Google integrates all these features into Google Voice in the future (hopefully not too distant future).

Jeff - CQVoIP
www.cqvoip.net