After the meltdown of SunRocket, I was doing a lot of exploring for new phone service. While I trusted that Comcast Digital Voice would be a lot more reliable and less-likely to fold than a small-time VoIP, it just doesn't have a bleeding-edge feel.
GrandCentral, while still in beta, offers a ton of really cool features (for free!) that you can't get from regular phone service. First though a caveat - you still need a working 'real' phone of some sort to make this service work. A cellphone, landline, work number, etc. And because it's in beta, you have to be invited to actually sign up.
How it works is this: you sign up for a number from one of their many different calling areas. Always wanted to have a telephone number to make it look like you live in Florida? Go for it. Then you configure your number to forward your calls on in pretty much any manner you see fit. Ring all your phones simultaneously if you so desire.
I see some huge upside to this service -- the first being you no longer have to give out your home phone (or cell, etc) number any longer. Use your GrandCentral # to forward and, even cooler, filter calls for you. They a simple interface where you can send known annoying numbers right to a message that says your number is not in service or sends 'em right to voicemail.
You can also record four different greetings that will play to different categories of callers that you can assign based on address book entries. About the only thing I don't like is the inability to tell their voicemail service not to answer certain calls so that when they are forwarded on, the home/cell VM picks up instead.
Now owned by Google, you can also do outbound calling with the service. While it's in beta that feature is free, but wants it launches for real you'll have to buy outbound minutes. I'm real hopeful this service moves from beta to reality and forces companies like Comcast and AT&T to ramp up their feature sets to more closely match everything this service does.
Check out this humorous video from the New York Times about GrandCentral.
And yes, while it's all free for now ... if this really does catch on, I'd expect to either see/hear ads or have to pay to eliminate them.
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