I recently discovered that Grand Central has the capability to use Gizmo numbers as phone numbers. All of a sudden, you can have a PSTN number that connects to your computer. For the uninitiated, PSTN stands for Public Switched Telephone Network. This is the phone network that all companies connect to so you can call your family. Obviously you wouldn’t call your friends on this, as you can IM them or use a VOIP program like Google Talk or Gizmo that lets you talk just like you were using a phone. Gizmo, in addition to being a voice chat program and IM program, uses a “fake” phone number. It looks like the normal 10 digits, but I don’t think you can call it directly. However, Gizmo’s partner project Sipphone, will sell you a number that is accessible from the PSTN. Anybody using a normal phone can call this number and connect to the Gizmo program running on your computer. To you it looks like voice chat, but to whoever is calling you, it is a normal phone call. Grand Central provides a “follow-me” service. They give you a phone number (on the PSTN), that anybody can call. On Grand Central’s site, you add additional phone numbers. Typically these are PSTN numbers, like your cell phone, or home phone. However you can now add your Gizmo phone number. You then set up rules so that anybody calling your Grand Central number will ring through to any or all of the additional numbers you set up. All of a sudden, you can redirect all calls to your computer if you are sitting there, or all calls to your cell if you are traveling. Your friends and family always call the same number, and you tell the Grand Central software how to connect to you. Back in the 1990’s, I remember that Sprint or MCI offered something like this, but now you can get it for free.
Jun 022007