Anyone using VoIP?

[Matt Meiser]

With the Hangouts app installed in Chrome on my PC, whenever someone calls my Google Voice number it rings on my PC. Whenever I want to make a call, I just click the app and enter the number I want to call. Just received a callback from tech support in India on it today and spent close to 2 hours--worked perfect.

[Judson Green]

Matt

What are the benefits of having a Google One Number? I've only got one number now.

And if I people call my current mobile number, will that get routed over the WiFi?

Edit: I don't know if it makes a difference but I'm using and android tablet and android phone, I've got a PC but its not connected, its old.

[Matt Meiser]

If someone calls that its going to ring your mobile phone just as it always has. Google can't intercept that?

[Judson Green]

Thats what I thought.

But if I had a Google number then it would come via WiFi?

Edit: Tried getting a Google number, don't think ya can anymore.

[Judson Green]

Apparently I wasn't using Google voice.

Just installed GrooVe IP lite and it seems to work and easily got a phone number to use.

[Brian Elfert]

Whatever happened to running out of phone numbers and all the area code splits in the late 1990s? People have more phone numbers than ever now with cell phones, Google Voice, and every other service handing out phone numbers.

[Mike Henderson]

Whatever happened to running out of phone numbers and all the area code splits in the late 1990s? People have more phone numbers than ever now with cell phones, Google Voice, and every other service handing out phone numbers.

Let's look at the number of possible telephone numbers in the US and Canada (North American Numbering Plan).

There are 800 possible area codes. Area codes can't start with 0 or 1 but the other two digits can go from 0 to 9 (8 times 10 times 10 equal 800). Actually, numbers with area codes of 800, 888, 900, etc. are not real numbers and are mapped to real numbers by the network. Just for rough numbers, let's assume 750 possible area codes.

Then you have the exchange number. Can't start with 0 or 1, the second and third digits can't be 11 (x11 not allowed) and 555 (the Hollywood number) is not used. This leaves 791 exchange numbers (8 x 9 x 9 -1 = 791). The subscriber numbers could theoretically go from 0000 to 9999 (10,000 numbers) so the total of subscriber numbers and exchanges are 7,910,000. In reality, some of the numbers are used for special purposes, such as testing in the network, so let's assume 7,500,000.

Multiplying by the 750 area codes gives us 5,625,000,000 (5.625 trillion) phone numbers for the US and Canada (and a few minor areas).

The problem in the past was that a provider was given phone numbers in blocks of 10,000, whether they needed 10,000 or not. Nowdays, the available numbers are put into a pool and when a provider needs a number, it is pulled from the pool.

But there can still be a shortage in an area code (about 7,500,000 in an area code but some are always inactive - given up numbers are not re-issued immediately). That's why you see area code overlays in a large metropolitan area. People, especially a business, do not want to change their existing number so splitting an area code is never a popular alternative.

And just a bit of trivia. Area codes were introduced when we still used rotary phones. So "short dialing" codes were assigned to big cities - 212 to NY and 213 to LA.

Mike

[I just went and looked up the possible area codes. Here are some that are not used:

x11 is not used because if can cause misdialing if the 1 prefix is not used (for example, 911, 411, etc.)
Numbers with the second and third digit the same are not used. So 233 would not be used.
Numbers with 9 in the center, such as 392, are not used because they are used for service codes or reserved
Same for 37x, and 96x - not used because they are used for service codes or reserved.
The toll free numbers are 800, 822, 833, 844, 855, 866, 877, 880, 881, 882, 883, 884, 885, 886, 887, 888, 889. Not all of these are used today. Note that many of these violate the requirements specified above - specifically that the second and third digits not be the same. 890 to 899 are reserved so far.
I haven't tried to figure out how many "valid" area codes that leaves, but it will be less than 750, probably 700 or less, giving us about 5 trillion phone numbers.]

[Brian Elfert]

There never did overlays in the Minneapolis area. The one area code was split into two and eventually into four by geography. The assigning numbers individually thing explains why we aren't doing many new area codes these days.

[Mike Henderson]

There never did overlays in the Minneapolis area. The one area code was split into two and eventually into four by geography. The assigning numbers individually thing explains why we aren't doing many new area codes these days.

From Wikipedia:

As an extreme example of an area code splitting gone somewhat awry, in 1998 area code 612, which had covered the Minneapolis – Saint Paul Twin Cities, was split to create area code 651 for St. Paul and the eastern metropolitan area. The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission mandated that the new boundary exactly follow municipal boundaries (which were distinctly different from telephone exchange boundaries), and that all subscribers keep their 7-digit numbers. These two goals were directly at odds with the reason for the split (to generate additional phone numbers), and there were more than 40 exchanges whose territory straddled the new boundary. The result was prefixes duplicated in both area codes, which counteracted much of the benefit of the splitting, with only 200 of 700 prefixes in area 612 moving entirely to area 651. As a result, in less than two years area code 612 again exhausted its supply of phone numbers, and it underwent another three-way split in 2000, creating the new area codes 763 and 952. Again, the split followed political boundaries rather than rate center boundaries, resulting in additional split prefixes; a few numbers moved from 612 to 651 and then to 763 in less than two years.

[Jim Becker]

Judson, I've been using a Microcell at home for a few years now...it's the difference between being able to make/receive wireless calls in the house or not, despite the fact that we are actually close to a tower, but have the double whammy of a big block of limestone (a mountain) and 18" thick limestone walls impeding service. While we use ATT, the setup is very similar to the Verizon Microcell you are considering. That said, you need to have reasonably good Internet service for the Microcell to be helpful to you since your calls when at home will be converted to IP by the Microcell and sent out to your carrier's network via your Internet connection. If you have marginal Internet service, you may want to try a cell signal booster (repeater) first. The device truly is like a cell tower in that respect, as most "big" cell points of presence take the over-the-air signals and convert them to IP for backhaul these days, although some older cells still use traditional communication lines in some areas.

I'm not sure why you are asking about a "good app for Android"...unless that's a separate thing you're interested in. The Microcell doesn't care about apps. You'll want to be using WiFi for any data traffic at home, anyway, for best results and to not use up your cellular data bandwidth allocation while at home.

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On the phone number dialog...I can have three area codes right here in my house theoretically, although currently only have two of them active on devices. Overlays have been here for a LONG time!