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Help Google Voice Help!

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Steenport567

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Just got a Thunderbolt Android phone from Verizon. I got it so I could use Google Voice. I have no cell service here at home. I was hoping to use Google Voice on this phone through my Wi Fi so I could make and receive calls through the Google Voice number. When I tried calling from home and it said call failed.

Anyone know how to get it to work? I am new to all of this. Thanks!
 
Hi, Steenport567!

I'm new to Android, but based on what I know of cell-phones and the application(s) you are trying to use, what you are attempting to do isn't possible.

Google Voice is merely a service that allows you to link your existing phone numbers/lines to one Google Voice number...that is, Google will supply you with a telephone number, and through Google, you can then link that number to one or several of your existing phone lines (either landlines or mobile-phones). The idea is to enable you to give other people one number that can access all of your phones, and it looks like you can control that access (through call-lists, scheduling, etc.)

Note that you still have to have an existing line of your own...Google Voice is, in and of itself, NOT a phone service. I'm thinking that this is why your calls are failing...you yourself still don't have actual cell-phone service.

I hope this helps...and good luck!
 
Pardon me but I don't understand the rationale of this. If you have a cell phone, why can't you just use that phone to make and receive call?

Is it because you don't have the nationwide calling plan and you might want to talk to people outside of your city? If that is true, you can simply use Skype. Skype-to-Skype is free. Skype-in and Skype-out will cost a little, but it is minimal.
 
Read my original post. I can't get cell reception. Thank you for the.help . It's weird that a pc will use wi fi and our phones will only use cell lines.
 
In that case, Skype will still work over the WiFi, which is probably your only option, other than moving your home.
 
As stated in the above posts, what you're thinking of is a VoIP solution. It's actually not that hard to get VoIP working for our phones (that's what I did to turn my Droid 1 into a wi-fi/home phone when I replaced it with the T-bolt).

Off the top of my head, here's what I did:
I signed up for a free number with SIPGate (VoIP PBX - 30-day free trial - move your phones to the cloud)
Then I downloaded:
SIPDroid (https://market.android.com/details?id=org.sipdroid.sipuapure&feature=search_result)
GVCallback (https://market.android.com/details?id=com.xinlu.gvdial&feature=search_result)

SIPDroid allows you to connect to your SipGate number (or wherever else you get a SIP account with)
GVCallback allows you to make outgoing calls directly from your phone since with SipGate, it pretty much only allows you to receive incoming calls (for free) so what this app does is have Google Voice dial your number and the number you want to connect with so it seems like it's an incoming call on your end.

You'll want to do some more research on your own on how to set everything up though since this is just a rough overview. But.. it's not that hard to do once you kind of see what's going on.

Oh, this kind of shows you the first half of what's going on:
http://lifehacker.com/#!5349506/make-free-voip-calls-from-google-voice
but you still need to finish the second half where you get it running on the phone.

Edit: Oh, I overlooked tying this all together with Google Voice. With Google Voice you can have all your numbers under one umbrella. So if someone calls your GV number, it'll bounce to everything you have under it and everything can ring at once. Like with my setup at home, I have my cell number and VoIP number under Google Voice. I give everyone my GV number so if anyone calls me, both my cell and VoIP numbers will ring at the same time.
 
You can have the GV number forward to more than just one phone. So if you have a home lan line (which I'm assumign you do since you don't ahve cell service at home), then you can use that GV numebr to forward to your cell phone AND your lan line. So with one number, a person can call you wherever you are.

Personally, there's not really any added benefit to getting an extra number BUT GV's visual voicemail is amazing and free. And best of all, you can text people for free. Because of that, I've rid myself of that ridiculous 20$ unlimited text plan and save lots of money.
 
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