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tcallan
join:2007-07-18
Clifton Park, NY

tcallan to macman4hire

Member

to macman4hire

Re: Gizmo5 has added a Google Voice section in its members area.

There are so many people who seem quite angry because an experimental feature on a provider proved so popular that they couldn't scale it up, so they had to cut it back.

I, for one, thank Gizmo5 for their service.

Through them, from my first days with GrandCentral, have had unlimited free incoming SIP calls. That has been good.

And by initiating calls from the GC/GV web interface, I still have a healthy ration of free outgoing SIP calls. That is good.

It's been so good that I even gave them $14 for call-out credits and CallerID change. So far, I think that has been a cheap date.

Would it be nice to just get free dialed calls too? Sure. But I never really saw that as a reasonable expectation.

If all this means is that I don't have to give them another $4 for CallerID change, that's good, even if I do have to give them my GV credentials.

Gizmo5 admits to underestimating demand. But damn, people, it was labeled an "experimental" feature from the start. If people here can't understand the nature of an experiment, who can?

Should we imagine some future world where GV will work with any SIP provider? We can, but for their own reasons, they hooked up with Gizmo5 early and have kept an exclusive relationship.

To me, though, I have been very, very pleased with the free incoming and web initiated free outgoing calling that I still have with the Gizmo5/GC/GV lashup.

To be peeved that you didn't get all you wished for free, when what you did get for free is pretty good, well, that seems to me short-sighted and ungrateful.

Would more be better?

Sure.

But is what I have now still pretty sweet?

Yes, sir.

tom thomas
@comcast.net

tom thomas to hok

Anon

to hok

Re: The end of Gizmo Voice comes as soon as it became beta

said by hok:

said by tom thomas :

all outbound calls seem to now be going through G5 with spoofed caller ID(again..there has been a bit of back and forth on how calls are actually routed)

my take is that G5 got completely overwhelmed with the popularity of this service. i would guess one of these three things got them:

1. they designed a GV dialer platform that triggered a callback from the web interface that could not handle the amount of traffic that was coming through.

2. google started blocking them.

3. google asked them to stop.

in order to not lose face they decided to keep the service open but route all calls through there own outbound servers with spoofed caller ID. they can not afford to do it for free so they are charging .02 per minute.

the whole thing stinks. but a doubt if G5 really planned it go down like this. they may have been well intended but only expected a fraction of the traffic or maybe google got involve and created an issue and so they had to change the plan.
I pretty much agree that was what happened. It seems to me that starting shortly after 5 p.m. Pacific Daylight-saving Time on Thursday, July 30, 2009, all outgoing calls made through Gizmo Voice no longer go through Google Voice. If you have Gizmo5 Call Out credit balance, Gizmo5 will deduct 1.9¢ per minute for calls within United States except toll-free calls. There is no free U.S. calling minute at all, not even 3 minutes as stated in »www.gizmovoice.com/.

On the other hand, if you do not have Gizmo5 Call Out credit balance, then you may get 3 minutes free calling. In other words, you can call any telephone number within continental United States for free but just for 3 minutes. You will get disconnect right after 3 minutes talk time.
said by Cablespider:

The party is over. I disabled the GV option on Gizmo and changed my Gmail password. It was fun while it lasted.
I did the same thing.

Gizmo Voice (Saturday, July 25, 2009 ~ Thursday, July 30, 2009)

Gizmo5 backdoor dialing (Wednesday, January 23, 2008 ~ Thursday, March 5, 2009)

now G5 is really going to upset paying cutomers who were expecting(even if not expicitly stated it is the case) that all calls under 3 minutes would be free an dthat charging would always begin on the fourth minute.
tom thomas

tom thomas to mazilo

Anon

to mazilo

Re: Gizmo5 has added a Google Voice section in its members area.

said by mazilo:

said by tom thomas :

would not surprise me if there is a behind closed doors deal between IPKall and google to avoid what would otherwise be very high termination costs.
One thing that puzzles me is why would a giant like Google can't and/or won't establish a SIP server for its GV consumers to freely terminate its incoming calls to a SIP device, but prefers to pay to terminate the incoming calls to other party.
google probably wants to neither provide support or to encourage more people to use GV as a phoneline replacement. part of it is just playing nice with phone companies whom they also do bussiness with through android and apps. if they ever did offer sip i am pretty sure they would only do it for inbound and outbound still have to be triggered on the web; offering free outbound sip would open them up to massive abuse including being used as trunks for callling card outfits; actaully would not surprise me if that was happening via gizmocall.
caseydoug
join:2001-08-14
Seattle, WA

caseydoug to tcallan

Member

to tcallan
said by tcallan:

But is what I have now still pretty sweet?

Yes, sir.
But is it any better than what you would have without G5? Not really. You can get free incoming, among other ways, by forwarding to IPKall and then directly to your ATA or through another free provider such as Callcentric. You can get free outgoing calls by using the GV web interface without G5, and free outgoing SIP calls in various other ways.

It seems to me that, as the only VoIP provider to get GV forwarding, G5 has a great opportunity to enhance its business through GV integration. But it probably finds that the vast majority of VoIP users employ G5 only as a conduit to other providers, and that very few purchase credits from G5 for their outbound calls. G5 attempted to snag a larger portion of this business by offering this experimental service. In the end, however, the only added benefit I can see, compared to what was available before, is that CID now shows the GV number and the first three minutes may or may not be free. If G5 had focused on the real reason people bypass it and use other VoIP providers -- better rates and better service -- it might have succeeded.
tcallan
join:2007-07-18
Clifton Park, NY

tcallan

Member

I think the requirement to use a third party, like IPKall, is a complexity and a disadvantage.

I'm still happy.

But do I think Gizmo5 are very business smart? Well, no, not very. I agree, they seem to make technical jumps without thinking things through and not focus on the nuts and bolts of growing the business.

Still, Gizmo5 was simple to configure and use, with reasonable quality. That's good.
PX Eliezer704
Premium Member
join:2008-08-09
Hutt River

1 edit

PX Eliezer704 to tcallan

Premium Member

to tcallan
You raise some good points. But I think that what has bothered many people most of all these past few days is a feeling that they were suckered.

Gitmo5 did IMHO use obfuscatory language on their site, leading many smart people to believe that this arrangement had GoogleVoice approval. That seems not to be the case.

Were these outbound calls being carried by GoogleVoice?

If yes, then was this method of accessing the GoogleVoice network being done with Google's approval? Was Gitmo5 using our GoogleVoice ID and password to do massive dialouts on the GoogleVoice network?

If no, then why did Gizmo5 need our GoogleVoice passwords?

---------------------------

For inbound calls, I can easily use GoogleVoice to IpKall to CallWithUs, as one example.

For outbound calls, I can use CallWithUs, at HALF THE COST of Gizmo5. And with CallWithUs the outbound Caller ID can be easily set to the GoogleVoice number.
PX Eliezer704

PX Eliezer704 to macman4hire

Premium Member

to macman4hire
said by macman4hire:

Google Voice is readily loosing their creditability by partnering with such an unreliable, untrustworthy and deceptive partner such as Gizmo5. Accepting the irrational behavior and business practices of Gizmo5 is corporate suicide. Google Voice must take a dominant position of control over their inferior partner and reestablish control.....
Have folks heard of the "Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands"?

It is an area in political union with the United States.

The fine people there are US citizens.

Yet most Americans are NOT aware of this. It's just not on their radar screens.

In a similar way, the senior management at Google is NOT really aware of what's going on at GoogleVoice.

It's such a tiny piece of their huge pie that it's basically run by the Google equivalent of Ross The Intern.
nitecourt
join:2004-10-19
Erie, PA

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Click for full size
caseydoug
join:2001-08-14
Seattle, WA

caseydoug to tcallan

Member

to tcallan
said by tcallan:

Still, Gizmo5 was simple to configure and use, with reasonable quality. That's good.
In my case, I was unable to get G5 to operate properly with my ATA (see »Strange Behavior: Gizmo -> iAN-02Ex), so I had to use IPKall or forwarding directly to the ATA anyway. If G5 were aiming for the masses, it would provide an ATA, auto-provisioning, etc. like VOIPo and others. I think it is aimed at geeks, but doesn't provide the performance or quality that geeks might want. I suspect that if you took a poll of this site, and asked how many people have a G5 account but NEVER use G5 call credits, you would find that they outnumber those who do use G5 call credits. Just my opinion.
PX Eliezer704
Premium Member
join:2008-08-09
Hutt River

PX Eliezer704

Premium Member

said by caseydoug:

I suspect that if you took a poll of this site, and asked how many people have a G5 account but NEVER use G5 call credits, you would find that they outnumber those who do use G5 call credits. Just my opinion.
Agreed.

Gizmo5:

Not easy enough for the masses; Not good enough for the geeks.
caseydoug
join:2001-08-14
Seattle, WA

caseydoug to PX Eliezer704

Member

to PX Eliezer704
said by PX Eliezer704:

Have folks heard of the "Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands"?

It is an area in political union with the United States.

The fine people there are US citizens.

Yet most Americans are NOT aware of this. It's just not on their radar screens.

In a similar way, the senior management at Google is NOT really aware of what's going on at GoogleVoice.
Well, just because most Americans are unaware does not mean "senior management" is unaware. Thanks to our friend Jack Abramoff, Congress exempted the Northern Marianas from US labor standards so that his sweatshop clients could thrive. It worked out real well for Jack, his clients, and the government officials who benefitted from his largess. It just wasn't so good for the workers in this country or in CNMI. Similarly, Google may be allowing G5 to test out a variety of screwball scams to see which ones it can benefit from.
macman4hire
join:2009-03-30
Port Saint Lucie, FL

2 edits

macman4hire to PX Eliezer704

Member

to PX Eliezer704
PX,
I agree that Google indeed as company is splintered and that the senior management most likely in not aware of what is occurring in the Google Voice division. Senior management needs to worry about the actions of all its divisions and how each divisions business practices can impact the overall corporate brand identity. All business relationships are established on trust. Once the end users of Google products and services perceive that their personal information is no longer safe they may decide to end the relationship. An example of a similar situation would be your doctor who you really value as a practitioner of medicine uses ABC Medical Information Systems for electronic medical record storage. ABC's server has been constantly hacked possible compromising your privacy. The next time you visit your doctor you explain to him that you are not happy that your private information may have been comprised. Next you ask your doctor if he plans on switching to a different medical record service provider that is not prone to being hacked. Your doctor replies to you that he has no plans on switching his current service provider for his patients medical records and dismisses your concerns as unjustified. In the previous scenario I would be highly motivated to find another doctor even the medical care I have received was excellent to ensure that my privacy would not be compromised.

Google has already experienced negative press exposure about how and why they use their users personal information. If one major media was to pick up on the Gizmo5 Google Voice debacle it could stir the sensationalistic pot, bringing it to boiling point of over flow, further tarnishing Google's brand identity. I would not be surprised if a major media outlet runs a story on this very topic.
jerry0000
join:2008-07-03

jerry0000 to macman4hire

Member

to macman4hire
Still wish GV will allow fowarding to other SIP directly in the future.
bigjoesmith
join:2000-11-21
Peoria, IL

bigjoesmith to macman4hire

Member

to macman4hire
The rise and fall of the Gizmoogle mashup: a 3 day crash and burn.

Originally the gizmoogle mashup appeared to be implemented as a fancy GV dialier, using GV credentials to initiate a web call and then auto-connecting the call-back behind the scenes. Calls placed with the gizmoogle mashup had these characteristics:
1) They showed up in the GV list of placed calls.
2) They carried your GV number in caller-id.
3) They took a long time to dial-complete.
4) They did not show up in the Gizmo5 listed of placed calls.
5) They were free and did not use Gizmo5 call-out credits.

The current gizmoogle mashup is nothing but gizmo5 outgoing service with caller-id spoofed to your GV number. If you use Gizmo5 call-out, it saves you from having to spend $4/year to purchase Gizmo caller-id configuration (if you want your Gizmo call-outs to show your GV number). If you don't use/buy Gizmo5 call-out, it provides free 3-minute calls to the US. Calls placed with the current gizmoogle "mashup" have the following characteristics:
1) They do not show up in your GV list of placed calls.
2) They carry your GV number in the caller-id.
3) They are not free and use Gizmo5 call-out credits.
4) They take a shorter time to dail-complete (they don't have to do the auto-dial dance behind the scenes with GV).

Overall, you would have to say that Gizmo handled this development poorly. They created great expectations, then dissappointed sorely. They end up looking sleezy, or goofy at best. In its current incarnation, the gizmoogle mashup provides very little useful innovation.

chaud
Serious Business
join:2004-07-09
Huntsville, AL

chaud to macman4hire

Member

to macman4hire
Complaining about what was clearly not going to remain free is silly. Did you really think a company was going to foot 1000s of people's phone bills?

Quick question, is Gizmo5 inbound still free? Meaning I can use GV web interface for free outgoing. Also, is there any way to do free outgoing with my ATA alone?
caseydoug
join:2001-08-14
Seattle, WA

caseydoug

Member

said by chaud:

Complaining about what was clearly not going to remain free is silly. Did you really think a company was going to foot 1000s of people's phone bills?

Quick question, is Gizmo5 inbound still free? Meaning I can use GV web interface for free outgoing. Also, is there any way to do free outgoing with my ATA alone?
Only if all this complaining pays off.
nickdigger
join:2009-06-13

nickdigger to chaud

Member

to chaud
said by chaud:

Quick question, is Gizmo5 inbound still free? Meaning I can use GV web interface for free outgoing.
People are left wondering if GoogleVoice still works at all, because of the GizmoVoice BS stunt. They shat the bed so hard, that it splattered; and Gizmo has also soiled Google's reputation.

BTW, chaud, it still works as before.
PX Eliezer704
Premium Member
join:2008-08-09
Hutt River

PX Eliezer704 to chaud

Premium Member

to chaud
said by chaud:

Complaining about what was clearly not going to remain free is silly. Did you really think a company was going to foot 1000s of people's phone bills?
Not silly.

Google already offers numerous FREE services in addition to search, including G-Mail, Blogging, GoogleMaps, YouTube, Translate, Chrome Browser, GOOG-411, Picasa, Business Listings, Website creation, and many others.

Some companies with similar services charge for them, or used to before Google came along.

Why do they do it?

Advertising and data-mining.

The data mining from GoogleVoice---oh, my, can you imagine?

So it wasn't silly at all, especially if you understand that the costs of Voip are minimal for a big outfit like that.
hok (banned)
join:2002-02-27

hok (banned) to mazilo

Member

to mazilo

Re: Original CID forwarding

said by mazilo:

said by hok:Actually, I have been thinking whether there is a way to use Google Voice as a trunk to forward calls received from different DIDs to mobile phone with original caller’s ID shown correctly at mobile phone.
I am not sure what exactly did you mean above; however, I thought GV can directly forward incoming calls to a mobile number.
For examples, calls made to DID from IPKall, sipgate and Voxox can use Google Voice to forward to mobile phone with original CID shown on mobile phone.
mazilo
From Mazilo
Premium Member
join:2002-05-30
Lilburn, GA

mazilo

Premium Member

said by hok:
said by mazilo:
said by hok:Actually, I have been thinking whether there is a way to use Google Voice as a trunk to forward calls received from different DIDs to mobile phone with original caller’s ID shown correctly at mobile phone.
I am not sure what exactly did you mean above; however, I thought GV can directly forward incoming calls to a mobile number.
For examples, calls made to DID from IPKall, sipgate and Voxox can use Google Voice to forward to mobile phone with original CID shown on mobile phone.
Even though I have never done this, I believe this is doable except it will probably cost to forward to Google (unless Google allows incoming SIP URI).

tom thomas
@comcast.net

tom thomas to macman4hire

Anon

to macman4hire

Re: Gizmo5 has added a Google Voice section in its members area.

after reading this:

»andyabramson.blogs.com/v ··· ice.html

all i can think is why does G5 not give us the option to use either method with our full knowledge that the callback method is experimental, buggy and could fail at any time. it really was a rather cool system if it had only been marketed/described as what it really was.

i am also wondering if anyone else will develop a gateway that allows triggering of GV callbacks via SIP dialing. i know i would love to save the $20.00/year i spend on magicjack.
bigjoesmith
join:2000-11-21
Peoria, IL

bigjoesmith

Member

said by tom thomas :

after reading this:

»andyabramson.blogs.com/v ··· ice.html

all i can think is why does G5 not give us the option to use either method with our full knowledge that the callback method is experimental, buggy and could fail at any time. it really was a rather cool system if it had only been marketed/described as what it really was.
Probably because that's not the only reason that Gizmo had to pull the plug. They were probably swamped with action, to the point that it was negatively impacting them and/or google.
macman4hire
join:2009-03-30
Port Saint Lucie, FL

2 edits

macman4hire to tom thomas

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to tom thomas
Nice find Tom, so I guess all you get is 3 mins. for the for seeable future from Gizmo5. Maybe if they represented their intentions more honestly I would have considered buying $10 worth of credit to use when I was pressed for time and did not want turn on the computer, but after the way they handled the introduction of this product addition I don't think so.

Never underestimate the dimple problem in corporate america thanks caseydoug!
caseydoug
join:2001-08-14
Seattle, WA

caseydoug

Member

said by macman4hire:

Maybe if they represented their indentations more honestly
Some people are embarassed by their dimples.
rmcclarty
join:2006-08-22
37700

rmcclarty to macman4hire

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to macman4hire
GV will suddenly not ring my phones via ATA setup with Gizmo5, been working great since GrandCentral days?? Any one else having issue? Is the marriage over?
PX Eliezer704
Premium Member
join:2008-08-09
Hutt River

PX Eliezer704

Premium Member

Working fine here.....
macman4hire
join:2009-03-30
Port Saint Lucie, FL

macman4hire to rmcclarty

Member

to rmcclarty
rmcclarty,

My GV number is working fine also. GV to G5(SIP directly forwarded) to ATA.
DaveSin
join:2009-07-17

1 edit

DaveSin to PX Eliezer704

Member

to PX Eliezer704
said by PX Eliezer704:

Working fine here.....
Are you SIP forwarding directly to your ATA? I'm having the same problem as rmcclarty (no direct SIP forwarding).

Also, I guess the 3-minute callout is nolonger available!

Edit: I had four Google Voice accounts registered simultaneously to Gizmo5, via my Asterisk setup. I had to make some changes to my Gizmo Trunks (from type=peer to type=user) and now I can receive incoming calls to my phone from any of the four Google Voice numbers!
PX Eliezer704
Premium Member
join:2008-08-09
Hutt River

PX Eliezer704

Premium Member

GoogleVoice directly to Gizmo5.

(And with Gizmo5 set up on PAP2T ATA).

AllThumbs
join:2006-02-07
Charleston, SC

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Nerd Vittles introduced a no-strings-attached Asterisk alternative to Gizmo5 for free Google Voice calling this morning.