Google Voice International Calling

[Joescan09]

Ok so I've searched and can't find enough info about sprint and Google voice. My one main question is with international calling and how this is going to work out. I'm going on vacation this summer and will be out of the country on a cruise ship. What is going to happen when I call the united states from another country is it going to be free because I have Google voice? I know they charge you to call different countries while in the US but it says all US calls are free. Or do I take the rates and just reverse them like US to Mexico and if I'm in Mexico thats the rate back to the US?

 

[IAmSixNine]

Because GV uses your voice minutes you will be charged roaming rates of where ever it is you place the call.
They way i understand it is, you make an outgoig call from your phone using GV. It will use your loction to get to a cell tower then connect to its network and then find a local phone at the termination point of your call and connect it.

I am in the US. Make a call on my phone so i am charged no money. The call gets routed to a local number say in canada. A local canada number will finish the call for me in canada to the number i am calling and it will show called ID of my GV number.

But since your going to be in another country, roaming, your phone still has to make a local connection, and that will be roaming.
Unless you use a VoIP call using a Free WiFi hotspot you will incur charges.
If the cruise ship has wifi capabilities you might find a way around it.
Otherwise you still have to use your phone to make an outgoing call to establish the link.

Yup clear as mud. If that long and not so well thought out explination doesnt help let me know. I will try to follow up with a different or better explination.

 

[Joescan09]

I understand I need to make a local connection first when I dial out. I don't mind paying for mins through Google but I'm worried I don't fully understand the process. Can I just buy Google Voice mins and when I reach my destination which is out of the US can I just make a phone call back to the US. On sprints website it says that all international calls will go through Google voice automatically.

 

[Double Tap]

Unless you use a VoIP call using a Free WiFi hotspot you will incur charges.
If the cruise ship has wifi capabilities you might find a way around it.
Otherwise you still have to use your phone to make an outgoing call to establish the link.

Are you saying that if I find a free WiFi spot overseas that I can make a call for free?

 

[IAmSixNine]

I am saying that with a good VoIP app you can make those calls.
Right now GV supports using your existing cell phone call to connect to its system and make a call. Then its connected to a local exchange close to where your calling.

If your in Mexico, make a call using GV, you will be charged by Sprint for roaming while your on the call. You still have to make an outgoing phone call connection to use GV.

It really only saves you if your in a HOME network area when you make that outgoing call.
Long story short, using GV when your not on a home network will not save you any money.

 

[jj14x]

You should be able to use skype (on android) to make calls to the US - assuming you have a skype subscription (approx $3 per month). You can use skype over wifi (or over 3g if you are paying for data roaming)

But as bigwrigg said, if you are outside the US and make a call using google voice, Sprint will charge you international roaming charges (assuming you have international calling enabled on your sprint account in the first place)

 

[IAmSixNine]

One thing i didnt even think of is that once you leave the US your more likely to run into a GSM network then CDMA. Some parts of the world do not use CDMA, which is what Sprint and Verizon use. So an EVO in some parts of the world would not work.
I would check where your going to make sure it has CDMA coverage, then see if Sprint has roaming capabilities with the carrier there, then go from there. Again, you will incur roaming charges but at least you will have access to a phone.

As jj14x mentioned Skype. DUH i dont know why i didnt think of that. Thats a very good point.

 

[Joescan09]

I know sprint is going to charge me for the first connection but once i'm on goolge voice should'nt it switch over to my google voice mins. So it's only going to take a min to hit onto google voice so it's going to cost me 1.99 just to place the call then what ever google is going to charge me.

 

[IAmSixNine]

No. once you make an outgoing phone call your still using your voice minutes to maintain that GV call. At least i have seen no indication otherwise. You will be using roaming minutes the whole time, plus what ever GV will charge.

 

[Joescan09]

thats stupid why does sprint say google voice with take over all international calling.

How does this affect International calling?
International calls placed from your handset will be placed and billed through Google Voice at Google Voice's low rates. You will need Google Voice calling credit to place those calls.

 

[npark]

I understand I need to make a local connection first when I dial out. I don't mind paying for mins through Google but I'm worried I don't fully understand the process. Can I just buy Google Voice mins and when I reach my destination which is out of the US can I just make a phone call back to the US. On sprints website it says that all international calls will go through Google voice automatically.

If you use your cell phone, you use airtime.

Airtime has a charge. Period.

Airtime in the US will debit your balance of minutes on your voice plan. Airtime overseas, you will be charged for. Airtime has absolutely nothing to do with Google Voice whatsoever.

If you have WiFi, that's great. What will you do with it? Unless you use a VoIP solution, WiFi does not help you with getting free airtime. There are ways to use VoIP with Google voice, and I have done with a SIP account, a SIP VoIP client, and Google voice. However, you are not using the Evo as a "phone" but rather as an internet device, and that's a slightly different conversation.