So, late last year my VOIP service was transferred to a company called PhonePower. I kept the same phone number and most of the same services, but I lost the virtual phone number I had - an alternate number that would ring the same line.

That number was great to avoid having out my primary number - if I ever started getting junk calls I could simply dump it. It was also an easy way to have a number in a different area code.

My current provider wants $5 a month for this which I feel is too high, especially since I can get a completely new second line for under $9/month with them (prepay for a year).

So what I'm looking for is the cheapest possible way to have an additional phone number, with or without its own line. If it doesn't have its own line it has to be able to drop the call to my current line somehow. I don't need flat-rate call service for this number since it's really potentially just a vanity number.

Alternatively, any ideas about dropping any calls to that number into their own voicemail to email without ever hitting my primary would also be welcome.

I don't really know where to start looking here, whether it by voip.ms, google voice, etc...

This is ultra-simple.

Arrrgh.. US-only.

Which wouldn't be a problem if the signup would allow me to specify US when I sign up for a new Google account. If I enter US, it still seems to later default to Canada and won't let me sign up for voice.

Time to try a work-around...

You need a US number and a US IP address to register but thats the easy part. Once you've registered then you don't need either but there is another issue.

If you're not in the US then Google Voice may not work properly for you. It doesn't do VoIP. You're actually calling an access number which then connects you to your destination. Incoming calls are also via an access number. I'm unsure what happens if you're in Canada though. It doesn't work at all here in the UK.

All you'll get is SMS and voicemail. No MMS.

I think only the first part will be an issue. I only need it for other people to call into. I don't need to ever call into it myself and all voice mails will be available online for me to listen to or read.

I don't actually need a voip solution, just something that I can use alongside my current voip setup. In fact I only need a number and the ability to take messages.

You can attach it to your Canadian registered Google account. It just checks for a US IP when registering.

You won't be able to receive calls at all because its just forwarded to the US number you used to register. All people can do is send you SMS and leave you voicemail. If thats okay for you then Google Voice should do everything you want.

The voicemails get sent through speech recognition and then emailed to you along with the raw audio.

The number you choose is free but if you ever decide to change it will cost you $10.

voip.ms.

Canadian DIDs are less than $2/month, and their website is a geek's paradise for configuring how things work.

We use Voip.ms here as our only "wired" phone service.

That's not quite correct. You can register a number of different phone numbers. When I set mine up the first time, I was in a hotel in Los Angeles, so I had it ring the hotel room phone (I have no cell). I now have it set to my home number, and the hotel room phone number is no longer a registered phone.

However, when you register a phone, it requires you to validate that you own the phone, by ringing it up and having you enter a code, so you can't just register with a random number.

I don't mean that you're stuck with the number you originally used when registering for Google Voice. More that you have to make it forward to a number that you enter into Google Voice and it will validate that its a US number. If Bruno wants to receive calls on his Google Voice number then he'll need another US number to recieve the calls from Google Voice. It doesn't do VoIP and it won't accept non US numbers so it means you can't take calls.

Oh and Google Voice doesn't do VoIP at the moment but will most probably at some point because they bought Gizmo5. They stopped registrations however so you can't sign up there for now.

Mark, is voice mail capture handled on voip.ms servers? Can one configure VM messages to be sent to an email address?

Yes, and yes.
Any basic voip.ms account includes virtually every calling feature imaginable, for free, including voice mail w/email.

I signed up for an account a little while ago so I could take a look at their control panel. I suppose I'll order a DID and give it a shot, assuming of course it can start taking voice mail without me first configuring an ATA or similar device.

Yeah, you should be able to set up a DID and route it directly to voicemail without setting up a PAP2T first.

Cheers

Yup, voip.ms is definitely going to be the way to go. I think I'll set up IVR (Digital Receptionist) and that will be able to take care of so much, including providing quick verbal answers to some FAQs.

Google added VoIP to gmail now so you can point Google Voice at your gmail and it'll ring via that.

So, I still haven't added a DID to my voip.ms setup and haven't actually made any use of it yet. I've just been too busy with a number of other things lately.

Since I already have voip set up and working for the house this hasn't been urgent, but now I'm going to try setting something up running on a softphone. Specifically, on an iPod running WiFi and 3G data.

Here's a discussion of essentially what I want to do with regards to voip and Google Voice: http://forums.redflagdeals.com/setting-u...cery-856269/14/

And setting up data on the iPhone will be (hopefully) done with an iPad micro-sim, so it's a pay as you go data-only service. Sort of like this: http://hijinksinc.com/2010/07/08/activating-an-ipad-3g-micro-sim-without-an-ipad/

So far I have a US DID with voip.ms and a Google Voice account with a GV number set up and verified. The GV stuff required using a VPN to hide my IP.

Now to see if I can get myself an account at sipsorcery which is essentially Frankenstein's lab for connecting all of this together.