I like this idea, but I no longer trust Google to shepherd their side projects in the long term. Google voice had amazing promise (and I still use it) but it has also been a completely stagnant, without significant updates for a few years now. It conflicts with Hangouts, Google Fi, and the Android SMS app. Contacts are a mess. Ditto Google Groups.
Google Fiber Phone
21–30 of 134 posts
Re: Google Fiber Phone
#22Why do this when they have google hangout?
I can see that hangout is tied to a person but home phone is not. But making it a different product/service and charging $10/month is absurd.
Re: Google Fiber Phone
#23Or the hacker's solution to maintaining a landline: get yourself a cheap SIP-capable handset and an account with a wholesale SIP-trunking provider like Flowroute ($1.25/mo for the number, $.0098/min outbound to CONUS, $.012/min inbound). Proxy through OpenVBX or Asterisk (can be hosted in the cloud or in your home) if you want to get fancy with voicemail, IVR menus, forwarding, extensions for different rooms in the h…
But won't that fail at the same time your home internet access fails - when the ISP link goes down? I have a land line as a redundant link, for security.
An actual POTS circuit provides redundancy, but many people's landlines aren't actually POTS anymore, they're the ISP's proprietary version of this with an ATA inside the cable modem. This should have the same failure profile, while being cheaper and more fun.
Re: Google Fiber Phone
#24A landline phone service seems a bit anachronistic, but there is a place for it. The future of telephony is here, but it sucks. Many here on HN probably don't even remember this, but phone calls actually used to be intelligible. Before cell phones and VOIP, before packet-switching and aggressive digital compression, calls traveled over Ma Bell's glorious circuit-switched network. You could actually understand what pe…
Yes would be nice to see Google support G.722 on this service...
I do think Google has other motivations here:
+ More "data" to train their speech to text and AI algorithms on?
+ Another UI for home automation...call your number to tell your home IoT device to do x...and enable the devices to call out?
+ Residential now...SMB and enterprise next?
+ More ads...future pricing..."free" but you listed to Google ads before/after conversations?
Anyone know if Google needs to be a FCC licensed carrier to offer the E911 service? Seems grey. If so, maybe that's why only certain markets?
Re: Google Fiber Phone
#25Is there any hope they could do better than PSTN audio quality here?
Re: Google Fiber Phone
#26A landline phone service seems a bit anachronistic, but there is a place for it. The future of telephony is here, but it sucks. Many here on HN probably don't even remember this, but phone calls actually used to be intelligible. Before cell phones and VOIP, before packet-switching and aggressive digital compression, calls traveled over Ma Bell's glorious circuit-switched network. You could actually understand what pe…
I remember. I don't remember the quality difference being as stark as you suggest, but maybe it was. This offering from Google is VoIP as well though, right? I think a decent VoIP call's quality is still better than the average cell phone call, but that's not why I'd want this - I just find it convenient occasionally (maybe occasionally enough to justify $10/mo) to have a phone hanging on the wall. Something the babysitter can use reliably, for example.
Re: Google Fiber Phone
#27I feel products like this - http://www.vtechphones.com/products/product_detail/1673 - (just an example) are a better solution to this problem. You dont need a land line subscription, just a cell phone with bluetooth.
When my parents get home, their cell phones pair to the home phone, so when they receive a call, the home phone rings. They don't have to carry around cell phones, and they can place calls through their cell phones using the handsets. Seems complicated at first, but saved headache and $$ in the end.
Re: Google Fiber Phone
#28A landline phone service seems a bit anachronistic, but there is a place for it. The future of telephony is here, but it sucks. Many here on HN probably don't even remember this, but phone calls actually used to be intelligible. Before cell phones and VOIP, before packet-switching and aggressive digital compression, calls traveled over Ma Bell's glorious circuit-switched network. You could actually understand what pe…
Yes would be nice to see Google support G.722 on this service... I do think Google has other motivations here: + More "data" to train their speech to text and AI algorithms on? + Another UI for home automation...call your number to tell your home IoT device to do x...and enable the devices to call out? + Residential now...SMB and enterprise next? + More ads...future pricing..."free" but you listed to Google ads befor…
All fixed VoIP providers must offer E911. I don't think they would have the option of not providing it. I don't know the exact rules, but I've worked for several small ISPs that offered white labelled Voice products and we always had to carefully maintain our address directories for E911 service, and customers were not allowed to opt out. (For example if the only address we had on file for a customer was a PO box, we had to get a street address in order to sell them the VoIP product.)
Re: Google Fiber Phone
#29Or the hacker's solution to maintaining a landline: get yourself a cheap SIP-capable handset and an account with a wholesale SIP-trunking provider like Flowroute ($1.25/mo for the number, $.0098/min outbound to CONUS, $.012/min inbound). Proxy through OpenVBX or Asterisk (can be hosted in the cloud or in your home) if you want to get fancy with voicemail, IVR menus, forwarding, extensions for different rooms in the h…
But won't that fail at the same time your home internet access fails - when the ISP link goes down? I have a land line as a redundant link, for security.
Isn't Google's offering here VOIP based? Sounds equivalent.
Re: Google Fiber Phone
#30I think there's still a market for landlines although $10/month sounds like a high price point for such a feature. Having a stationary phone is important when you start having kids and they are old enough to know how to use it. There's a gap of several years from when kids are old enough to know how to call others versus old enough to warrant having their own mobile device.
So what happens in the scenario when the kid(s) is/are home with one parent or the babysitter and the adult falls down the steps and is unconscious? Certainly a 4-5 year can learn to call 911 for help and with a landline, hopefully the phone is a static location and always available rather than having to search through the house to find mommy or daddy's dead iPhone.