Every phone needs Google Voice
7/30/2009 |
I could make a philosophical argument against professional use of Google's consumer-oriented mobile cloud services, but not with a straight face. The truth is, if it weren't for Google, I couldn't do my job. I run my own infrastructure for messaging and connectivity and always have, because while employers and ISPs come and go and change their habits, I need a constant, reliable presence, e-mail and IM addresses and URLs that anyone close to me can use to keep in touch.
I can't manage my own telephony infrastructure. People inside my circle, as it were, have no one number that's sure to reach me wherever I am. All of my landlines are digital: one ISDN, one VoIP (both with AT&T), and one UMA (with T-Mobile). But apart from choosing to pay the bill or not, I have no control over how these lines function. I can only forward them, and that can incur long-distance charges or eat wireless daytime minutes, and I can't forward remotely or selectively. All told, I have eight phone numbers, including the mobile accounts loaned to me by carriers for use while I'm testing handsets (which is always). Which of these actually rings in my presence depends on where I am and which batteries are charged.
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It shouldn't be that way. Yes, messages sent to my One True E-mail Address are pushed to all of my mobile devices by my private infrastructure. Server-side filters on my Xserve elevate VIP e-mail to SMS and blast it out to my most-used mobile numbers. All but my iPhone are wired for instant messaging. But if someone needs to actually speak to me, it's catch as catch can. I need one phone number that hunts me down, but I want remote and explicit control over how it does that, and who gets the priority treatment.
Glue by Google
I have seen and tried devices and services that do this. My home phone service is with AT&T U-Verse, and if I were an AT&T Wireless subscriber it would link my landline and mobile numbers with some online call blocking and selective forwarding controls. But if I dump U-Verse for DirecTV or cable, that's gone. My private messaging infrastructure gives me the freedom to divorce service providers and bridge them together however I choose without brand barriers. I want the same thing for phone calls.
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