Review: GrandCentral

GrandCentral logo

Synopsis: Great in theory, not so great in execution

GrandCentral is a “free Google-owned internet service that uses VoIP to link customers’ phone numbers together”. It is currently in private beta and there have not been any invites available since March 14, 2008. Lucky for me, I managed to snag a “blogger invite” just before the deadline to sign myself up for an account.

Some Features include:

It has allowed me to setup one US based phone number that forwards calls to my Canadian based number. In this case, it goes to my cell phone but I can also set it up to direct to various other phone numbers, all controlled via a easy to use web interface. This effectively allows people in the United States to call me for free since they simply call the US based number which is local for them and it will automatically call my phone number in Canada.

Not only that, through the web interface, it allows me to call any US based number for free as well. It basically provides a middle layer. All this for free….at least for now. Sounds great doesn’t it? It is great in theory and when it works, it’s a phenomenal service.

The main problem is that it is simply not reliable. On too many occasions, there have been sudden dropped calls and inability for calls to get through. There has been one major service disruption, and just today, apparently they almost forgot to renew their domain name!

This past weekend, all Canadian number seemed to be blocked and had me worrying that they suddenly decided to change their policies. It has since been restored. They are not the fastest on replying to support requests, however, I will give them credit since one of the customer service reps did call me to verify that things were resolved. A pleasant surprise.

You can get an idea about these and other issues by checking out their discussion rooms. I think most people agree that it’s simply not reliable and not quite ready for prime time. Would not use for business purposes until they’ve ironed out the kinks.

You would think that things would improve once Google got their hands on it but I am wondering if it’s just another one of their acquisitions that they put on the back burner as far as development is concerned (can we say Google Talk?)

Feel free to give me a call on GrandCentral

May 21, 2008 | Filed Under tech 

Comments

3 Responses to “Review: GrandCentral”

  1. Freddie on May 22nd, 2008 10:16 am

    Nice… thx for the review.

  2. bran on May 23rd, 2008 10:49 am

    Hey thanks. If they ever open up invites again, I’ll fire one your way.

  3. Phemia on October 27th, 2008 5:03 pm

    Well written article.

Leave a Reply