Dropped Mobile Calls vs. Google Voice Calls Over the Internet

For a long time I had always had wired service, even for years with mobile service. Much of that had to do with very expensive cellphone minute plans; I've often had to do things like hour-long tech interviews for my next gig. My primary use of the cellphone was for emergency purposes or for short calls away from home. Eventually, digital calls on cable Triple Play plans were very price competitive to maintaining a landline for the purpose of longer at home calls. When I moved in 2014 to West Virginia, I maintained Triple Play but I found cheaper cell minute plans and rarely used my digital voice prior to moving. Shortly after I rented my current apartment, I didn't upgrade to a high-priced Triple Play plan, especially when I discovered I found a mobile plan that basically provided unlimited calls, texting, and data for a modest premium over my old plan with a few hundred minutes.

There's only one major problem with that solution: mobile calls can be notoriously unreliable. For a number of prospective clients or employers, that's not a major issue because they set up web conferencing, which operates over the Internet, like digital calling. But just to give an example, a few weeks back, my cell call dropped 3 or 4 times over the call. What made it worse, they had a configuration issue at their end and sometimes didn't even realize I was no longer on the call.

There were 2 or 3 times over the past week where recruiters were complaining they couldn't hear me and asked me to use another phone. Finally, yesterday, a recruiter was calling to schedule an interview; for some odd reason, she didn't have voice mail and she didn't email me. She finally gave up after my return call got dropped 2 or 3 times.

So then I had to scramble. I know there are VOIP consumer vendors like Vonage and Magic Jack; certain plans require hardware, and I had put my phone in storage. Skype allows calls among fellow users, and there are certain extra-cost options for other calls, e.g., to landlines.

I had flirted with Google Voice while in WV; I intuitively felt this was the direction to go, although I had not really tested it as a substitute for digital voice calling; among other things, I didn't keep my laptop online at all hours (which is necessary for realtime phone functionality), while my cellphone and digital phone were always on. I wanted to test out Google's innovative free voicemail transcript  (with its generally superlative speech to text functionality) and its use as an alternative for professional contacts. I liked the idea of having a permanent number, e.g., I wasn't sure about number portability options for my mobile or digital cable services.

I'm not sure what had happened to my earlier Google Voice setups when I went to my account for the first time in several months--I could still see obsolete messages stored. Recall one of the things I like to do is take the opportunity to study how intuitive the interface is from my experience).  Part of the issue here was a number of integrated products. There is a Google Voice email-like interface, but the phone functionality operates through Gmail. Particularly relevant is the phone gadget (located with the calendar gadget along the lower left margin below the email folders).  You may need to ensure your Hangout status is active. [I will say there is a call button for configured GV that enables you to search by (partial) matches of names or numbers in your Google Contacts via Hangouts; or you can simply type a number, like my recruiter's number, ad hoc. I could add the recruiter and her number in Google Contacts before making the call, of course].

You're setting up your Google Voice (GV) account (google.com/voice)  in conjunction of your cellphone account. Google Voice number selection itself can be unintuitive. Initially I thought one could propose a number and see if it was available, like usernames to a website. It's better thought of as a picklist of available numbers subject to parameters you specify, like area code.

There is  Google Voice integration with certain cellphone providers (but mine is not included, so I won't discuss cross-functionality between phones). A key point is that your registered cellphone number can be figured as a target for GV text messages and voicemail notifications/transcripts. And this is something which isn't necessarily obvious: Google configures things so when you dial into Google Voice via your cellphone. you go into voicemail (which you have configured with a relevant password). You can otherwise access voicemail through an asterisk when GV answers your call. The reason this was quirky to me was that I was trying to trying to emulate an outside call to be received in Gmail and my cellphone is the only phone I had; in brief, if you drill into your cellphone edit and then click on advanced settings; select voicemail access No. I think this is somewhat misleading; it really means voicemail connection by default (for mobile), asterisk for other phones to access voicemail. I personally am used to an asterisk default for all phones and prefer consistency. (I had initially inferred that I had configured something wrong, e.g., from hangout settings, and it was throwing me into voicemail.)

From within Gmail and activated Hangouts, there's a bubble/quote icon for Hangouts conversation and a phone icon: you want to choose the latter. This allows a search (as described above) from Google Contacts via name or phone number--or to specify an ad hoc number (which to me is not obvious). I was easily able to call the recruiter in question and continue the conversation with no call fidelity issues.

I've somewhat simplified the conversation; some calls (e.g., international) may require a fee/deposit. The topics of Hangout conversations (including video calls), Hangout contacts, Google+, and circles are beyond the scope of this post. It was not intended to be a step-by-step newbie introduction; my hope is that a reasonably knowledgeable PC user could learn from the general description of my configuration experience and more practical description.