PrivatePhone Ending, Here Are Some Alternatives
PrivatePhone was/is a service from NetZero that provided you with a local telephone number that sent calls directly to a voicemail system that you could then listen to online or over the phone. They are now discontinuing the service as of February 19th 2008, and so since I used them I had to look around for some alternatives. They are offering to transfer your PrivatePhone number to another company, but the prices weren’t attractive to me.
So far I have come up with two. eVoice and Grand Central. Grand Central was bought by Google not too long ago, and I am currently using it. You need to signup for an account through their site because it is still in beta. I signed up to reserve a number and was notified almost immediately that they were offering me an account, so the wait time doesn’t seem to be too long (or wasn’t for me yesterday).
Grand Central gives you a local phone number that you can have ring any number of phone numbers. You are able to choose what town the number originates from (state, town) and then select one number from a list of a few they have available in that location. I chose a number that coincided with my PO Box. You can then have the number ring you at your leisure. The Grand Central website is very easy to use and makes it easy to figure out how to do what you want to do. Caller ID can either show the caller’s phone number or the Grand Central number. I chose the latter because then I know when a call is coming from the Grand Central service and I can choose to ignore it and let it go to voicemail. I don’t know how the service is but it’s from Google and so far it’s free.
Another company I found is eVoice but I haven’t used them and I wasn’t able to find any reviews on them. But it is from the same company who operates eFax, so how bad can it be?
If you have tried any of these services please comment with your impressions so that others may learn. Also, feel free to suggest alternatives for us all to try and document.
Wrote on January 30, 2008 @ 12:09 am
thank
Wrote on April 18, 2008 @ 11:28 pm
After many many years I canceled my eFax account. Their user portal is poor, their billing section is outdated, and customer support sounds like a guy talking into a tin can on the other side of the world.
eVoice trial is going badly. They don’t let you change your greeting online. Email support 4 days ago still has no response. No way to cancel your trial online, so I’ve tried to email them about that as well.
Wrote on April 18, 2008 @ 11:30 pm
Thanks for your feedback. That’s what I’ve been looking for.
I’ve actually been using Google’s Grand Central and I have been happy with that.
Wrote on October 13, 2008 @ 12:26 pm
Jason,
Thank you for posting your suggestions. If you’re still using Grand Central, are you willing to send me an invite to get started?
After reserving a number, now several times since March 2008, I’ve received nothing from Google or Grand Central. However I learned of Grand Central from others like yourself that signed up and received a number instantly. WTF!!!
Scott
Wrote on November 1, 2008 @ 10:55 pm
Hi Jason,
Great info. I see that Grand Central is now under Google, however the service is not available to the public anymore.
Signed up and they will notify me when the service will reopen.
Any other sites like privatephone.com?
Thanks,
Emil
Wrote on February 13, 2009 @ 2:55 am
There is no longer such a thing as GrandCentral invites. There hasn’t been in roughly a year. It’s still in beta, still closed to new registrations.
Any other services like GrandCentral that offer limited service plans for free? I doubt it, but suggestions would be appreciated.
Wrote on June 27, 2009 @ 7:56 am
GrandCentral was changed into Google Voice. And they are now starting to give out invites again to people who signed up. Twitter evidence.
Wrote on January 10, 2010 @ 7:16 pm
Hey very nice blog!!….I’m an instant fan, I have bookmarked you and I’ll be checking back on a regular….See ya
I’m Out! :)
Wrote on February 13, 2010 @ 4:45 pm
Hi Jason,
As many other people have asked, could you please list other ones like grandcentral? I would Very much Appreciate It.
Thank You,
Tosin
Wrote on May 9, 2010 @ 7:20 am
I don’t know any others like Grandcentral, now Google Voice, because Google Voice works well enough. But if you search the web you can probably find a few alternatives.
Wrote on May 27, 2010 @ 3:06 am
Less than a week and I am back to Google. I just couldn’t stand all the sponsored ads Ask Jeeves has right above their search results. For some searches I was seeing 10 ads taking up my entire browser window.