# Grand Central users: we can now make free calls from PC to regular phones

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-central-users-we-can-now-make-free-calls-from-pc-to-regular-phones/448285>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [May 6, 2008, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-central-users-we-can-now-make-free-calls-from-pc-to-regular-phones/448285 "2008-05-06T13:43:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2008, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-central-users-we-can-now-make-free-calls-from-pc-to-regular-phones/448285/1 "2008-05-06T13:43:14Z")

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You just need to install Gizmo5 and get a Gizmo5 account (all free)

[http://blog.grandcentral.com/?p=72](http://blog.grandcentral.com/?p=72)

If you don’t already have Grand Central account, sorry, looks like all the invites have disappeared.

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**Author:** ![psycat90](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@psycat90](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psycat90)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2008, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-central-users-we-can-now-make-free-calls-from-pc-to-regular-phones/448285/2 "2008-05-06T14:35:49Z")

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Yep. This isn’t news or a new feature though.

I’ve been doing this since I started using GC last summer, and I was using Gizmo before that. I like it a lot. I had paid for Skype, but found Gizmo to work just as well for free, so I let my Skype subscription lapse.

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**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2008, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-central-users-we-can-now-make-free-calls-from-pc-to-regular-phones/448285/3 "2008-05-06T14:38:02Z")

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Well, it was news to me.

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**Author:** ![psycat90](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@psycat90](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psycat90)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2008, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-central-users-we-can-now-make-free-calls-from-pc-to-regular-phones/448285/4 "2008-05-06T14:56:06Z")

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Yea, cool. It works really well. Now, if only they’d get text messaging on board somehow.

I am pretty much bought into GC. If and when they ever start charging, I hope it’s minimal, because I love it and I want to keep it.

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**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2008, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-central-users-we-can-now-make-free-calls-from-pc-to-regular-phones/448285/5 "2008-05-06T15:29:24Z")

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Yeah, the only sticking point is that uncertainty. I’m hesitant to give my Grand Central number in case the basic stuff I wish to use turns out to have an unreasonable cost. So I usually end up giving other numbers too, which kinda defeats the main purpose.

The national long distance call I made with it last night worked wonderfully, it was as clear a phone call as I’d ever heard. I did have a problem with by PC’s bluetooth dongle crapping out (I was using a bluetooth headset) but that was a problem with the dongle or my PC, not Grand Central or Gizmo5.