In December, 2011, Google announced that they will extend the free phone calling feature through 2012.
However, one feature that Google Voice Chat has been lacking is the ability to call to international +883 iNum numbers directly from the Gmail "Call Phone" Dial-pad (and for free). Well, I have found a work around for this obstacle... at least while Google Voice is still providing free PC-PSTN routing.
The key is calling any of the USA/Canada PSTN telephone access gateway numbers, provided by the iNum network. Placing calls through these gateways to iNum's are free (or, the cost of a local call). Currently, I can call any of these gateways myself using GMail's Call Phone feature, for free.
Placing a call to any of your iNum buddies is as simple as clicking on the
icon in Gmail. (Assuming, you have installed the Gmail Voice and Video Chat plug-in.)
Then, dial the number of any USA/Canada iNum gateway number you like. In my case, I use the closest gateway to me, which is in Calgary, Alberta, Canada (403-775-1446).
When the iNum IVR prompts you to "enter the iNum you wish to call", enter the 15 digit iNum number you want to call. I frequently dial their iNum Echo Test number which is: 883-510-000-000-091.
Tip:
When calling the iNum gateway, you can also use a short-cut for dialing - at the voice prompt, just enter the last 9-digits of the iNum you want to call. For example, to call the Echo Test number, you only need to dial (after the IVR prompt): 000-000-091.
That's it. It is straight forward and simple, if you have a Gmail account.
* UPDATE *:
In late June, 2012, I wrote a new blog post announcing that Google now supports direct calling to +883 iNum numbers:
http://blog.voipdiy.com/2012/06/google-voice-now-calls-inums-direct.html
