I Love My LG Optimus One

I recently purchased a smartphone.  Smartphone is something that I love to have and play with, but can't really justify its expensive price tag.  Fortunately, through redflagdeals I found an excellent deal on LG Optimus One offered by KOODO.  It was excellent because there was no 3 years contract to sign, no data plan required and it only costed $50 ($150-$100 gift card).

After unlocking the phone at a cost of $10, my first project was how to make free phone calls ( I'm cheap, I know).  I can't remember how many hours I've spent searching and reading on the internet to accomplish this, here is my write-up which I hope can help those in need.

What you need to make free VOIP calls from Android phones

1.        Google Voice (GV) is a free service that allows you to route calls from a Google provided U.S. phone # to another phone # on top of a rich voicemail system which is only available in the U.S.;

2.       HotSpot Shield is a program that gets you a U.S. IP upon execution.  This can be used to fool GV that you are applying a GV phone # from the U.S. instead of Canada;

3.       Ipcomms.net is a service that allows for free incoming calls to a VOIP phone.  The VOIP phone # is provided by them upon registration and is randomly chosen from any one of the 48 States in the U.S.  Username and password (both are 10 digits) will be sent to you separately by email;

4.       SIPDroid is a VOIP phone for Android phones from the Market;

5.       GV Dialer is a paid program ($1.99) for Android phones that allows you to make outgoing calls using GV.  It is available from the Android Market.  This program allows you to have GV call your VOIP phone (GV call forward feature),  then connects you to the number to connect to.  This makes it appear as an incoming (free) call to Ipcomms.

Setup Procedures

1.       Open SIPDroid and go to Menu -> Settings -> SIP Account (Line 1), enter username and password using the 10-digits numbers provided by Ipcomms;  put in sipconnect.ipcomms.net for Server or Proxy;  scroll down and select WLAN with a green checkmark.  If it is working, you’ll see a green light in the notification bar at top.

2.       On your computer, go to http://www.google.com/voice and login with your GV credentials.  Then go to voice settings (upper right corner) and select Phone tab.  Under the section “Forward calls to:”, click “Add another phone” and enter your 10-digit ipcomms D.I.D. phone #.  Then click call to verify.  You will get a call on the sipdroid app, slide to answer and enter the 2-digit code provided by GV on your web browser.  Once this is done and your phone is added, calls to your GV account by GV Dialer are set to forward calls to your ipcomms D.I.D. phone number.

3.       Finally, open GV Dialer, login and go to its settings; click “default phone to ring”; after a moment you will be given the option to select your ipcomms #, click that and your are done.

To make a call with VOIP

1.       The green light appears in the notification area indicates SIPDroid is running;

2.       Open GV Dialer on your mobile phone and dial the number you want;

3.       Click “Connect with google voice”, wait for the internet to tell GV to call your ipcomms # back; answer it; you will then hear the call connecting and starting to ring.

How to obtain Google Voice account from Canada

1.       Open HotSpot shield so you get a U.S. IP address;

2.       Go to http://www.google.com/voice and sign up for google voice account.  Do not attach this account to your existing google account.  Create a new google account and set “United States” as your location in the registration process;

3.       Follow the on-screen instructions up until the point where you are asked to put a number in that your GV number will forward to.  Use the 10-digit ipcomms D.I.D. phone number.