Sunday, September 25, 2011

Gmail Supports US Service Members abroad: calling home for free

This may be helpful for contacting clients serving abroad, or helping them stay in touch with their families. According to http://www.google.com/mail/help/call/military/:
Calling phones in the United States is now completely free for all uniformed military personnel with a valid United States Military (.mil) address. This means that troops stationed around the world can now call the United States at no cost, right from Gmail

To start making free calls, follow these 2 steps:

Step 1: Add your .mil address to your Google Account:
  1. Sign in on the Google Accounts homepage
    .
  2. Click Edit next to 'Email addresses.'
  3. Add your .mil email in the 'Add an additional email address' field.
  4. Click Save. You will receive an email at your .mil address.
  5. Open the verification email and click the verification link.
Step 2: Click the 'Call phone' link in your chat roster and use the dialpad to make calls. You may be prompted to install the Voice & Video Chat plugin.
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Similarly to free calling within the U.S., free calling to the U.S. for service members will be available for at least the rest of 2011. Calling to other destinations starts at as little as $.02/minute, and calling from Gmail is not available in all locations.
I hope someone will test this out, and report back on how it works:
http://www.google.com/mail/help/call/military/

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