Google Voice Goes Live Globally

The new service, which is totally different from the earlier online voice and video chat offering, was first introduced to the company’s customers in the US in 2010, and it allows users to make calls to both landlines as well as to mobile phones from Gmail.

We were able to test the service at MyBroadband. After loading credit onto a Google Voice account we were able to call a South African cellphone at $0.17 (around R1.15) per minute.

According to Google, you can buy calling credit in Euros, British pounds, Canadian dollars and U.S. dollars.

The ability to get your own Google Voice number still doesn’t seem to be available, which means that the feature is currently limited to within the Gmail web client.