Making Long Distance personal phone calls from your campus phone (for free)
As you may be aware, SUNY Delhi is disabling the phone PINs used to make calls from campus. This action is being taken due to the cost to maintain the PIN codes, track and issue bills, collect payments, and follow up with delinquent accounts. The money being recouped does not make up for the amount of overhead in the process.
Personal calls are still prohibited. Employees wishing to make personal calls will need to make alternate arrangements such as a cell phone, calling card, or other service such as google voice.
But wait.. I NEED to be able to use my desk phone to make personal calls!!
CIS recommends Google Voice.
Google voice is a free service that allows you to make long distance calls, send/receive text messages and voicemails, and a host of other great features. The best feature in terms of PIN code elimination, is the ability to use your office phone to make personal calls (even long distance) without costing the college, or you, any money. Essentially, you dial your number from the website instead of your phone. Google Voice calls you, then connects your call to your other party. Because this is an INCOMING call to SUNY Delhi, there is no charge whatsoever.
Here's a quick introduction video. There are many videos on the various features linked at the bottom of this page.
Here's how it works.
1.) You sign up for a free google voice account. It will assign you a phone number in your local area code.
2.) You tell Google Voice what your real phone number is (or all of them). For most of you, you will want to enter your office phone number.
That's it. You have now set up your google voice account. Now you are ready to make some calls. Here is how.
1.) Go to https://www.google.com/voice/ and log in.
2.) Enter the phone number you want to dial, and choose your office phone number from the dropdown box (see picture below).
Video instructions on Google Voice features
Here are some things you can do to get started with Google Voice:
- Read transcriptions of voicemails. Watch a video »
- Customize which phones ring. Watch a video »
- Personalize greetings for different callers. Watch a video »
- Make cheap international calls. Watch a video »
- Forward SMS to email. Watch a video »
- Share voicemails with friends. Watch a video »
- Block unwanted callers. Watch a video »
- Screen callers before answering. Watch a video »
- Access the mobile app on your phone. Watch a video »
- Conference call with co-workers. Watch a video »
You can see all these videos at youtube.com/googlevoice.