A way to get Google Voice to work in Canada. It does require you to snag a MagicJack, but that’s literally all you need to make this happen. Some of you might be a bit nervous about buying and using a MagicJack up in Canada, but we’ve been using it for a few months now up in our super-secret Canadian satellite office and have not had a single issue. And no, this Google Voice trick doesn’t require you to have the physical MagicJack plugged into your computer at all times. In fact, once you get your MagicJack set up and activate call forwarding, you can throw the little bugger in the trash if you want. Hit the jump to learn how to get your Google Voice on north of the border.

Before we begin, we should note that this tutorial assumes you already have a Google Voice invite. If not, it’s not that hard to find someone on the internet willing to let you take one off their hands for a few bucks or even for free. We should also note that MagicJack is offering a free trial right now so you really have no reason to avoid trying this out. Alright, here we go:

1. Plug in your MagicJack, install the software and get your US number
2. Activate your Google Voice account using your MagicJack’s phone number and pick yourself a snazzy new Google Voice number
3. Go to my.magicjack.com, enable Call Forwarding and have your MagicJack forward all calls to your Canadian cell phone number (or land line, if you still have one)

Done. That’s it. No joke. Now you can use Google Voice.

Making Google Voice Work in Canada

So, I admit that I have been completely absorbed by the Googleplex. And… I kind of enjoy having a Google-centric life, actually. So when I moved to Canada and faced giving up my Google Voice, I cringed and cried and wept piteously.
And I did NOT leave denial and move into acceptance!  Instead, I plotted and schemed and conspired to bend Google .. itself! … to my will!  Muhahahaha!  They called me mad at the Sorbonne… mad, I tell you – MAD!
So!  After a few hours of research, I had some good leads. After a couple of false starts and some experimentation, I found what seems to be the optimal (and cheapest!) solution.
While you can definitely adapt this method to your own needs, bear in mind it was originated for my own situation: having a US cell phone with a Canada/US calling package and an unlimited Canada/US data plan ($147/mo from Verizon on my DROID).  That being said, onward to the good stuff!

Getting a Google Voice number

Since I already had Google Voice from when I was living in the US, I didn’t have to spoof my IP to be able to register an invite. If you’re reading this in hopes of copying my set up, there are plenty of tutorials on how to use public web proxies like hotspot shield to make it look like you’re in the US. And the method I’m going to describe DOES let you register with Google Voice without having to get an US ph#.

The 403 area code hack + FreePhoneLine.ca

There is some quirk in GV that lets it accept 403 numbers, so I went to FreePhoneLine and registered for a 403 area code number (Calgary). They also have a Skype-like softphone you can download and install if you like that sort of thing, but I didn’t bother as I don’t need it.  (plus it was Win or Mac only anyway)
I then went into the “followme settings” for my account, and set the FollowMe mode to “Always Forward” and added my local landline’s 780 phone number as the FollowMe number. To make sure GVoice picked up for vmail and not FPL’s native service, I set the “Number of seconds [to ring before going to vmail]” to 72. GV vmail picks up after 30s.

Google Voice unlimted incoming and outgoing calls

So to sum up to achieve unlimted incoming and outgoing calls, once would need the following:
For unlimited incoming to work:
- A plan from the cell company that includes unlimited incoming calls (use your voice plan)
For unlimited outgoing to work:
- a google voice account (uses your data plan)
And the part about hotspot shield and the freephoneline account is only needed to activate a google voice account from Canada using an alberta number and you need to configure your followme setting to your cell phone number to pass the google voice authorization.
Would this be right?
Would there be anyway to receive also the incoming calls over voip for those of us who dont have an unlimited incoming feature?