Last December, Google provided military families with free $10 international call credits with the objective of serving soldiers smoothly communicate with their near and dears as they were deployed around the world. Shortly thereafter, Google decided to just offer free domestic calls from Gmail for the U.S. and Canada, where Gmail users could be able to make calls to landlines and mobile devices from Gmail.
The search engine behemoth has announced on its blog that it is now expanding its complimentary calling from Gmail within Canada and the U.S. throughout 2012.
Moreover, international calls on Gmail’s VoIP service are still cheap, as low as one penny per per minute, depending on the call’s destination. But unfortunately, Google’s complimentary VoIP service has not been so generous internationally, though Google noted that they are still maintaining “insanely low rates.”
In order to activate a call, Gmail users can click on the “Call Phone” option from the chat menu on the left side of the screen, and then dial any domestic number. Google Voice users can also accept incoming calls through desktop Gmail at no charge.
It is still vague as to why Google is extending its free calls service for so much longer than originally intended. Now, a year later, Google announced that this will continue. In a post on the Gmail Blog, the company says:
As the holiday season approaches, we’re happy to announce that we’ve extended free domestic calls within the US and Canada for 2012.
This is our way of helping you connect with friends and family across the country. And you can still call the rest of the world from Gmail at our insanely low rates.
No word on other countries. Perhaps Google is vying for more time to build up a user base against Skype, or on the other hand, the company is earning enough revenues from international calls.
The major variance between Gmail and Skype is wide apart, Google on the one hand allows users to call mobile phones and landlines for free, whereas Skype only permits free calls to other Skype accounts. In addition, Skype offers mobile apps for calling other users. Google does not offer any free voice calling on mobile phones. Both services charge for international calls.
Initially, Google appended phone calls to Gmail in August 2010, at the time stating that it would start charging for domestic calls in 2011. Later that year, Google extended its free Gmail calling offer through the end of 2011. Now, the company is extending the offer for yet another year.
Whatever the reason, it is certainly a pleasure to see free calling stick around until at least 2012. So enjoy taking advantage of free Gmail calling for another year!