Dell Voice for Canadians: What the Fongo Service Offered

Why it appeared

Canadians were still waiting for Google Voice, which offered free long distance and one number. Dell Voice came close to that idea without being the same thing.

What it offered

• A local number, if you lived in one of the listed cities.
• No long distance charge when calling numbers in the service’s list of cities.
• Credits for other calls. The article gave the US or an unlisted Canadian city as 2 cents per minute.
• A button while dialing to show the per-minute cost.
• Caller ID, unlimited incoming calls and call waiting.
• Registration from within the Android app.

Limits noted by the author

• The app sat in the notification area all the time and had to be exited manually.
• Voicemail transcription, a Google Voice feature, was missing.
• Data use during calls was unknown.

The service also offered SIP details for $50 to enter into phone settings. The author held off on that, as the service was only a day old.