As all of you Gmail users already know you can make phone calls through your Gmail account. Just log in, dial a phone number and you can talk to that person through your computers mic and speakers. But that's just half the solution. Why doesn't Google allow you to receive calls? It would be easy - Google would setup a 800 (I'm using 800 as an example) prefix number and link Gmail accounts to a phone number. Example: blah.blah@gmail.com could be 1-800-1234-5678-9012-3456. Someone then can call you or leave a voice message at that number. Google could then charge you for each call or message received - no charge to the person making the call. I assume the reason Google hasn't done this is because of regulatory reasons - the phone industry wouldn't allow them to.
OK ...... I Googled for more info and I see that service is for the US only and you need a US phone number to set it up. I'm in Canada so it looks like I'm SOL.
I'm not short sighted. I want a proper set-up, not an inferior work around. I did a quick search and it looks like I have to mask my IP and get free US based phone number to enable Google Voice. But once enabled the Google Voice number will have a US prefix and not be toll-free. I prefer a toll-free number (but I would pay for incoming calls and messages) OR a Vancouver, Canada based prefix (604, 250, 778). I'm still looking into this.