A month ago today I was transplanted from my comfortable roots in Toronto, Canada, to a somewhat foreign city notoriously known as Sin City, but to the locals just Las Vegas, NV. Ironically - being the “cellguru” and all - the only worry I had when I landed was “how would I communicate with my friends/family back home, with little to no cost to both of us?” American cell phone plans are very similar to Canadian ones, in which nationwide calling is generally offered (sometimes included); it’s when you involve Canada in the mix that they bite you in the ass - also, I am Canadian, therefore I couldn’t get a post-paid line even if I tried due to credit constraints. As luck would have it, my roommate here in Vegas had an extra AT&T line on his plan, with plenty of minutes and data to share with me. So I happily popped the AT&T SIM into my Nexus S and was prepared for smooth sailing in the U.S. - or was I? His plan, as stated before, only covered nationwide calling and texting - who did I know other than a handful of people? I was in a bit of a dilemma - until I remembered Google Voice: the ingenious idea from Google to have 1 number connected to your Gmail account ring your plethora of connected phones, which offered free North America calling and texting, and yes, an integrated online inbox to check voice mail, send/receive text messages, and even place phone calls. The downside? It isn’t “available” in Canada. Yes, there are workarounds to activate a number, place calls from your computer, and send/receive text, but you cannot place any mobile-based calls with it from a Canadian number. Period. Anyway, back on topic. I’ve had a Google Voice number activated for a number of years, texting and receiving calls (thanks to the Magic Jack workaround) without ever having the ability to physically test out the voice quality on the go, so I was quite excited to be able to fully integrate the service into my Nexus S, phone calls and all.

Read on to find out my thoughts on the service one month in:

Reliability: Listen, it’s hard to be too much of a stickler on something that is free. It does what it’s supposed to do, when it feels like it; but for the most part, its been solid.

Call Quality: This right here is my biggest concern. A majority of the time the person on the receiving end either couldn’t hear me, state that I sound extremely muffled, or the call simply cuts out. I’d expect this to happen with little to no signal, but not in full service areas.

Convenience: Even if you’re not an American citizen, this is the ultimate reason to start using it. The number is web-based (and attached to your Gmail account) so you can track text messages, phone calls (in and out), listen to voicemail or read the transcribed version, and yes, block unwanted calls. Once configured to your American line (I am using a Nexus S so things are very well integrated, you know being Google and all) everything is seamless and easy to setup. I also have it configured to my Canadian BlackBerry for text messaging purposes, which also works great, just not as fast and I cannot place calls.

Text Messaging: Other than some minor sending issues and occasional delayed received ones, this is by far my favorite feature of Google Voice. Not only can I text home for free, but no matter if i’m at my desk, on my Nexus, or on my BlackBerry, all conversations are saved seamlessly and effortlessly to be picked up and continued regardless of my device of choice for that day.

In my opinion Google Voice is the perfect solution for people like me: Canadians in need of a change of scenery living in the US who need a cost efficient solution for keeping in touch with back home. It also works great for Americans who carry numerous devices (most nowadays) but don’t want numerous phone numbers to give out.