So you’ve bought the iPhone. Now you have to inform everyone your number has changed.

Or do you?

Not if you have a Grand Central phone number. The new web-based service will allow you to sign up for one number that you keep for life. It’s a pretty sweet service and as of this writing, it’s free, unless you have a gajillion phone numbers to unite.

Grand Central is more than “one number for life.” Through your Web account, you can set the number to ring all of your phones — work, home, cell — so no matter what phone you’re using, you’ll get the call. Mom (wife, girlfriend) will thank you when she no longer has to dial all five of your numbers before she can reach you.

Having one central number also simplifies matters when your phone numbers change, whether you are switching cell phone service providers or transitioning to a new job. As long as you give out your Grand Central phone number to all of your contacts, they’ll never have to update their contact info for you again. You’ll have to change some settings within your Web account, but that’s surely easier than calling to inform batty Aunt Muriel and her 18 batty kids to tell them your number has changed.

Another bonus: All your voice mail messages are collected in one spot, saving you the time it takes to check all three or four of your voicemail boxes. If you’re really addicted, you can play your messages from your Grand Central Web account and download them for posterity.

There are plenty of other fun little features, such as call naming (something like caller ID), listen in (listen as your caller leaves a voicemail), and call recording (pretty self-explanatory).

The downsides are minimal, the biggest hurdle being the initial transition. So unless everyone is actively using your grand central number, you’ll still have to check those other voicemail boxes.

I haven’t really informed anyone of my “new” number except the cable company…I figure it will come in most useful the next time I switch phone providers. Then I’ll inform everyone in one fell swoop of my new number, and I’ll never have to worry about it again.

If your object is to avoid phone calls at all costs, then perhaps Grand Central isn’t for you.

Happy dialing!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 21st, 2007 at 10:55 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.