How to get a free Goose Creek area phone number so your sailor can call home for free

Who: This topic is for  Dads  to   get yourselves a free telephone number located in the Goose Creek, South Carolina (Charleston) local calling area, by using the Google Voice service.  

What:  It is a local Charleston, SC area phone number that forwards incoming calls to your home phone, your work or even your cell phone, whenever your sailor calls that number.  It also has free voicemail.

Why:  Your sailor can dial your new Goose Creek area phone number  from any land-line telephone in the Charleston calling area and it is a "free" local call, not a  long distance call.  If he calls from a pay phone it is a local call. After all he is dialing a local number in the Charleston area.    [If he calls from his cell phone it is not a local call and may use up minutes, check your plan. ]  It does not require a long distance calling card since it is not long distance, there are no charges. Your sailor dials a local Charleston number and your home phone rings.  You can also set it up to ring multiple phones ... so your home phone, your work phone and your mobile phone will all ring whenever  he or she calls ... never miss a phone call.  

This may be  useful if your sailor is using a land-line phone to make the call because it is a "local call" for that phone that is placing the call.

How:   First you have to create a Google account go http://voice.google.com .  If you already have an account just log in if not, create a free google account.

Then it will let you choose a number like this.  The area code for Goose Creek is 843.   Type in 843 then  Click on search available numbers

then it will list out all the local numbers in that area code that are available and includes many different cities.  Since not all the 843 area code exchanges are local calls from Goose Creek, choose one that is in the Charleston calling area.  I did this by looking at a map first then checking with a web site that will tell you if a call from one dialing exchange to another is a local call or not.

After looking at Google Maps for cities that were close to Goose Creek, SC on the map,  I chose Sullivans Island, SC for mine.  Where you typed 843 before now type Sullivans Island and click on Search available numbers.  There may be other towns besides Sullivans Island that are local to Goose Creek.

Sullivans Island are (843) 882-XXXX numbers.    The phone at Nuclear Power School are (843) 574-XXXX numbers.  You can use the following Local Calling Guide web page to show that calling between those two exchanges is a local phone call for the caller:

http://www.localcallingguide.com/lca_rcdist.php?npa1=843&nxx1=5...

Then you pick one of the available numbers that are shown.  Later it lets you link that number to your actual home phone number, your cell phone or all the above. 

Now if your sailor dials  from any  from any phone in Charleston area, he just has to dial your new  (843) 882-XXXX number you picked, the call is forwarded, and your actual home phone rings at home (or the office, or your cell phone rings).