We get a lot of questions about our phone number, here at Prescott eNews. You see, it's a 602 area code, and obviously, most people in Prescott have a 928 area code number. So, what's with that? Are we really from Phoenix, writing remotely?

Nah! We live right here locally, and bring all the news to you from an 'on the ground' perspective. But, a long time ago, we were able to participate in testing for a service called 'Grand Central'. Grand Central was bought out by Google during the testing period, and the service is now called Google Voice.

What Google Voice does is assign you a phone number - ours is in Phoenix for now - that will then call all your other numbers to inform you that a call is being made: home, office and cell. If you are unable to answer, it will take the voice mail the caller leaves and send it to your email, where you can hear it right there. And now that it's Google Voice and not Grand Central, it will also transcribe that message for you.

How cool is that?

There are also many other features that are just too valuable to ignore: recording phone calls, blocking spam, sorting calls... it's an awesome service.

The good news is that right now, it's free. The bad news is that if you weren't a Grand Central member originally, you can't get a number yet.

But, keep an eye out for an announcement from Google that Google Voice is now being offered. If you can ever sign up, you'll love the service, I promise!

For now, you can learn all about the Google Voice features and even join the waiting list.

In the meantime, if you want to call us at Prescott eNews, but don't want to dial a long distance number, just click on the "Call Widget" below. It's free!

(Maybe you should bookmark this page!)