Google Voice goes international in 38 languages

Our overlords at Google have now enabled calls through Gmail in 38 languages. Over 150 locations around the world will also see a fee reduction.

Google Voice already enables users in the U.S. and Canada to make free calls to land lines or cell phones through Gmail. Now, that coverage is expanding - Google has made a few tweaks to the call rates. International rates are inexpensive by comparison to other telecommunications services.

The Google Voice Blog posted sample fee changes. "For example, it's now only $0.10 (or ?0.08) per minute to call mobile phones in the U.K., France or Germany (landlines are $0.02/min), $0.15/minute to call mobile phones in Mexico and $0.02/min to call any phone number in China and India." The post also confirmed, "Calls to the U.S. or Canada placed within those countries will continue to be free at least for the rest of 2011."

If you're not familiar with Google Voice, it's a telecommunications service provided for free for Google account holders. Users get a unique phone number that can be forwarded to several different lines. Other features include voice transcription, call screening and free text messages. It was launched in March 2009.