Google Voice  is a VOIP service with many intriguing features like voicemail transcription, personalized greetings and call forwarding to any phone you wish.  You get a regular phone number and you can call anywhere in the US and Canada for free. Texting is also free. Calling is $0.01 per minute to call other countries from the US. Reasonable rates when calling from other countries. Google Voice (formerly GrandCentral) was acquired by Google in 2009.