In a gesture of appreciation for service men and women serving overseas in Iraq, Afghanistan, Europe and Asia, Google Voice is giving away extra calling credits to military families in North America.
Keeping in touch with family during the holiday season can be challenging for anyone, but it’s especially difficult for military families with loved ones serving around the country or overseas.
Gmail’s built in video chat and free calls to the U.S. and Canada can help keep friends and family in contact regardless of how far apart they may be. To make staying in touch this holiday season even easier for military families, we’re offering a $10 calling credit to help them reach their loved ones serving abroad.
These international call credits can be used to make calls with Google Voice or from right inside Gmail, and will provide families with roughly 30 minutes of call time to Afghanistan, 60 minutes to Iraq, or hundreds of minutes to many countries in Europe and around the world. (Official Google Voice Blog)
As you can tell from the picture above, Google is partnering with Sesame Street as well as Blue Star Families (the latter which is an organization that supports military families).
As an extra bonus, soldiers equipped with a smartphone (either Android or iPhone) will be able to call straight from their device without having to worry about using up too many minutes.
While Google should be praised for their generosity, hopefully the company will consider providing unlimited plans (similar to what Skype offers) in order to make it easier for soldiers to call their loves ones without counting down how many minuets they have left.
Image Credit: Sesame Workshop, 2010
Originally posted on December 3, 2010 @ 3:08 pm