If you use Google Voice, does it use your cell phone minutes?

I keep hearing google advertising google voice as a way to get cheap calling, but how can this be, isn't it still using the cell phone towers from whatever service you have(AT%26amp;T/Verizon, etc?) Basically what I'm asking is if I switched to google voice could i then lower my calling plan to a very low amount of minutes and then not have to pay much for cell service or does it still use my cell's service?|||At this time, Google Voice is a free service. But realize that it's mainly a phone forwarding service. Many are thinking that when it's said that Google Voice is free, that includes free calling on their cell phone plans, or that minutes are not charged on their cell phones, and that just isn't true. Your cell phone plans will continue to function just as they did without Google Voice. There are some ways around some of that with favorites lists, but that' dependent on the cell provider.





The main benefit I've seen personally is that now I can call my long distance relatives via my home phone by dialing through GV and that won't get charged as a long distance call. If I were to just dial directly with my home phone, I would be charged long distance. That also transfers the minute usage for that on my cell phone off of there, meaning I can move to a more economical prepaid cell phone if I choose. I don't do any international calling, but when I started, free calling had been limited to the continental US. I believe they've since opened up free calling to Canada (unfortunately, still not free to Alaska, Hawaii, or the US territories as far as I know).|||Too vague and confused.





"continue to function just as they did"


So using Google Voice is charged as a phone call and it's not VoIP?





"That also transfers the minute usage for that on my cell phone off of there"


Huh?

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