Abosouloutely love it myself, so far I have no use for the acctual google number, but i will soon, and mainly i want it for the voicemail as visual voicemail from vzw is flakey as fuck
GOtta request an invite from google.
TO make/recieve calls/texts its completely free, outside of teh US is the only thing that costs money, and its much cheaper than most cell provicders , you need to go to google voice web page and request an invitiation… honestly the chances of you getting it are pretty slim, well at least anytime soon… took me 6 months to get an invite, and the waiting list has since gotten much much longer.
If/when I get invited to invited people ill let you and your brother know.