Interesting - my experiences are quite different. I can order some stuff from Amazon.com (US) from Canada, but many things aren't available. I can't use Amazon Prime (they won't even let me sign up without a US address), and I can't order books for my Amazon Kindle purchased in Dubai (it needs a US address as well).
With Google, however, nearly everything works. I've been using Google Music for some time now, although it isn't officially available in Canada. Same with Google Voice. All I had to do was sign up for both with a VPN for the first use, after which I can access it anywhere through the respective apps in any country with no hassles.
All you need is to have a US IP address to get it working. But, that requires a VPN (which is sometimes expensive) and you`ll always have to go through it to access the Voice service. That most likely means no access from an Android phone though I'm not sure.
As for the phone number, it's going to be local to whatever adress he put in in the US, there are no Canadian phone numbers for Voice.
What really makes me angry is that Google purchased GrandCentral to get their voice software, then they completely shut Canada off from service and haven`t opened it in years. It's not like GrandCentral didn't get the CRTC approvals required to give service, so what's holding up Google? I'm really mad at them for how all these services only work in the US. There are legal considerations, but you'd think it wouldn't take 3 years to go through these kinds of hurdles when you're freakin' Google!
Huh. Well, in that case, maybe I'll just go to the source and use Fongo then, since that's what Dell Voice uses? No use having an extra layer on top!
http://www.fongo.com/
With Google, however, nearly everything works. I've been using Google Music for some time now, although it isn't officially available in Canada. Same with Google Voice. All I had to do was sign up for both with a VPN for the first use, after which I can access it anywhere through the respective apps in any country with no hassles.