I have been looking into VoIP phone companies recently. They fall generally into 2 categories:
- PC to PC - generally free
- Phone to Phone - generally monthly fee
Phone to Phone
There are a number of paid services that can actually replace traditional telephone service. With one of them, Vonage - http://www.vonage.com/ (http://www.vonage.com/), you can even keep your existing phone number. Generally speaking, many features are provided free of charge as well as free or deeply discounted long distance.
PC to PC
I found several of these as well including this one from the 2 KaZZa developers http://www.skype.com/ (http://www.skype.com/).
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I was wondering if anyone has any recent experience with VoIP or what if any gossip anyone has heard about this.
I am seriously considering using something like Vonage and telling the phone company to come and take the wires off my house. But before I do that I think I will try something like Skype to see how it works.
Anyone want to try experimenting with Skype (or others) ?
I decided, about 4 years ago, to tell the long distance companies to shove it! Cell phone all the way for LD!!
I've experimented a little with internet telephony (before they coined that phrase really) using Netmeeting and realized then that it was the future!
The FCC is steppin' in and really backing VoIP so it's definately something to get on board with.
My father (who was down here in FL at the time) and I (still in MI) would voice/video talk over the 'net. It was awesome and didn't cost a dime!
It's totally the way to go.
I haven't downloaded Skype yet, but Kevin Rose (from the Screen Savers on TechTV) highly recommends it (as does Roger Chang, also from TechTV) so it's probably your best bet. And they're usually pretty good about their recommendations. Meaning, they won't recommend something unless it's really good.
~ d
I thought Skype users could only call other Skype users.
I'm currently burning about 200$/month calling my friend in Rome, so I'd love an alternative that didn't take so much food out of my mouth.
Rode:
www.alitalia.com
Thanks.
I was planning to fly down this year, but the money situation is not good.
2000$ can. for a round trip. Blah. Rediculous.
I have been using Skype, well, for a while now... I talk with a few friends over that, but mostly for a joke, and if it "scratches" sometimes, you always have that text chat built in :)
Rode, Here are some other options for calling Europe and other international numbers:
- http://www.rhinobell.com/rw/home (http://www.rhinobell.com/rw/home)
- http://zipglobal.com/zipservices.html (http://zipglobal.com/zipservices.html)
- http://pulver.com/ (http://pulver.com/)
- http://www.freeworldialup.com/ (http://www.freeworldialup.com/)
RickJ -> Holy crap. You may have just saved me from starving to death. I'll have to look into it further. Awsome!
My pleasure Rode....
You may want to do Google on "VoIP Phone Service" because you may find better deals for Europe as I wasn't specifically focused on that.
Let us know what you comew up with and how it works out.
Cheers
Rick
Further investigation reveals that both users have to sign up for the service and have access to broadband connections.
Not that helpful at the moment, but definately something to hold my breath for.
That would be true for the totally free services but if you look closer at Rhino Bell and Zip Global they allow you to call any phone on the regular phone system at pretty good rates ($0.027 - $0.015 / min). If both parites have access to high speed internet then you really don't need to pay anything for a service provider.