Internet Telephony: Completely Free Calls Worldwide Article Discussion Area

RealityChecker

VoipCheap and VoipStunt offer totally free calls to UK landlines

Please update your use of the word 'free' such that it is congruent with its definition. Having to spend money to receive a service is the opposite of free service.

If the article is outdated revise- or remove it.

anustaya

I have been using talkster (talkstar.com) for over a year now and I can bet my last panny, it is fantastic.... free to mainland Europe, UK, USA and canada. I haven't tried callining outside these areas but can confirm it dosn't support Ghana. However, it is completely free between users, no downloads, only one caller registration required. I propose people on this forum give it a go. :beer::beer::beer:

Wombat wrote: »

Having looked at the gtalk2voip in more detail, I don't think it gives free phone calls in the UK. The system was developed in the US and relies on the fact that both parties are connected to local phone numbers, which ARE free in the US.

It can still be used to save money when calling internationally (and probably calling mobiles also), as the numbers called are all local numbers. So you get an international or mobile call for the cost of a local phone call.

Now, if you had a phone contract which allowed free, local phone calls, you're quids in. Do these exist?

stuey123

:jhi guys ,i have a prob,using skype on my computer and g/f is on 3 moblie with skype,her dad who is in crete on vodaphone satelight???? whats cheapest too phone, moblie to moblie ie software or a number to use to phone her dad in crete ,and what provider or software to call uk landline from her 3 moblie ,,,,,,,,,,,,P.S any ideas whats best from calling crete to a 3 moblie in the uk????:T

Spanishsaver_2

What phone do I need to by to access VOIP wirelessly anywhere without lugging my laptop about? I live a lot of the year in Spain where I have internet (supposedly broadband) by a microwave connection which is quite slow and relatively unreliable. The quality of VOIP calls is not good enough to be useable. I can't change to landline because the infrastructure in our urbanisation is not good enough quality to get broadband. In order to save a fortune in mobile(Spanish) to mobile (English) calls - principally to our sons who don't have landlines - I was thinking to use an internet phone? at the numerous bars in our area (very civilised) who provide broadband access free to customers. So what do I need to buy and can I just set it up as normal entering password (provided by bar) into phone as I would into computer? Sorry to be a luddite and hope this isn't a stupid question - advice would be most welcome!

frenchbob_2

Hi,

I Live in France and had been using Voipcheap for a long time. However, I am now using SmartVoip (probably same company) as it is half the price of Voipcheap! I pay 0.06€, about 5p pmin to UK mobile. I think that's great value. You need to regulary check these Voip companies as they change prices without telling you. Skype is great but you pay for calls to L/Lines. We only use Skype for webcam calls as Voip companies don't seem to have webcam.

Regards,

Bob

bigbloke

Having read about voipcheap.com on this site over a year ago, I signed up.

I have been using them, with no significant problems, on a daily basis.

I have my main BT phone line diverted on busy to my Voipcheap number so that I dont miss a call.

A week ago, people started telling me that they were getting "the service cannot be connected"
messages when my main line was busy.

I tried to dial in directly to my voipcheap DDI number - it didnt route

I logged into voipcheap.com and looked at my account.

I was still about 10EUR in credit and had 191 freedays remaining

but sure enough my DDI number had gone !!

to get myself back online I have had to "buy" a new DDI number (1 EUR) and have written a complaint to customer services

I will report back when (& if) they reply

Regards

BB

archie6

:A I love Angel Delight. :j

Porcupine

Just to say thanks for this article. Having known about most of the deals in another place there wasn't anything that was hugely new to me, but what's great is that it's so well presented. Telecoms is an insanely complex area, and you've done a very good job of explaining the tradeoffs. I was slightly worried that such an article would advertise the 'big' players in the market (eg Skype) through ignorance of the rest, but you've done a good job of avoiding that trap.

One minor comment. This section isn't clear

Having compared 15 Webphone providers, the cheapest by far are two little sister companies VoipStunt and VoipCheap. Neither have a set-up fee, but both require you to have £10 call credit before they can be used. Those providers that don't require any initial outlay have much higher call costs.

The credit only lasts 120 days from the last paid for call, after the 120 days you'll be charged their normal call rates though if you keep your account topped up you will keep the free calls. Both allow short test calls to see if you're happy with the quality before paying your £10.

What's ambiguous is you don't say the 120 days is the validity of free calls to the destinations they offer them. After the 120 days the credit doesn't disappear, it's just those destinations are no longer free (but still cheap).

By the way, for another Betamax price comparison (that I find easier to use), see:
http://progx.ch/

The links on the left are what you want, even though they look Google ads (which are on the right).

Porcupine

Spanishsaver wrote: »

What phone do I need to by to access VOIP wirelessly anywhere without lugging my laptop about?

There are various wifi SIP phones that would work with providers like Voipcheap. There's a list here ("WLAN or Wifi phones")
http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/VOIP+Phones?utm_source=voip-info&utm_medium=module&utm_campaign=recentchanges
or Google "wifi SIP phone". Also some mobiles can do Wifi and can have a VOIP client installed (eg some recent Nokias, Windows Mobile phones and the iPhone/iPod Touch)

The difficulty with the cheap phones is they don't have a browser. Some wireless networks, especially airports and hotels, send you to a page where you have to enter your password/credit card number to connect and the phones can't cope with this. Mobiles and iPods might do, though.

vinylmusic

I have a Nokia 5800 smartphone which also works with WiFi
It has Skype which is free to use calling other Skype customers so I ask myself is it not possible to use one of those other providers such as Sipgate or VOIPcheap from a wifi hotspot just like from a PC
If it is I'm not sure what to download or how to go about it
Can anyone help?
Thanks