publication date: Apr 1, 2008

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author/source: Miles Galliford

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Make Free Telephone Calls Online! 

We have selected our top ten free or cheap online telephone and communications services.

There is no reason you should be paying carrier rates for your calls. There are many fee online telephone services which can slash your bills. Here are some we have used.

We use Skype as our main means of communicating with our team members, suppliers and customers. This is mainly because all these people already use the service; it is not because it is the best voice or video application. Last year the service went down for three days so you should have a backup plan. If you don’t have to use Skype consider one of the options below.

Skype calls between computers are free. Calls from a computer to a normal phone or mobile are charged at low rates, for which you have to buy credits. This service is called SkypeOut. You can also buy a Skype phone number (30 Euros/yr) which allows people to call you on your computer. This can be useful as it means you can take phone calls on any computer anywhere in the world. This service is called SkypeIn.

Pros

• Biggest user base by a long way
• Owned by eBay so will continually be improved
• Very easy to use

Cons

• Uses a lot of YOUR computer processing power even when you are not making calls
• Call quality poor at busy times
• Has had reliability problems
• Cancelled thousands of UK 0207 telephone numbers, which was a disaster for many businesses

Raketu

Raketu (www.raketu.com) is a direct competitor to Skype. The service enables free PC-to-PC calls and PC-to-phone, mobile-to-phone and phone-to-phone calls.

Pros:

• Low rates, including SMS
• Does not consume a lot of your CPU processing power like Skype
• Small download (3.4MB)
• Includes all types of calling and SMS

Cons:

• Confusing website

Gizmo

Gizmo Project is an open-source ‘softphone’ for your PC. We tried it when it was first launched back in 2005 and it didn’t work very well. The latest version, Gizmo5, has had good reviews and our early trials have been positive. Gizmo5 features Call In and Call Out (similar to SkypeIn and SkypeOut) for around1.9 cents per minute. It has instant messaging, and the ability to record conversations or map where caller and receiver are located.

Pros

• Easy download and setup (but you must remove all previous versions)
• Good audio and video quality (better than Skype!)
• New beta version for mobile phones
• Works on Windows, Linux and Mac

Cons

• Waiting to see
  

OoVoo

Oovoo’s main focus is video chat which they do very well. If video is a priority for you this is probably the best free service available. The quality is excellent, it allows up to six participants and has lots of nice add-on features (dial-in to video calls, record video calls, special effects). Worth a try.

Pros

• Easy to install
• Good multi-user video calls (up to 6 people)
• Good video and clear audio

Cons

• Free at the moment, but may introduce fees
• Only allows phone calls in the USA or Canada

SightSpeed

Another video conferencing service. The basic version is free which allows good pc-to-pc videoconferencing. The Pro version is $4.95 which allows multi-party conferencing, file sharing, video call recording and live tech support. Most of these features are free with ooVoo.

Pros

• Good quality video and audio
• Can call from browser without installing software on your PC
• Windows and Mac

Cons

• ooVoo do a lot of the Pro services for free

Google Talk

As is often the case, Google has launched Talk as me-too product with a poor feature set. However it has the potential to become a player. You can either run the chat from the browser or download the Google Talk software.

Pros

• Easy to setup and takes contacts from Gmail address book
• Unlimited file transfer size
• Voicemail

Cons

• Windows and Blackberry only (Linux and Mac coming soon)
• Poor feature set compared to Skype and other competitors
• Does not connect to landline or mobile phones

iChat

Apple’s excellent video, voice and instant messaging application which is bundled with all Macs. Could be a Skype killer if it was available for Windows and Linux. Razor-sharp videoconferencing with up to three participants or clear audio-conferencing with up to nine people.

Pros

• Superb audio and video quality
• Very easy to use
• Integrated into operating system so no setup issues

Cons

• Mac only

Jajah

Jajah offers the chance to make entirely free PC-to-PC VoIP calls and a limited number of free calls to and from landline phones. You visit Jajah’s website, then enter your phone number and the number you want to call. Your phone rings and you answer, after which your recipient's phone rings and Jajah completes the call. It’s a neat application that’s easy to use

Pros

• Very simple to use
• Free between Jajah users. Global calls at local rates for all other calls
• Jajah direct allows you to call without a PC

Cons

• Ceiling on free calls limits usefulness for high-volume callers
• Some complaints about calls being cut off
• Business users pay

 VBuzzer

VBuzzer is a limited me-too service which doesn’t really offer any advantages over the other players. Calls between vBuzzers are free, anywhere in the world. ‘BuzzOut calls are charged at local rates which are no better than Jajah,

Pros

• Works with older computers

Cons

• Currently available only for Windows 2000 and XP
• No real advantages over other solutions
  

OpenWengo

Openwengo is one for the techies. WengoPhone is an open source community creating a range of services for communications via IP.

Pros:

• Flexible open source software solution which can be tailored to your needs

Cons:

• Only suitable for programmers
  

VOIPBuster  

The website is very unclear about what you pay for and what is free, so tread carefully. It appears that there are free calls to around 35 countries (out of 300 – US included, UK excluded), plus free calls to mobiles in the U.S., Puerto Rico and Hong Kong. VoipBusterPro (www.voipbusterpro.com/en/) claims to offer a year worth of free unlimited calls for 10 Euros, but adds in the small print there is a 3.9 euro cents connection fee for every call. Too unclear about what is ‘free’ to be my choice.

VoipBuster is owned by a German company, Betamax Gmh. They also run the websites SipDiscount, Voipstunt, Internetcalls, Sparvoip.de, Poivy, Netappel, Voipdiscount, WebCallDirect and Voipcheap.co.uk. They offer the same service at different rates.

Pro:

• Free calls to 35 destinations. Cheap rates to other. Check before calling

Cons:

• Confusing idea of “free.”
• Some complaints about credit being removed from accounts if unused for 90 days
• Minimum credit 10 Euros
• Why do they have lots of websites all offering different prices?

There are dozens of online services now offering free or cheap global telephone calls. There is no reason for anyone to be paying carrier call rates.

My recommendations are:

• For reach and number of users – Skype
• For video communications - Oovoo
• Alternative to Skype or as a backup service – Raketu, but keep an eye on Gizmo5
• Phone-to-phone service - Jajah

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