Internet VOIP

Ok, so this is not new tech to most people, but I want to take a moment to sing the praise of internet VOIP.

This is often billed as "making free calls over the internet" which is what you are basically getting, although it is not really the case since you are paying for an intenet connection.

In practice, you need to set up an account with a provider, like Skype, and then you can make calls over your account to other Skype people for free. You can also (for a fee) make calls out to normal phone lines at a very inexpensive rate, around 0.017 cents (US) per minute to domestic and international numbers.

Here are some providers that I think are all very good. I currently use Skype, and if anyone wants to add me in their directory, my username is fraseringermany





To make this even better for me, I just bought the fancy new IPAQ 514 smartphone from work:
Now it is hard for me to sing the praises of the new phone without sounding like a company shill, so you can take my excitement however you please. I have very favorable reviews supporting my enthusiasm though:

Review 1
Review 2
Review 3

I am most excited that I can use this phone as a WiFi phone, and when you combine that with a VOIP client.... free calls both domestic and international, provided of course I am calling someone else using a VOIP service and I am in WiFI range.

Oh, one other thing, if you are running a Windows Mobile device, you need a client software running in the phone to get the VOIP services running. I am recommending FRING, in which you can have a single program running that allows you to call all of your VOIP friends, regardless of the provider; Google, Gizmo, Skype....