Just found this calling card on the net.

It shows that it has some unlimited calls, like to China.

Link: http://www.therichcom.com/carddetails.asp?Brand=2562

Link: http://www.tigerphonecard.com/product/sti_nj_(800_and_nj_local_access)phone_card.html

According to the description,

ABSOLUTELY NO REFUND OR EXCHANGE !!WHEN USING A TOLL FREE NUMBER FROM A PAY PHONE A $0.90 PER CALL SURCHARGE WILL APPLY. A WEEKLY MAINTENANCE FEE OF $0.79 WILL BE ASSESSED AFTER THE FIRST CALL.

If only $0.79 is charged per week for unlimited calling, it’s still a good deal. I wonder how reliable it is.

With Packet8 MobileTalk, people can make international calls directly through cell phone via Packet8’s IP network. The rate is not bad for some countries, like 1 cent for China. It’s a good way to make calls. And no wifi/data plan required. But people do need install their application on their phones. Here is a list of Supported Mobile Phones.

I wonder what the quality is. If anybody has tried it, you’re welcome to comment.

I didn’t install voicemail, sounds etc. I have no mp3 files on my asterisk.

Jan 1 00:44:48 NOTICE[1254]: res_musiconhold.c:507 monmp3thread: Request to schedule in the past?!?!
Jan 1 00:44:48 WARNING[1254]: res_musiconhold.c:336 spawn_mp3: /var/lib/asterisk/mohmp3 is not a valid directory
Jan 1 00:44:48 WARNING[1254]: res_musiconhold.c:488 monmp3thread: Unable to spawn mp3player

Source link at voip-info.org.

Shoutcast Music On Hold

You can have asterisk use a streaming source for on-hold music.

Make a directory and put a 0 size file ending in .mp3.
I called my directory: /var/lib/asterisk/mohmp3-empty

in musiconhold.conf, add a line such as:
default => mp3:/var/lib/asterisk/mohmp3-empty,http://www.waixwave.com:8000/

Alternative method –

The initial method seems to not work in 1.2 & +. You can use the method below, doing a custom application and calling mpg123, and specifying your shoutcast source.

default
mode=custom
dir=/var/lib/asterisk/mohmp3-empty
application=/usr/local/bin/mpg123 -q -r 8000 -f 8192 -s –mono http://213.186.41.160:8000/

Hotspot@Home

In June of last year, T-Mobile introduced their Hotspot@Home UMA service, which lets users “seamlessly” (depending who you ask) transfer calls between their cellular network and Wi-Fi. It cost $19.99 per month for a single line. Now it’s $10.

Tmobile@Home

T-mobile just launched “Tmobile@Home” plan, which provides users with a $50 WRTU54G, allowing users to plug in a landline in order to get unlimited local and domestic calling for just $10 a month. T-Mobile will transfer your number to their system, and they’re also offering a $60 VTech wireless phone. The service was initially only offered in Dallas and Seattle, but as of July 2 will be available nationwide.

T-Mobile CEO talks with the Seattle Times about the company’s shift in direction.

Free areas: http://www.talkster.com/Countries.aspx 

Call with regular phone: Just get your free Talkster numbers on the homepage: http://www.talkster.com/Default.aspx.

Call with skype: http://www.talkster.com/Skype/default.htm.

Call with googletalk: http://www.gtalk2voip.com/talkster.shtml.

Free Calls and Conference Calls with all your facebook friends: http://apps.facebook.com/talkster/

It works like a conference call. You call your local number, the other person calls his/her local number. Both are charged local fees if the phone company charges.

To make a call, call the talkster number, and tell your friend to handup and call in his local talkster number. In the meantime, you wait online until your friend calls in.

A new york based company called pccall.com offers a plan called “Lucky 7“, with which people could calls 7 countries with monthly fee $7.

The 7 countries are

As explained here: https://www.pccall.com/lucky7.asp, “monthly Fee of $7 for your first full calendar month”, which sounds tricky.

It seems people have to call from computers. There’s no sip proxy introduced so that people could call from sip device or asterisk.

Check out with the company if you are interested. Welcome to comment on it if you get any experience.

I’m using WRT54GS + Openwrt + asterisk at home. It is good because we have all controls. But admin password will be lost from time to time, then I’ll have to reset it: http://blog.nyworldphone.com/2008/02/06/openwrt-on-wrt54gs-reset-the-root-password/. And, for some providers, I can’t make it work with my asterisk on wrt54gs.

Then I tried pbxes.org. It is still free and works perfect. I can do everything I’m doing right now with my asterisk.  It is a good option for personal use which cost nothing. Here I would like to explain some configurations that I did.

1. Receiving calls on Sip phone/device.

A) Internal between extensions.

• Extensions-> Add Extension
• Display name(e.g. 3000)
• Password(e.g. 3000)
• Outbound CID(e.g. 3000)
• Voicemail(optional, disabled by default)
• Submit

You could do the same thing above to add more extensions (e.g. 6000 etc).

When you configure it on your sip phone/device, usename is “pbxes_username”-exten, e.g. username-3000, password is your pbxes extension password and domain/sip proxy is pbxes.org. Now you can dial extensions from one to another, e.g. dial 6000.

B) Through a DID number

a. Add extensions as A).

b. Add trunks

• Trunks->Add Trunk->(e.g. Add SIP Trunk)
• Trunk Name (e.g. freedigits)
• username (e.g. freedigits number)
• password (e.g. freedigits password)
• Sip server(e.g. freedigits.net)
• Submit changes

 c. Add Inbound Routing

• Inbound Routing->Add Incoming Routing
• Trunk: (e.g. freedigits)
• Caller ID Number (optional, specify allowed incoming CID)
• Set Destination: mark Extension, and choose one from the list, e.g. 3000.
• Submit

Now when people call the freedigits DID, calls will be routed to the extension 3000.

2. Make calls

A) Add extensions as 1.A.

B) Add trunk as 1.B.b with your favorite voip provider, e.g. voipbuster.

C) Set outbound routing

• Outbound Routing->Add Route
• Route name: (e.g. sip out)
• Trunk sequence: (e.g. voipbuster)
• Set Destination (optional)
• Save changes

Now you can make calls usign your favorite vsp from your sip phone/device.

3. Call Forwarding/Receiving calls on PSTN phones (landline or cell phones).

A) Add trunks as 1.B.b.

B) Add ring groups

• Ring Groups->Add Ring Group
• Group number: (e.g. 1)
• extension list: landline or cell phone number plus #. e.g. 12126668888# (it may differ according to your provider)
• ring time, e.g. 20
• Destination if no answer (optional)
• Submit changes

C) Add inbound routing

Same as 1.B.c, except in “Set Destination” mark Ring Group(e.g. #1).

D) Add outbound routing as 2.C.

Now if people call your freedigits DID, the call will be forwarded to your regular phone using through your vsp.

4. Call back

Start with callthru by adding an inbound route with the number of your phone entered as Caller ID. Leave Trunk Name empty. If it doesn’t work check your call monitor for the right format of your Caller ID. When dialing the callthru destination you may always press the * key to redial and # to end digits. After the called party hangs up you will hear another dialtone for your next call. To hangup by yourself transfer the call to an invalid destination by dialing *2.

- alen

Get US $5 in free calling when you sign up for a Pingo pre-paid calling card.

http://www.pingo.com/

Try on your own risk.

It seems magicjack is a rising star in the hot voip market.

What did they get?

1. Calling is convenient. Connect a regular phone to the magicjack, plug the magicjack into a USB port, and make calls. That’s it.

2. Cost is low: Each magicJack costs $39.95 plus shipping and handling. This gives you one year of calling to the USA and Canada. You can purchase an additional year’s service for $19.95

What’s the differece from USB phone?

USB phone + installed softphone = Regular phone + magicjack.

Basically, they put everything pre-installed in the magicjack. So this is no-brainer totally. Even grandma can do it.

MagicJack’s success tells us that in the voip market, if you could do a little bit more than others, you could succeed. If you check the various voip solutions partially listed in this post: http://blog.nyworldphone.com/2008/03/06/various-voip-solutions/, you would see how to make voip calls, what’s our voip future are really up to our imagination. There’s still a lot of space that we can imagine.

To me magic jack is not so much better than others.

MagicJack is simple. But if you have buy others like vonage, what you need do to make a call is just connect your regular phone to the adapter, connect the adapter to the router, and make calls. Oh right, you need a router to have both of your computer and adapter “internet accessible”, and you need plug in the power supply etc. Big deal, we like las vegas but we don’t want travel?

MagicJack is cheap. Skype is 3 bucks a month for NA unlimited and has unlimited world plan. Speaking of cheap, icall.com and some others offer free calls to US and Canada.

MagicJack is portable. So what? If you have a laptop for MagicJack calling on travel, isn’t skype more simple? Just login and make calls. You don’t even need carry a regular phone. Grandma doesn’t know how to use skpe? Does she carry a laptop to use MagicJack? Does she know how to get the internet access on travel? Actually, I would recommend her to carry a pre-configured sip phone on travel. Connect it to internet and make calls. That’s even smaller than a laptop.

MagicJack can be sent to another country. You can send a adapter too. For simpler, just send a link for skype without shipping fee.

MagicJack is small. What’s the size of skype?

MagicJack has all these features, portable, simple, cheap, small etc. Actually there’re already some dedicated skype phones, such as Linksys CIT400 Wireless IP Phone. The price is not cheap. We have to turn on our computer to use MagicJack which obvious is not a good solution for permanent household using. I would expect some sip service with similar pricing to MagicJack. I bet the pre-configured adapter would make Grandma even happier.

Even all this, MagicJack offers another solution, a new option and it’s kind of cute(see the picture above). People love to try new things.

– Alen

Unlimited World

Unlimited calls to landlines* in 34 countries.
No long-term contract. No connection fees.

Unlimited calls to landlines* in

• Australia
• Austria
• Belgium
• Canada (incl. cell phones)
• China (incl. cell phones)
• Chile
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Estonia
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Guam
• Hong Kong (incl. cell phones)
• Hungary
• Ireland
• Italy
• Japan
• Korea, Republic of
• Luxembourg
• Malaysia
• Mexico (Mexico City)
• Mexico (Guadalajara)
• Mexico (Monterrey)
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Norway
• Poland
• Portugal
• Puerto Rico
• Singapore (incl. cell phones)
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Taiwan
• United Kingdom
• United States (incl. cell phones)

And there’s a special offer now - buy 3 months and only pay for 2. Ends June 1st 2008.

Skype also offers Unlimited US & Canada for $2.95.

Unlimited Mexico for $5.95 which covers

Since betamax’s service is so bad and rates vary so much, so fast without updating website information. You might want to go for skype for international calling. But the only thing I don’t like about skype is that people have to use it with computers. People have tried to use it with asterisk. But I’m not sure how well it works.