Archive for the ‘Betamax’ Category
A Collection of Cheap Phone Services
Saturday, September 13th, 2008Intertional Calling
Everybody knows using computers to talk with MSN, QQ etc. We’ll nottalk about those methods here. Instead we talk about calls with regularphones on one side or both sides.
1. Of course, traditional way calling internationally is using calling card.
I went to Chinatown to buy calling cards when I first came here. I bought it online. We can get calling card with rates about or less than 1 cent per minute calling China.
2. Make international calls with local calling rates (or free): Talkster.com
http://www.talkster.com/
No registration, no credit cards, no catches, no limits!
With talkster, you get a local access for yourself, and an access number for your friend.
Say you want to call your friend, you call your access number which rings your friend’s phone. He/She answers the phone, then hangs up. You stays online. Your friend calls his/her access number. Then you two will be connected, basically having a conference call.
The good thing about this method is that your friends, families in China call also you by calling their access numbers first. You answer the phone, hang up, ask them to stay online, and then calls your access number.
3. Skype Unlimited World $9.95/month
http://www.skype.com/allfeatures/subscr … nadaworld/
In particular, unlimited calls areas include:
China landlines and mobiles
USA landlines and mobiles
Make Unlimited Skype™ Calls without a Computer with Belkin’s New Desktop Internet Phone for Skype: $99
Of course you don’t need pay anything if both sides use skype.
Get a skypein phone number, you basically have a lanline phone. It costs €50 one year.
4. There’s another way which is a little bit complicated. But it’s free calling between two sides. You need pay to get sip devices like this: Linksys PAP2T-NA for both sides and connect regular phones to the devices.
Then get sip accounts for both sides, like voipuser.com, voxilla.com or freedigits.com etc. Set it on the Sip device.
Reference:
http://blog.nyworldphone.com/2008/02/06 … cked-pap2/
.
In particular, Freedigits’ account is a US phone number. Basically, you and your friend in China get a free US phone number. Calling between you is free! Of course, other people in US can call you.
If you want to get local numbers, go to grandcentral.com, get numbers and forward it to your freedigits number(or GizmoProject sip account).
If you want to call other numbers in US or China, register accounts and buy credit from your favorite VOIP companies like voipdiscount.com etc, and register it on the sip device.
Basically, you get a home phone with a free US phone number, free calls between you and other people with the same setup and low rate calling to other people.
5. Another convenient way to call China is use Packet8 Mobile Talk with cell phones for 1 cent per minute to China.
6. I guess a lot of poople know iTalkBB. They offer unlimited calls to north America and China with a monthly fee $25.
7. The complicated way is to set up a free PBX asterisk which will provide the most features that you want. You can get a WRT54GS, load OpenWRT firmware and install asterisk. Then you can set up free US phone numbers (or even China number which you usually need pay) to receive calls. And you can set up calling services to call China and US.
Domestic Calling
Usually, people get phone service from Verizon. They offer individual service and packages like including internet, TV and phone services. Time Warner Cable also offers similar services.
1. Skype Unlimited US & Canada $2.95/month
Usually, you need a computer to make skype calls. Get a phone above, you’ll make calls like regular.
Make Unlimited Skype™ Calls without a Computer with Belkin’s New Desktop Internet Phone for Skype: $99
2. People who have tmobile service, even the lowest package, want to have a cheap home phone, Tmobile-at-Home is good choice.
$10 a month for unlimited calls in north America:
http://www.t-mobileathome.com/
3. Same as international calling #4 which may be the cheapest way. You can get Linksys PAP2-NA for about $30 on ebay.
4. Same as international calling #7.
Mobivox: Another VOIP service to substitute betamax
Thursday, April 3rd, 2008
Betamax had pretty good rates for international calling. But due to a lot of problems (check more details at http://blog.nyworldphone.com/2008/02/06/betamax-voip-services/), people may want to to find another one to substitute.
I checked around and found that mobivox(www.mobivox.com) has a free minutes policy which is similar to gizmo project. But not like gizmo, people can make calls from regular phones.
Here is their description about the free calling policy.
3.1 What is the offer: “Free calls between MOBIVOX users”?
MOBIVOX offers free local and international calls from any phone to any other MOBIVOX member in over 40 destinations worldwide. If you are calling outside of these areas or calling friends and+ family who are not MOBIVOX members, …
3.2 What destinations are included in free calling?
Free calls between MOBIVOX members are available FROM anywhere (any country and from any phone) to:
A) Members’ mobile phones in::
Canada, China, Guam, Hong Kong, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Thailand and United-States (including Alaska and Hawaii).B) Members’ landline phones in:
Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, China, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Guam, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico (Mexico City, Monterrey, Guadalajara), Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Russia (Moscow and St. Petersburg), Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, United-States (including Alaska and Hawaii), Turkey (Ankara and Istanbul), United Kingdom and Venezuela-Caracas.
C) All Skype™ users on Skype™3.4 What does it mean if my account is inactive?
If you have not made any type of call in the previous six months, your account will become inactive. This means that you cannot make or receive free calls on MOBIVOX. Any credits that are in your account at the time it is made inactive will be lost.
3.6 What’s the “fair-use” policy?
The fair use policy allows us to offer free calling to our users. The continuation of the free calling depends on the cooperation of the MOBIVOX community.For calls placed through a local access number, users are entitled to receive 250 minutes of free calls per week (Monday-Sunday UTC (GMT).
For Web and SMS Call Backs, users who have added a minimum of $5 of credit to their account, will receive 250 free minutes of Web and SMS Call Back per week. For users who have never added credit to their account, Web and SMS Call Backs will be limited to a lifetime total of 250 free minutes per phone number. Once 250 minutes of free calling using either SMS Call Back or Web Call Back is reached, users will be charged at the standard rate to complete this call. To ensure you receive 250 free minutes per week of Web and SMS Call Backs, please make a minimum deposit of $5 to your account.
3.7 How do I know that a call will be free?
No Surprises! We will tell you if a call is free before connecting your call.
Make sure:
- You have made at least one MOBIVOX call
- Your friend or family member’s phone number is registered in their profile
- Your friend has made at least one MOBIVOX call
- You are calling one of our free destinations. See here.
- You did not cross the free call limit of 250 minutes. You can always consult your Call History.
Check more details here: http://www.mobivox.com/help/FAQ?go=3#q3-7.
They have different ways to initiate calls. If you want to learn more about different calling methods for voip, here is a simple explanation/guide: http://blog.nyworldphone.com/2008/03/06/various-voip-solutions/.
I’ll try it and post my experience later. First thing I’m concerned is the voice quality. Another thing about the “free” thing is the tricky policy about “active users” which is like gizmo project. We’ll see how it works.
Sphere: Related ContentBetamax VOIP Services
Wednesday, February 6th, 2008List of services
Comment by Somdev Kar — April 3, 2007 @ 11:58 am
Any words regarding my issues will be very appreciated.
Regards,
Comment by Dambar Bahadur Magar — April 15, 2007 @ 3:01 pm
There are a lot of bastards among their customers care.
Stop everykind of bussiness with these suckers or you will pay a high price.
Al.Comment by Al — April 21, 2007 @ 7:09 pm
We use an ATA and a normal phone: the qualtity is very good, even to Canada. It is much better then using the PC (echo).
I do not recogize the problems here, I hope VB and others do something about it, as they seem to pay for it.
Ok, it is cheap, so the service may bel ess than other companies, but still…..Comment by andre@home — August 26, 2007 @ 5:16 pm
if you want to ask something then please write ..
FaisalComment by Faisal — January 9, 2008 @ 10:32 am
FaisalComment by Faisal — January 9, 2008 @ 10:56 am
Cheated me..DONT USE IT>Comment by sam — January 18, 2008 @ 5:17 pm