New York World Phone

Intertional Calling

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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/

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

US

Canada

UK (ex/mobiles)

China

Singapore

Spain (ex/mobiles)

Sweden (ex/mobiles)

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.

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