Charles, Dan et. al., I got into VoIP because of necessity. I travel A LOT, and during one trip to Brazil managed to accumulate an 800 USD phone bill by using my cell phone to call back to the USA in what I thought were short, minimal calls. This was after having a 13.00/minute calls back to the USA from St. Petersburg a couple of months before with left me with another breathtaking telephone bill.
I bought a little unit called an IAXy (http://www.digium.com/index.php?menu=product_detail&category=hardware&product=S101I from a company called Digium (http://www.digium.com), and a phone service from a company called NuFone (http://www.nufone.net/) and started using it as I traveled. I also invested in Skype and a few other VoIP tools. Basically when I travel I hook up either the IAXy or my notebook to the net and use either NuFone or Skype to call back. The "rates" (other than the hourly or daily connection to the Internet (if there is one) is typically about 2 cents per minute for calls back to the USA or Canada. And most of the time I have to connect to the Internet anyway to get my email, work, etc. The next time I went to Brazil I told people at the trade show I was at to call anyone they wanted in the USA or Canada and talk as long as they wanted. Total cost to me? About 5.00 for the week-long show. Beat me with a stick. Long story, short point. I have not gotten rid of my POTS lines, but I use them a lot less. Before I call I think about who I am calling and how long I will talk, the need for clarity on the line and what would happen if I fell off due to some glitch. If the "stars align", I plan ahead, use VoIP and save money. I discourage FAXes and encourage scanned and emailed images. >From my point of view, for people that travel abroad, VoIP is a great thing, >but if I am trapped in a dark alley with thugs after me, my cell-phone is my friend. Regards, md -- Jon "maddog" Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
