On Mon, May 15, 2006 at 11:01:08AM -0600, Mitchell Brown wrote: > http://digg.com/technology/SkypeOut_now_FREE_for_US_Canada_ > > SkypeOut, the service that lets people call landlines/cells over their > computer is now *free*! > I can now call anyone in North America completely free from Skype ... and... > it works in Linux too ;) >
Hi Mitchell and all, while Skype does provide a service for free (as in beer), I think it is important to note that it uses a propriatory protocol - which means that it can not interoperate with other VoIP services. People may be willing to accept this limitation, that's fine, but for me I feel that the SIP standard is the way forward. That said I don't know of (and expect there isn't) any free (as in beer) method of going VoIP->PSTN. To make this jump I use a calling card arrangement, and thus have to dial a special number/account/pin before dialling the destination. There are obviously pay monthy services which don't need this.... Another 'thing' with real posibilities is enum, where a person can tie a 'normal' PSTN/Cell number to VoIP account/email/www. Thus when a VoIP caller (who's dial tone service does enum lookup) dials your number they get their call routed the cheap (i.e. free) route automatically without knowing whether its VoIP or PSTN. Michel Robertson (MP3.com fame) is doing some interesting stuff with switching calls between VoIP and PSTN/Cell. However he is not yet offering Canadian DID's :-( Cheers, Simon. _______________________________________________ clug-talk mailing list [email protected] http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) **Please remove these lines when replying
