Hi Maria and David, Magic Jack is not free, either. It is rather inexpensive, but I believe it is $20 a year.
Maria, the only other option would be one of the many VoIP services, but nothing is completely free all the time. I use one called VoIP Stunt, you can also use VoIP Buster or Free Call, most of them require you to buy a 10 Euro credit, but after that offer you free calls for a period of 120 days (4 months) to a rather large list of countries. After the 120 days you would be billed for the calls at a rate of approx. 2 Cents a minute. Once you then used or almost used your 10 Euro credit, you could buy another 10 Euros and once again receive 120 days of free calling. If you want to make some phone calls this is by far the cheapest option, you get 4 months free, then depending on how many calls you make, your 10 Euros will most likely last you for another month or 2, since at 2 Cents a minute that gives you about 500 minutes. There are of course countries where it is more expensive, the Philippines, for example, cost about 18 Cents a minuteSo 10 Euros would only last about 50 minutes and as David pointed out, calling cell phones in many countries is also more expensive, only countries where it would be part of your 120 free days would be the US and Canada. Now, as far as using one of these services, you would have to do it on the computer via a small program they provide for free to download or you can also use any other SIP Soft Phone like Express Talk, but that is a program you have to buy and it is about $35. If you want to primarily make calls from your iPhone you have to find an app that allows you to make SIP calls and there are many. I use Groundwire which is $9.99 and it's the more professional version of another app from the same developer called Acrobits which is $4.99. There are also free apps, but I haven't tried any, you might want to check on Applevis if there are any reviews or search the archives for "SIP Clients" or "SIP App". Once you have a service subscription and an app, you have to configure the app with some relatively simple settings like your user name, password and a couple of server settings. Those are all provided by whichever service you sign up with. After that you can make calls, it works basically like Skype, I know Groundwire and Acrobits are both fully accessible, you have a DialPad to dial numbers, you can add names/numbers to a Favorites list and the app asks you the first time you open it if you allow it to access your contacts in which case you can clal anybody in your Contacts just like you would from the regular Phone app, you would of course have to make sure that you save phone numbers in your contacts in the full international dialing format. Below are a couple of websites for VoIP services I have used, the last little while I have stuck with VoIP Stunt. Free Call: http://www.FreeCall.com VoIP Buster: http://www.VoipBuster.com VoIP Stunt: http://www.VoipStunt.com Good luck, Sieghard -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google Group. To search the VIPhone public archive, visit http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
