VOIP Services
January 28, 2012VoIP Services
There are a number of inexpensive VOIP Services. What is VoIP though? Let’s clarify that before providing you the list of services that allow you to make less expensive and sometimes free phone calls using today’s technology. Basically, think of phone services over the Internet. Sometimes you people call VoIP IP telephony, Internet telephony, VoBB (voice over broadband), broadband telephony, and broadband phone as well. Nowadays, you can basically take advantage of the Internet to get less expensive calling options vs. the past.
The following is a list of the top VOIP Phone Services available to you (with some of the better services towards the bottom, fyi):
VoIP Discount
On Review Centre, VoIP Discount has 3 stars out of 5 when it comes to VoIP services. On the main website, it says “Stay in touch with your friends for FREE!” However, how does the business make money then? When you see the asterik to clarify what the “free calls” mean, it says ” Free Calls are subject to a fair usage limit, measured over the last 7 days and per unique IP address. Unused free minutes cannot be taken to the following week(s). If limit is exceeded the normal rates apply. With your FREE DAYS you can call for free to all the destinations listed as free! When you have no FREE DAYS left the normal rates apply. You can get extra Freedays by buying credit.” So, you may need to buy credit from them when it is supposedly not free. Give it a shot and report back to us how you feel.
VoIPCheap
Based on 27 reviews on Review Centre, VoIP Cheap has 2.2 star rating out of 5. I forgot to mention above that VoIP Discount was based I think it was on 14 or 16 reviews. Anyway, this service also says it has “Free Calls” with an asterik and it says you basically get a maximum of 300 minutes for free. Specifically on the website, it says: ” Max 300 minutes per week of free calls, measured over the last 7 days and per unique IP address. Unused free minutes cannot be taken to the following week(s). If limit is exceeded the normal rates apply. With your FREE DAYS you can call for free to all the destinations listed as free! when you have no FREE DAYS left thenormal rates apply. You can get extra Freedays by buying credit .” Doesn’t this verbiage look similar to VoIP Discount? Well, at least they identify how many minutes you get and 300 isn’t bad, eh? Wonder by the ratings are worse?
Freecall.com
Well, I couldn’t find any reviews on Review Centre when searching google or the Review Centre site itself. Perhaps there’s very few people using it? Well, I’m giving it a 0 out of 5 stars today because when I try to even get to the site at freecall.com, the website doesn’t even load. Probably not a good sign for a service that would need to be up for you to make phone calls, no? Well, hopefully, their phone service is better than their website or their website host.
VoIPBuster
Based on 3 reviews, Review Centre gives VoIP Buster a 3.8 stars out of 5. So, it’s the highest thus far, but it’s only 3 reviews, right? Again, it advertises free VoIP calls with an asterik and instead of explaining what the “free” means, it requires you to click to a page saying it’s a limited offer and points you to their terms of use page. You get 60 minutes for free as a new user and then guess what? Back to normal rates…whatever they are!
Lowrate VoIP
Well, I can’t find much on this guy too including on the search within Review Centre. The good news for them today for me to help you understand who they are is that their website does come up unlike Freecall.com. Here the asterik on their “free” is clarified as a free 200 minutes per week of free calls. Very specifically, it says: ” *Registered users get max 200 minutes per week of free calls, measured over the last 7 days and per unique IP address. Unused free minutes cannot be taken to the following week(s). If limit is exceeded the normal rates apply. During your Freedays you can call all destinations listed as ”Free” for free. When you have run out of Freedays, the normal rates apply. You can get extra Freedays by buying credit.” Doesn’t sound bad for now, but hey, give it a try and let me know!
EvaPhone
No luck on finding reviews on Eva Phone on Review Centre, but there’s a ton of reviews when you search in Google. Even About.com has a review or rather has an article about them. They give a pretty positive review. It says verbatim:
“EvaPhone is certainly unique and it’s very easy to use. Obviously, a free ten second, or even one minute, call isn’t worth much unless you can speak very quickly or have very little to say.
If you want to call the US or Canada, Google Voice or iCall are better options. If you want to call most major countries, and have an existing telephone, Freebuzzer is a better bet than EvaPhone.
However, if you don’t have a phone, and you want to call nearly any other locale on the planet, give EvaPhone a try.”
The interesting thing is that About.com doesn’t seem to be biased to garner affiliate revenue, but they definitely do do a lot of advertising on their page which they do throughout the site. They also are the #1 result when you search for reviews about Eva Phone.
On the site it says you get “free calls”, but it also says right above the dialing field you only have 2 calls remaining & you do have to register. Supposedly, you have to watch a short promotion video as well with these free phone calls. That’s a pain! And on their terms and agreement page, it’s too long for me to find out the exact details of what is free. It’s not clear. So, I give it a 0 out of 5 today.
iCall
iCall isn’t found on Review Centre as well, but definitely has some bigger name reviews like from CNET and PC Magazine. It gets a 3 out of 5 from the editor at PC Magazine and 2.5 stars out of 5 from 46 users who’ve downloaded it from CNET’s download part of it’s site. I love the first comment I read. It says “A godsend for broke geeks.” PC Magazine says the pros are: ” Receives calls when your phone’s screen is off. Simple, clear interface.” And the cons are: ” Call quality isn’t as good as Skype’s. Some calls didn’t connect. No SMS ability.” They don’t seem to be too satisfied with it and I think Skype is making it hard to compete.
Ooma
So, I found ooma for the first time in Costco. I announced the fact it gives free residential phone service in December of 2010. When somethings at Costco, their buyers have really examined it hard and usually they are good products. On Amazon, they have 4 stars out of 5 from 144 Customer Reviews. Search “ooma reviews” and you’ll find a ton of reviews from different places. PC Magazine gave it a 3 star out of 5 rating on the same level as iCall with the pros as: ” Uses a traditional handset to make Internet-based calls. Low-cost calling within the U.S. Free calling to other Ooma users. Serviceable sound quality. Voicemail, call-waiting, three-way calling, and other good features included. Relatively simple to set up. Bulk minute rates available for international calls.” And their cons were: ” High start-up price. Additional fees for calls between the U.S. and Canada. International rates vary widely. Additional fee for transferring your existing phone number.”
Skype
I don’t think I have to say much about the Microsoft owned Skype. The only thing that I may comment here about the future of it is that Microsoft is a company about profits. It will find ways to monetize this possibly better than the previous owners. So, don’t be surprised if you start getting charged for this and that and they find ways to put more into the VoIP tool moving forward. For now, it is great and has a high level of quality free calls (when someone else has Skype) and is also relatively affordable with their NON-free calls.