by GB

Created on: November 04, 2005   Last Updated: May 12, 2007

This article refers mainly to Canada and the United states. But probably some of the options can be applied to other countries, not all of them though.
First of all, and I keep thinking the same after almost 2 years using the service: Adcalls.com is the best alternative to place phone calls in Canada and the United States. Based on advertisement (like the tv: you watch a movie for free but they play comercials so they get paid in that way) You are allowed to phone for free even to cellphones using just your computer, and a nice headset. The calls are limited in time: 10 minutes, but you can call back again and again after the expired time. They provide you with their software to make the calls. Free of malware. I really like the service.

Now, to make free phone calls to the rest of the world, I mean true free calls: pc to phone or phone to phone it's more difficult. Most of them offer a trial account where you can call to a land line for free for 1 minute or 10 minutes it depends on the company, and then you need to buy credit.
Although, there is one alternative it has a cost but only once: to buy an unlocked VOIP adapter, and for example if you are far away from home your family can use their computers to phone you to a regular telephone. You won't be able to call them to their home phone, unless they get the voip adapter too, but at least you know that if they want to reach you they'll be able to, even if your pc is off. In order to do this, you'll need to open a free account with any voip provider that allows free calls between members: voipbuster.com, gizmoproject.org, etc.
Another alternative is to get a free PSTN number (that is, to make it simple, a regular phone number) using the service that voipbrujula.net offers. It works in this way: first check if your country and you area code is in the list: http://voip.brujula.net/english/pstn-access-numbers. html. Then, you'll need to open an account with them, after that you can give away that number and your sip number(that would be like the user number) at brujula.net. In that way if you live in Spain and your family in Australia, they can phone to a local number there and it would ring in your computer in Spain or even better, if you have a Voip adapter it will ring on your regular phone, no need to have the pc on.
I live far from my country, I know how difficult it can be to keep in contact with family and friends. So that's why I keep researching about different alternatives and if I find something that can help, I'll post it.

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