Its is good deal incase you use vonage, lingo or other cable phone, you can transfer your existing phone and number to allvoi.com. Checkout their website. I haven’t tried them but i feel WDT can be reliable.

Alternative 1:

I have being using Freecall.com for 2 months now and i find this service good. Its a european based VOIP provider and currently the rates are 1.5 Euro cents per min for landline and 2 euro cents per min for mobile to India.

Also you get free calls to more than 30 countries. You have register and pay in euros and approximatly 10 Euros i.e 15 USD can get you 650 minutes of talk time. They have a access number in US 6466520455 and you can call that number to make calls to India or make free calls to UK,France etc etc.

About Pennytel, its a australia based company. So the call are charged in Aus dollors which is bit lesser than US dollors ($5 Aus = $ 4.8 USD). Other charges are summarized below.

a) A monthly subscription of $5 for CALL TILL YOU DROP PLAN. Which gives you lot of features including around 65 SMS free to any where in the world.

b) Call India and over 70 other countries for 38 cents per call. So if you speak for 1 minute or 120 minutes it is charged only 38 cents.

c) Call Australia and other countries for 8 Cents a call.

Refer to the entire plan here

What you need to do.

a) Go to pennytel. Register with them. Select plan ‘TALK TILL YOU DROP’. You need to select a australian number staritng 612… You have give your credit card at the time of registration

b) Verify your credit card. Pennytel would deposit you credit card two small dollor amounts (4 cents) etc. You need to look into your statement and enter in the website. Same as money2India or remit2india money transfer portal do.

c) Download softphone from pennytel site.

d) Login and start making calls. To call India just dial 0011 91 44 23456666 or 0011 91 9884455678 (mobile)

e) SMS can be sent from their website. just enter the number as 91 XXXXXXXXXX (mobile number).

We tried calling both Land line and mobile and it works fine. This feature is excellent for folks who want to talk long as well as send SMS. There is no contract and you can cancel any time. If you have doubts chat with a rep during australian time and get your query clarified.

Cons:
You need to call from computer. You can setup SIP but you need a SIP device if you wan to use land line. refer my article UNLIMITED INDIA CALLS

For 38 cents call these countries
ALBANIA – AMERICAN SAMOA – AMERICAN SAMOA MOBILE – ARGENTINA MOBILE – ARMENIA – ARMENIA YEREVAN – AUSTRALIA MOBILE – BAHRAIN – BAHRAIN MOBILE – BANGLADESH – BANGLADESH MOBILE – BARBADOS – BERMUDA – BERMUDA MOBILE – BOLIVIA LA PAZ COCHABAMBA SANTA CRUZ – BOTSWANA – BRUNEI – BRUNEI MOBILE – CAMBODIA – CAMBODIA MOBILE – COLOMBIA – COLOMBIA OTHER CITIES – COLOMBIA PEREIRA – COSTA RICA – COSTA RICA MOBILE – CYPRUS SOUTH MOBILE – DOMINICA – DOMINICAN REPUBLIC – FINLAND – FINLAND SERVICES – FRENCH GUIANA – GABON – GEORGIA – GHANA – GHANA ACCRA – GIBRALTAR – INDIA – INDIA MOBILE – INDONESIA – INDONESIA BANDUNG – INDONESIA BOGOR – INDONESIA DENPASAR – INDONESIA MALANG – INDONESIA MEDAN – IRAN TEHRAN – IRAQ – ISRAEL MOBILE – JAMAICA – SOUTH KOREA MOBILE – KUWAIT – LAOS – LAOS MOBILE – LATVIA – LIECHTENSTEIN – LITHUANIA – MACAU – MACAU MOBILE – MACEDONIA – MALTA – MEXICO – MEXICO EQUAL ACCESS 2 – MEXICO EQUAL ACCESS 3 – MEXICO EQUAL ACCESS 5 – NAMIBIA – PAKISTAN – PAKISTAN MOBILE – PARAGUAY ASUNCION – RUSSIA – RUSSIA MOBILE – SERBIA & MONTENEGRO – SOUTH AFRICA – SWAZILAND – TAIWAN MOBILE – TAJIKISTAN – TRINIDAD & TOBAGO – NORTH CYPRUS – NORTH CYPRUS MOBILE – URUGUAY – UZBEKISTAN – UZBEKISTAN MOBILE – VIETNAM – VIETNAM MOBILE – ZAMBIA – ZIMBABWE

For 8 cents call these countried
ANDORRA – ARGENTINA – AUSTRALIA – AUSTRIA – BAHAMAS – BAHAMAS MOBILE – BELGIUM – BRAZIL – BULGARIA – CANADA – CANADA MOBILE – CHILE (not including EASTER ISLAND) – CHINA – CHINA MOBILE – COLOMBIA BOGOTA – COLOMBIA CALI – COLOMBIA MEDELLIN – CROATIA – CYPRUS SOUTH – CZECH REPUBLIC – DENMARK – ESTONIA – FRANCE – GERMANY – GREECE – GUADELOUPE – GUAM – HONG KONG – HONG KONG MOBILE – HUNGARY – ICELAND – INDONESIA JAKARTA – INDONESIA SURABAYA – IRELAND – ISRAEL – ITALY – JAPAN – JORDAN – SOUTH KOREA – LUXEMBOURG – MALAYSIA – MALAYSIA MOBILE – MARIANA ISLANDS – MEXICO EQUAL ACCESS 1 – MEXICO EQUAL ACCESS 4 – MEXICO GUADALAJARA – MEXICO CITY – MEXICO MONTERREY – MONACO – NETHERLANDS – NEW ZEALAND – NORWAY – PANAMA – PERU – PERU LIMA – POLAND – PORTUGAL – PUERTO RICO – ROMANIA – RUSSIA MOSCOW – RUSSIA ST. PETERSBURG – SAN MARINO – SINGAPORE – SINGAPORE MOBILE – SLOVAKIA – SLOVENIA – SPAIN – SWEDEN – SWITZERLAND – TAIWAN – THAILAND – THAILAND MOBILE – TURKEY – UNITED KINGDOM – UNITED STATES – UNITED STATES MOBILE – VENEZUELA

I am surprised how Mphingi, Joiphone are looting people, where in the same service can be setup absolutely free. Click here to know further. .

Requesting all readers of this blog to spread the word if possible.A few of my friends who tried this are really happy with the phone setup. Did you try this?

Taking advantage of VOIP:

a) This setup takes full advantage of VOIP and the free voip projects currently available.
b) One time investment of buying a Analog Telephone Adapter (ATA).No monthly charges. You dont have to pay a dime more.
c) Vonage, Sun Rocket type service but no monthly commitments.

What you require and Pros:
a) One time investment and no monthly recurring cost.
b) You require Internet at home. With BSNL providing internet for as low as Rs.250 per month, this is not a big deal
c) No need for a computer to talk.
d) Easy of usage. It is same as using your PSTN line to talk to India.

Cons:
a) You need one ATA device per home to which you want to make unlimited calls, Please dont expect a Reliance, Airtel type feature with this.
b) Voice clarity depends on Internet quality. But ADSL or broadband with 256Kbps should suffice.

I am summarizing a step by step guide for making this work

1) Buy Analog Telephone Adapter

a) First things first. Without an ATA you can’t do anything. I bought a Grandstream ATA 496 from VoipSupply. The reason for this particular Device is it is the cheapest ATA with inbuild Router.
You can also consider Linksys products

I choose VOIPSUPPLY because my friend bought it there and i just thought it nice to buy from an secured site. I got the ATA delivered within 4 days.

The Grand Stream HT -496 has 2 FXS port to connect to a Phone and Fax.

It has 2 FXS port – Our traditional phone jack. One for phone and one for Fax. Connect your normal phone line to one of the FXS port. This is phone which would ring when some one calls you.

It has 2 RJ11 port – Ethernet port.

1st RJ 11-WAN Port – You need to connec the WAN PORT TO YOUR BSNL MODEM.
2nd RJ11 LAN Port – Connect this port to your WIRELESS ROUTER. If you dont have router then you can directly connect to your PC’s to access internet connection.

2) Register with a VOIP Service Provice

I registered with www.SIPHONE.COM, www.GIZMOPROJECT.COM (BOTH ARE SAME) VOIP SERVICES. Its free. You need to download the software from Gizmo, Register thro their application.

Once registered you would get a 10 digit number some thing like, 1747 -XXX- XXXX
Remember the password you gave while registration.

3) Connect the ATA to Internet

Follow the steps mentioned in Point 1 to connect the ATA to Internet. Ofcourse dont forgot to power you ATA with the 12V adapter.

4) Configure you ATA with Gizmo Project login details

SIP Phone Number: 1747 -XXX- XXXX
SIP Proxy: proxy01.sipphone.com
SIP Password: what you gave during Gizmo registration.

The ATA is very simple to configure and once this is done, Reboot the ATA.

You are All Set. You are ready to receive call. But how would some one call you on your SIP Phone Number?

Basically you can get wrapper for you SIP Phone Number. I mean a US phone number which when called would map the call to your SIP phone number.

5) IPKALL

IPKALL is a simple service project who helps you to recieve free calls over the Internet from any phone.

Its just a 2 minute registration with IPKALL.

Area Code: Choose the area code which you like. I chose 360
SIP Phone Number: 1747 -XXX- XXXX
SIP Proxy: proxy01.sipphone.com
Email Addres: your email address where IPKALL would send the number
Password: Some 4 digit number

Thats it, once done, you should get an Email from IPKALL with your new phone number some thing like
360-XXX-XXXX.

If everything goes fine, if you call 360-XXX-XXXX from your landline or mobile, the call should ring in the phone connected to your ATA.

The best part is you can test this without an ATA. Login into Gizmo software from your computer and try calling 360-XXX-XXXX and it should ring in your computer. I observed that there is some ECHO when i talk in computer but when connected thro ATA, the call quality was FANTASTIC.

More advantages:

a) You get an phone-in for free.
b) You can receive unlimited phone calls as the calls are thro Internet.
c) I saw features like caller ID for which companies like ATT is charging separately.
d) Unlimited features, its left to you to do all the R & D and enable as many features as possible. Voice Mail, Callback etc etc all the features which phone companies charge for.
e) Buy extra devices and you can get more people into your network. If you devices are connected in 2 diff states, they can call each other for free unlimited.
f) More free voip providers, options include freeworlddialup.com , google’s grandcentral.com and more.

Just send this device to India and ask them to connect to Internet and when you call the local number 360-XXX-XXXX , it should ring in INDIA.

I tried this sucessfully here and i am shortly going to try it in India. Once this works, i can able to make unlimited calls to India without paying anything. This is comparable with Vonage or Sun Rocket minus the monthly fee. Yeah no fee to any one and just one time equipment buy which would cost around $60. I would shortly post an article on how this works and the simple steps you need to do to make this work.

Once successful, I can save a huge on my India calling expenses. Stay Tuned. I thank Satish one of our readers who threw more light on some of the grey areas which i could not grasp earlier.

Not much major difference in price factor. VSNL is more USA focused while Reliance has more countries covered when it comes to origination of calls. Reliance services can be used from NZ, Australia. Trueroots however offers toll-free numbers in UK and Canada.

This blog has covered a number of cheap call providers to India but one thing which we can be sure of with VSNL is the call quality. I am having some bad experiences with LINQ and one only hope that VSNL being the leader in Indian telecom does not disappoint its customers in USA.

They have their own website http://trueroots.us, using which we can manage our accounts online.I haven’t tried them yet and will try them shortly. Request folks who have tried trueroots to leave their valuable feedback.

If you like this article, please comment.

I was doing some research on how to be one’s own provider, but having said that its more easily said then done. Remember Sun Rocket closed down recently and there is not surprise if Vonage might. I came across an interesting article, which talks about how to start your own Vonage. This is not my own article and the link to the actual article is below.

Here goes the actual article

To start the next Vonage you will need essentially 6 things (other than 500,000 clients). Each of these things need to be qualified so that you know that your providers will still be there after you go live, and that they will honor your contract with them.

Website to allow the customer to sign up, and see their options & minutes used. (optional, but probably needed)
Provider of minutes – So your customers can call regular PSTN phone numbers – buy low, sell high
DID provider – So your customers have regular PSTN phone numbers for incoming calls
VOIP Server - to route the traffic from the DIDs to your customers & allow them to call out – Vonage Uses SER, Broadvoice use Broadsoft, RNKTEL uses asterisk.
Hardware provider for the ATAs needed to have your customers connect to the VOIP server
A billing engine. You do want to get paid, hm?

Number 1 rule: Test the entire solution. Run a pilot project with some volunteers for at least a couple of months before going live. Leave the pilot running so you can test changes before putting them into production. Reliability is your friend.

Click here to read the full article

If you like this article, please comment.

My previous 2 articles under this category talked about LINQ and RELIABLE INDIA Calls. Both of them offer cheap calling options to India, but I was wondering if there is some other service which is cheaper than 5.9 cents / min offered by LINQ. In my continuing quest to find cheap calls to India, I recent found another service provider UNION TELECOM USA that is offering high quality calls to India for as low as 3.9 cents / min.

Union Telecom USA is US based company, which is offering high quality calls to India for as less as 3.9 cents per min. That’s a huge saving compared to Reliance India call or Linq (5.9 cents / min) or Airtel call India. They claim to route all the calls thro Sprint lines, so voice quality is never compromised.

So what’s the catch?

I checked their website carefully and found that the 3.9 cents / min is only for POST PAID SERVICE. If you go PRE-PAID then you need to pay additional 2 cents per minute. There is a Activation fee of $39.50 (Refundable).Discount of 5% on their monthly invoice for those customers who selects automatic debit . Connection Fee of 0.39 on all calls. Connection fee applies from the second minute.

They give you 1-800 number incase you don’t find a local area number. If you use 1-800 when you have a local area calling number then they charge 2 cents per minute extra. But the available local area numbers are very less and most probably you can get a 1-800 access for NO additional cost.

Only drawback with this provider is the 0.39 cents connect fee, which is applied per call (NOTE NOT PER MINUTE). So if you are person who is calling INDIA often and your talk duration is more than 20 minutes then you start saving on calls to INDIA.

One of my friend is using this service for past 8 months and he did recommend me this service. Bottom line if you are calling India often and your talk duration is more than 20 minutes then its worth going For UNION TELECOM USA rather than Reliance or LINQ.

Check out more about UNION TELCOM USA here

If you like this article, please comment.

Looking for chep calls to india?. Here is one more options to make cheap calls to india. My previous article focussed on Linq.in which offered unlimited calls to india for as low as $10/ month. I just came across Reliable IP phone (Reliableiphone) which is offering unlimited calling to india for as low as $5.99 per month using VOIP technology. If you are often calling one particular number from US and the receiver in india do not have a computer,then you can take advantage of Reliable IP phone.

I haven’t heard about this company (Reliableiphone) before but seems to be a dependable company. All you need is a internet connnection in INDIA (BSNL data one) and you are all set.

The basic plan offers unlimited incoming and 100 free outgoing minutes. Once you sign up by paying the setup fee of $60, they ship the ATA (Analog telephone adapter) pre-configured to your home,after which you can connect to the modem and start recieving calls from US.

One disadvantage of Reliable IP phone over Linq.in is that they offer an US number to which you can call. But you dont get local area code. I can see that currently they offer only one area code 630 for whole of ILLINIOS state. The disadvantage is you incurr local call charges for calls to that number unless you are in 630 area code. Ofcourse you can call at night using your CELL phone free minutes or you are subscribed to unlimited nationwide calling for your US phone. Linq.in offers 1800 toll free number for such calls. Alternative is to subcribe FREEDOM plan for $16.99 for unlimited calls from india and ask your folks to call you back. Bit costlier than Linq.in

I spoke to their customer service folks in HYD and they seems to be nice guys. Their product works well with BSNL internet connection. For folks who are affected by SUNROCKET closure, there are SEVERAL OFFERS like No Upfront installation charges and one month free service.

Checkout all about VOIP calling to india from their website RELIABLEIPHONE.COM

If you like this article please comment.