Octro offer Mobile Video Conference Solution

We discussed about various Video Conference Calls Services offer on the web a few days back. Today, we look at how Conference Calling Companies are trying to offer this solution via Mobile.

As you can see almost every technology in the world is now bring rewritten for Mobile. Mobile is the next medium to see maximum revolution and product offering. With google's android in the pipeline and ever improving Symbian, we can expect some great improvement for VOIP and Conference Calls market.

Today we discuss about Octro - a Mobile video conference calling Solution. There are very few or literally no competitors/companies in the market which offers video conference calls via Mobile and Octro is trying to dominate this niche market.

- You can stream Video directly via your mobile phone.
- You can Call using OctroTalk or regular cell phone to convert it into a Video Conference Call.
- Make conference calls using GPRS/CDMA/3G/WiFi.
- P2P video conferencing is currently under development.

Octro Video Conferencing Solution is currently available for Symbian and Windows Mobile. You can download their latest version.

Octro, although in early beta looks promising for a Mobile Video Conference Solution. With Mobile VOIP getting popular, sooner or later, Video Conferencing on Mobile will be mainstream.

Residential Phone Services in USA to be dominated by Cable Co

After a long time, this is my opinion post on recently released numbers on how Cable Companies such as Comcast, Time Warner kicking Vonage, Lingo, PhonePower out of market.

DSLReports noted that due to variety of reasons, Leading independent VOIP Service providers such as Vonage, Viatalk, Lingo VOIP, Phonepower had a tough time this year with mainstream Cable Companies made them sweat for every new consumer.

The Report says, "VOIP Subscriber growth for the one-year period ending in the first quarter of this year was less than 200,000 for independent VoIP companies; this amount equals less than one fifth of the new subscribers from the previous year. In contrast, cable VoIP subscriptions increased by over five and a half million in the same time period."

Why VOIP Companies are failing but Cable Companies are shining?

Average Consumer in USA (even in rest of the world) is an noob (newbie in simple terms) when it comes to Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP). You would be amazed to see even the senior managers in Large MNC's are completely unaware of VOIP. With over 70-80% of novice users in the market, VOIP for them is rocket science.

The Obvious fact is VOIP companies can only provide a Phone Line but Consumers are often tricked in with 3-1 plan which cable companies can offer. Home Phone Service + Cable TV + Internet. Now if you are a new customer or one who wants to Switch, you would better off looking at one single deal rather than 3 different companies managing your needs. Makes sense?

VOIP Companies can only do pure VOIP, they can't do Cable + Internet. Boom, there they loose the advantage. Even though at times, VOIP companies might be a better option with QoS (Not necessarily with every provider) and few other value added services, these things are easily overlooked.

Currently Vonage and Lingo VOIP are trying to establish themselves in this ever changing market which according to me would be dominated by Cable Companies sooner or later. I would see more consolidation or sell-off in this space. Most of the Independent providers would be sold off to large Cable companies or just pack their bags.

One of the other things most VOIP Providers are beaten badly is Cash Back Offers. Comcast is offering $325 Dollars + Free Equipment on their Comcast Triple Play offer.

I won't be surprised to see bad news coming from camps of Vonage, Viatalk. When, only they know that well but we can say coming years would be tough time for the local USA VOIP Phone Service Providers.

RingBranch relaunches call forwarding service

We discovered a Grandcentral rival RingBranch a few months back. All Thanks to SatPhoneGuy. Later, they stopped new registrations to their personal switchboard and call forwarding service. However now they are back in business.

RingBranch is an ad supported Personal Switchboard, Auto-Attendant and Call Forwarding service that is a companion to your existing phone service. You need to call their access number (mostly available in your city-Only USA) and make unlimited free calls across USA and Canada. I know some people would question the concept why on earth I need dial a US number to connect to another USA number. RingBranch perhaps thought about this. Lets see what they got to say about this,

"If you are 1 of the 150 million people that still use a landline and are paying for long distance, then we typically can help save you money. By using RingBranch in conjunction with the local access number that we provide, you can turn a long distance call into a local call. You should always confirm charges and your rate plan with your telecom provider but our landline users have consistently been able to use RingBranch to eliminate their long distance costs. Additionally, certain mobile phone users are able to save money by using RingBranch. If you are on a mobile plan like T-Mobile’s MyFaves®, Alltel’s Circle of Friends™, you could use RingBranch to expand the number of people that you can call for free. Call 100 people instead of the 5 or 10 people your plan allows."

On top of it all, You can use RingBranch for incoming calls, Just call forward all your incoming calls to any number you prefer( within the USA). Usefull for call routing across numbers just like GrandCentraldoes.

Furthermore, RingBranch offers you Gizmo BackDoor Dialing Feature. If you not sure how to use Gizmo 5Backdoor Dialing, read our original post on RingBranch Gizmo 5 backdoor dialing.

Of course, RingBranch guys spend 20% of their valuable time on this blog, so if you got some ideas do put them on here, so those guys can work their brains and give you something you want :-)

Plumble launches free calling services to USA and Canada

Ad-Based VOIP Solutions are still being tested out by VOIP Providers as viable option to provider free international calls. Pudding Media tried to do the same and actually raised some capital recently.

However, there are more VOIP solution Providers trying to grab the market share. Plumble is one of those VOIP Solution providers who believe that free international calls can be provided in lieu of advertisements. I don't know how successful Pudding Media is with their audio advertisements Free Calling Servics Model, but it sure isnt too easy. Especially the biggest challenge is getting enough advertisers on your VOIP Platform.

Moving On, Plumble is currently offering Free international Calls to USA and Canada. Hang on, If you go to Plumble, you would be disappointed since its currently in Private Alpha. Then think again, You are now on VOIP Guide, you must have special priviledges :-)

There is a secret way to access Plumble VOIP system. Lets see how to do it.

1) Dial 818-742-0110 (USA Number)
2) Listen to a couple short Ads and then make your call for FREE.
3) You can only call USA and Canada (We believe this includes landline + Mobile)

Plumble promises that their next beta release will enable calling to more international destinations. We hope this includes Asia mainly India and Pakistan :-)

We wish Plumble all the very best, coz Free International Calls are slowing becoming the thing of the past with more and more companies realising that this market can close down their business sooner or later. The only way perhaps is to make money through monetizing your VOIP Traffic.

If anyone knows how Pudding VOIP is doing, do let us know. It would be interesting to keep a watch on this space as we predict more companies will adopt this model sooner or later. Afterall, you can live off VC's money for long. LOL.

Local Phone offers cheap international calls

There are more and more companies moving towards the cheap international calls model. Today we talk about this interesting VOIP Service provider who offers extremely competitive international calling rates.

Local Phone has been around for a while, however it seems they recently reduced their rates to bottom low. VOIP Providers have realised that free international calls was good enough to ramp up customer base and can't be a long term revenue model.

LocalPhone works off the access number based model. You call up a access number in your country and then dial your international number. They offer some really cheap international calling rates to India and some other asian countries.

They are currently offering India at 5.5 cents per minute + no connection charge. Considering betamax as closest competitor, betamax always charges you connection rate and in the end it turns out to be a costly affair.

Lets see how you can use LocalPhone:

1) Go Signup at Local Phone

2) On Dashboard, add a new contact with Phone number.
3) Localphone gives you a local number to replace theirs, shown in red.
4) Now you can call that number from your landline/Mobile Phone.
5) LocalPhone also gives you a international calling card option with access number and PIN code which you can use from anywhere in the world as long as you are able to dial into one of their access numbers.

Local Phone is definately an interesting VOIP startup and with their rock bottom calling rates they look lot better than costly companies such as Jajah Direct. However please remember that you would have to incurr cost while calling their local phone numbers, unless you have unlimited calling package (if you are in US, you can check out Lingo Phone Unlimited Package). Another limitation of this service is its currently only available in certain countries namely UK, USA, Australia, Canada etc. Not bad for a start but I would love to see some more asian countries included in the list especially Singapore, India, Pakistan etc.

If you are using Local Phone, do let us know about the service.

Bezecom offers free voip phone service

We are on the constant lookout for interesting VOIP starups who offer free voip services, especially free international calls. Today we found a service which offers free voip phone service via access numbers around the world.

Bezecom is global supplier for international call services between communities. Bezecom is currently in beta. With Bezecom you can make free international calls to USA, Canada, Isreal.

Lets see how this VOIP Phone service works:

You will receive a global number – through access numbers that cover main destinations in the world (at this stage they have access numbers in 25 countries).

People can call you by dialing a local call. You can either forward your call or receive calls on your softphone.

You can receive your calls free of charge to the following destinations:

a. Israel, Britain, and France – landlines
b. USA and Canada – landline and cellular phones
c. PC or IP phone that connected to the internet

That means you can forward call to one of those destinations. You can actually convert this service into a totally free VOIP Phone service.

Lets see how we do this.

1) You are in Isreal, Britain (UK), France or USA/Canada. Forward your calls to landline/Mobile.
2) Ask your friends or relatives to dial the access number in their country.
3) Then they should enter your Bezecom number.
4) You and your friend are now connected.

You can even use this service with your being on PC and other party using access number. Unfortunately, this service doesn't work in India. I hope they add more asian numbers to the list.

Remember, There is no limit to the limit of the calls but the duration of the call the limited to 10 minutes and included infomercials. We guess you can call the same number again and again :-)

Let us know your feedback, if you have used Bezecom VOIP Phone service.

Free International Calls to Bangladesh

Literally hundreds of people have asked VOIP Guide about Free International Callsto specific countries. Today, we continue our Free International Calls series and look at a way to make free calls or cheap international calls to Bangladesh.

Bangladesh is known for high grey route termination market since the call termination rates were extremely high. However Lately BTTB have curbed the grey route operators and managed to ease VOIP regulations in the market to some extent.

The real surprise comes from Betamax provider, LowRateVOIP who are giving away free international calls to Bangladesh Landline. Of course, as you all may know for any betamax service to give you free calls, you must buy some credit.

We always suggest you buy the most bare minimum talktime credit with Betamax to avoid issues. There are literally millions of minutes served to bangaldesh each day and am confident that there are lot of people interested in making free international Calls. I hope this post helps them in some way.

If free international calls doesn't interest you, you can go for cheap international calls to bangaldesh. Currently CallEasy and SMSListo offering at 1 cent per minute to bangladesh landline and about 2 cent per minute to mobile.

Please remember all prices are in EURO. Enjoy making free international calls to bangladesh.

Toll Free Forwarding offers Free VOIP International calls

So you wanted to make Free international Calls anywhere in the world (including India), then don't miss this post. TollFreeforwarding is offering $10 of free voip international calls.

Thanks to a anynomous poster for letting us know about this offer. TollFreeforwarding.com is currently offering $10 of free call forwarding credit to any international number of your choice. Let me remind you this would need a valid Credit card (Be aware and don't abuse the system. If you have a virtual credit card you can use it)

Lets see how to get the Free Call forwarding Talktime Credit.

1) Go to TollFreeforwarding
2) Now Scroll down to Get a new Phone Number.
3) By default, the Toll Free Number assigned is USA. If you are not in US, then click Choose a Number in 300+ Cities and 75+ Countries.
4) Choose your country and select Toll-Free Number or National Number. Toll Free number are often free to dial from landline (not from mobile). National Numbers will charged at local talktime calling rate.
5)Not Down the Number assigned to you. You can change the number if its available.
6)Now go to Send calls to your existing phone, Select your country (This is where you want to call). So for e.g, you want to call India. You would select India from the List, The country code is already appended. Just add your phone number like +91-2225551111.
7) Now Click on Try Demo $10 Account.
8) You will not be asked about personal details and then Credit Card (use Virtual CC). They won't charge you, its basically for verification.
9) Your number will be activated.
10) You can now make calls worth $10 for FREE. You can register again and again :-)

Note: Each number is only valid for 10 days, so you better use all your credit within that timeframe.

Enjoy making totally FREE VOIP International Calls. Let us know your comments.

Tpad launches hosted pbx systems

Tpad has been a leader in residential VOIP and International Calls and now focusing on Hosted PBX systems. Lately, We have received hundreds of emails inquiring about PBX and related VOIP systems.

Once in a while, We believe it's good to cover the other side of VOIP, mainly business VOIP/Enterprise VOIP. With many more businessed adopting VOIP as primary medium of communication, the focus is really changing for VOIP Companies. Tpad claims that they will be directly competing against the likes of telephony companies such as Packet8, Vonage and Skype.

Tpad offers a wide range of next generation telecommunication solutions including a hosted and managed IP PBX package. The hosted IP PBX called Tpad Lite, will allow any company in the world to have their own private phone system hosted on Tpads global VoIP network.

Tpad is basically trying to sell a managed hosting solution for SME market whereby all VOIP traffic will be routed via Tpad servers so businesses can stop worrying about Telephony and save significant cost by using IP network.

There are some great Free Virtual Hosted PBX services available but you might have to give up on reliability and uptime.

Lately many VOIP Companies are exploring Enterprise VOIP, especially companies who burned their hands at Free VOIP International Calls. Look at Jajah, they are just relying on Enterprise VOIP to support their Free International Calls business.

Sometimes, I feel even if companies can offer us cheap international calls are competitive rates with good voice quality we can go for it.

Free Conference Call Service Providers

After discussing Low Cost Conference Callsand Video Conference Calls last week, as promised we today present Free Conference Call Services which will save you huge amount of money on conferencing services.

This post is mainly for SOHO or small business or Individual users who do not like to spend $$$ on Conference Call Services. If you are a professional business users with more than 50-100 employees, we strongly suggest you use one of the Low Cost Conference Calls services.

With the advent of Web 2.0, Conference calling has become virtually FREE. Easy Access number availablity, IP Networks and SIP based telephony has made it easier than ever.

Lets look at conference calling companies which offer free conference calls services. This list has web and non-web based services.

1) FreeConferenceCalls.com: A leading free conference call provider from USA. They offer hassle-free conference calls.

Features:
a) 6 hours per conference, including recording, and there is no limit on how many hours you wish to conference each month.
b)Offer is on continous basis. No deadline for free conference calls.
c) You can record your conference calls.
d) Service available anywhere in the world as long as you can dial their conference bridge number based in USA.

2) CalliFlower (iotum): This is one awesome Free Conference Call service. Developed by fellow blogger, Alec Saunders. It works via Facebook App or calling their conference bridge numbers.

Features:
a) Your phone number is the personal PIN that seamlessly connects you to every call from anywhere in the world.
b) Conference Bridge numbers avilable in USA and France.
c) Powered by reliable Truphone network.
d) Record your conference calls.

3) Rondee: We discovered Rondee when they were not even ready with their free conference calls service. However it seems now their free conference call service is going on well. Its web based free conference service.

Features:
a) Upto 100 participants can use free conference call service.
b) Works via Conference Bridge number and personal PIN (issued when you create a new conference call).
d) Ability to set up a conference call on future dates.

4) OoVoo: Oovoo is a video conference and free conference call service however you need to download their application. We found OoVoo has clean interface and can beat many similar conference call softwares at ease.

Features:
a) Multi people conference
b) Works on Windows and Mac

5) Foonz: Foonz is a basically a group conference call service. When you start a group call, foonz instantly “invites” people to join your call by sending a text message to their cell phones. Every participant gets a Foonz number which they need to dial in order to get connected to the free conference call.

Features:
a) Easy to use
b) Works via Mobile/Landline
c) Connect as many participant as you can.

6) Other Free Conference Call Services: The good old Skype still does great conference calling. You can also use Paltalk or WebEx Free Trial to make conference calls. WebEx has many more features.

If you know any free conference calls service not discussed here but worth making to the above list, do let us know.

Cheap VOIP International Calls to India

Good old days of making free voip international calls to India are over. We hardly find any VOIP Provider offering this service anymore. However we are always on the lookout for cheap voip providers to india.

Today we are going to compare voip providers who offer cheap international voip calls to India.

1) CallEasy: CallEasy is a part of Betamax services. Calleasy currently offers calls to india at 2 cents per minute which is the lowest in the market.


2)WebCallDirect: They are also a part of betamax VOIP services. Offering 2 cents per minute to India.

3)Intervoip: Intervoip started off with 1.5 cents and was the cheapest call provider for India. However they increased their rates almost immediately and now for landline calls they offer 2.5 cents and for mobile, its 2 cents per minute.

4)VOIP Raider: VoipRaider also offers cheap calls to India at around 2.5 per minute for landline calls. VoipRaider was a big hit when they were offering free calls to south africa.

There are more cheap VOIP Providers (mostly betamax services) who offer international voip calls to India in the range of 3-6 cents per minute. However currently CallEasy and WebCalldirect seem like the best offers available.

Let us know if you are aware of a provider offering anything less than 2 cents per minute to India.

Voixio offers free voip international calls

We discussed a new free voip international calls service called Voixio. This can potential work for unlimited calls to India.

Unfortunately as always we found them when they were in closed beta and not ready to make free voip calls. However It seems now Voixio is all set to be used as free voip international calls service. Voixio is very similar to other Flash based VOIP services such as Tringme. However their free voip services is based on Ad-based model.

Lets see what exactly do they offer.

1) Ad-based Free VOIP Service: Vioxio offers ad-based free voip service. When you first try using the service, they would ask for your interest in topics. Once you select that, every time you try to make a free international call, it would trigger a AD based on the options you selected. Once the advertisement is over, your free international call is connected. We found that the call time varies, sometimes 10 minutes and sometimes it was only 2 minutes. Unfortunately Voixio doesn't explicitly mention the upper limit to free calling minutes per day. However its definately restricted on per day basis. Maybe you can try and make multiple Ids and make more free international calls :-)

2)Cheap International Calls using Voixio Plus: Voixio has another option called Voixio plus which let you skip advertisements and make cheap international calls. Of course these calls are charged and you need to top-up your account. Rates are fine but not the cheapest available in the market.

3)Click to Call: Voixio allows you to take your calling widget to any website and let people call you for FREE. You can use Call forwarding however It's not very clear if this will be charged. We thought this could be deducted from daily Free international calls credit.

4) Video Conferencing: Voixio also offers Video Conferencing via web. You don't need to download heavy video conferencing applications. It seems you can video conference with upto 4 people simulataneously.

Note: Please remember Voixio offers daily credit which can be used for either VOIP Calls, video conference calls or SIP Calls. Don't waste your credit on SIP Calls which can be made FREE via X-lite or any other SIP network.

If you are able to make free voip international calls to India or any other country, do let us know. We would like to know the number of minutes you can use everyday. Does this work with multiple IDs? Of course, send a Voixio Hack if any? :-)

Low Cost Conference Calls

We recently reviewed Video Conference Calls services available in the market. This is the next series in Conference Calling. This whole series should help you make the right choice while choosing a best conference call service based on your needs.

Today, we look at Low Cost Conference Call solutions which will enable small or medium businesses to communicate. Everyone can't afford a Tandberg Conference system or Large conference system bridges. We hope our post should help you choose the right conferencing system.

1) BigFoot Conference Call: BigFoot is mainly into operator assisted conference calls. If you need a conference calling service managed by an FREE operator assistance, this could do just good enough.

Currently offering 125 minutes FREE conference calls.

Price: US$0.15 per min/participant. For International Calls, USD$0.15+ Participants pay their own local carrier for the long distance call.

2)Lypp: Lypp primarily offers a conference call bridge based service. Every conference call user has his own PIN and Toll-Free Number to setup their very own conference call bridge. Primarily a Toll Free Conference Call service.

Price: Pay as you go. 9 cents per minute. Looks like per participant but not sure.

3)Vello: Vello is primarily automated Conference Call system. Allows you to use conference call at the go. Recognition of Caller ID and directly putting you into a conference call without asking for PIN numbers. Web based Interface to see Conference Call Attendees and their contact details.

Offering 7 day Free Unlimited Conference Calls when you signup for their Conference Call Trial.

Price: Vello costs 12¢ per minute per person for US/Canada Calls.

4) Budget Conferencing: Claims to be the low cost conference call provider in USA. However they offer conference calls at 12c which is average rate. Works primarily via 1-800 Toll-free number. No Scheduling required.

If you know any low cost conference calls provider, do let us know. Don't post Free Conference Call Provider list, we will cover that topic in our next post. That post will be huge. We believe we have over 30+ Free Conference Call services.