FreeCall offers cheapest call to India at 1.5 cents

With the recent news of ISP's being allowed to enter the VOIP market, Calling rates to India are getting extremely competitive and I have heard rumours that calling rate to India can be dropped to 1-2 USD cents (permanently) once these companies start rolling in their own VOIP infrastructure.

You don't wait for that day to come. Betamax (once again) has slashed calling rates to India to a mere 1.5 eruocents (2.2 USD cents). This is currently available on FreeCall. This is probably the cheapest international calling rate to India.

Apparently, they also offer SIP based calls. You can use the following settings:

Proxy domain: sip.voiparound.com : 5060
User domain: sip.voiparound.com
stun.voiparound.com : 5060

You can use this with your SIP Phone or VOIP adapter or even your favorite SIP Softphone. If you don't know how to set a SIP on Softphone, Read our how to Configure SIP provider on SIP Softphone .

Please note, Betamax usually charges 5 cents connection fee if the calls are routed via SIP (anything other than their own softphone). Please check before you start making calls using SIP.

We still can't rely on Betamax (FreeCall) as the cheapest VOIP Provider for India. As usual, we know these rates won't last for long, however lets hope they do. In the mean time, Lets just find out a stable long term cheap VOIP provider for India. We are confident that in the coming months, we will find someone good enough.

WebCallDirect offers cheap calls to india at 2 cents per minute

Betamax recently changed SMS Discount cheap calling rate to India from 2 eurocents to 2.5 cents. So we had to find another alternative to make cheap international calls to India. Today, we found another betamax service WebCallDirect offering equally good price at 2 eurocents per minute.

WebCallDirect is another betamax service which hasn't been in news much. As you all know, SMSDiscount is no more offering 2 eurocents per minute to India and have increased landline calls to 2.5 eurocents per minute. Besides, WebCallDirect we can also use CallEasy which continues to offer at 2 cents per minute to India landline and mobile.

You can also use WebCallDirect with SIP Phone or VOIP Adapter. Use the following SIP Settings for Web Call Direct.

SIP port : 5060
Registrar : sip.webcalldirect.net
Proxy server : sip.webcalldirect.net
Outbound proxy server : leave empty
Account name : your Webcalldirect username
Password : your Webcalldirect password
Display name/number : your Webcalldirect username or voipnumber
Stunserver (option) : stun.webcalldirect.net

We recommend you use the G.711 codec for quality audio.

Keep a watch on cheap calls to India and let us know when you find a cheap VOIP Provider for India.

Free DID numbers Providers list

VOIP has gone mainstream and everybody today needs their very own VOIP Phone. However, VOIP is not just limited to owning a home phone service. With people moving all over the world, businesses catering to entire world its important that people can port numbers for other countries on their VOIP Phone and be able to receive calls.

A person based in Singapore has clients in USA and UK and he doesnt want his client to call a Singapore number to reach him. How about a USA and UK number for them to make a local call? Sounds great, this is where DID (Direct Inward Dialing Number) comes into play.

Today we put together the world's most comprehensive DID number provider's list. If you know a DID provider not listed here please let us know.

1)FreeDigits/TalkDigits/CallDigits/ClickDigits: All managed by SIP Number and all DID services are interconnected. Offers USA numbers for FREE.

2) IPKALL: Ipkall offers free usa incoming DID number. Washington State numbers of 206, 253, 360, 425)

3)GrandCentral: Get free USA number from any state. You can of course forward this number to upto 6 numbers in USA or Canada.

4)IPComms: IPComms gives free US DID number from over 5000 locations in USA. Offers Unlimited Inbound Calling, 2 Incoming ports (VoIP Delivered).

5)Orbtalk: These guys offer any geographic DID number in United Kingdom in any county.

6)Coms: Really one of the best Geographic DID number providers in UK.

7)Messagenet: Offers Free DID numbers in London, Milan, Rome or Turin area codes. Voicemail with an unlimited number of messages.

8) Num2IM: These guys offers a Free France DID number, which can be forwarded to your Google Talk/Yahoo/MSN etc.

9) LocalPhone: LocalPhone offers a cheap international call service and also offers a UK Geographic number which you can forward to your phone.

10) Speex: Offers Free cellular (057) Isreali number. Its a number with an extension so not pure DID. The site is in hebrew, so apologies for that.

11) TelFree: Offers a 087 number in South Africa. National Rates Apply.

Do let us know if you are aware of a DID provider and its not listed here, so we can add it to the list. I hope this Free DID number provider list will be helpful for everyone. Don't waste your money on things which you can get for FREE, especially when it comes to FREE VOIP :-)

Its official VOIP in India is now Legal

Alas, the day has come. VOIP in India is finally legal. Thanks to continuous efforts by TRAI to push VOIP to mainstream India through ISP and Telecom Operators. Finally, India is now official a VOIP enabled country or should we say soon to be?

we are extremely excited at VOIP Guide to hear this news. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is recommending unrestricted internet telephony for the country's Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Around Two years ago, India allowed VOIP licenses to offer unrestricted internet telephony, but none of the mobile operators have done so far, since they are afraid VoIP would cut their profits and impact overall revenues. However with this new annoucement to open VOIP to ISP, it will be a different ballgame. The Mobile operators will be forced to join the arena since those who are left out would probably loose out forever. Since ISP's have strong hold in the market now, they can push VOIP services as part of their broadband packages which can make life even more difficult for telecom operators.

We are expecting to see Vodafone and Bharati to launch VOIP services first. There were strong rumous that Bharati is going to launch Advertisement based Free Calls Service in India, I thought this was done in Pilot Phases.

Now since VOIP in India will become legal, what this would mean to you and me?

In simple words, our International calls to India will be lot cheaper. We expect this to be around 50 paise (about 1.2 USD cents). The actual termination cost could be a bit more, but provider like Reliance/Bharati/VSNL can do E1 rates for as low as 25-40 paise (lower than 1 cnets per minute). This would be huge for everyone who wants to make cheap international calls to India. VOIP Providers will enjoy better rates and with increasing competition there will be more impressive deals available in the market. When legal grade 1 carrier routes are available at 1 cents, most likely grey routes would soon be dumped, unless of course people settle for low quality calls for less than 1 cents per minute.

We are just waiting for Govertment to start providing these Licenses to ISP and Telecom operators. We are expecting this to actually take effect by end of this year or first half of 2009. Let us your feelings about this great news.

DLink Video Conference Call IP Phone

The time has come for India to ride on the wave of VOIP communication as primary telecommunication method. With MTNL/BSNL launching their very own VOIP Phone service for replacing traditional landline phone, VOIP is making its way into indian homes.

Broaband is not cheap in India, which is a key component for Video Conference Calls or VOIP Calls. You can't do high quality VOIP or Conference calls with low broband connections. Thanks to MTNL/BSNL who provides robust DSL connectivity even in remote India. That made Video Conference Call a definate possibility.

Now, you can start making Video Conference Calls right from your home with the GVC 3000. India-based engineers in Bangalore and Goa of the Taiwanese networking products leader D-Link have created the first truly indigenous IP or Internet Protocol-based Video Phone — the GVC 3000. It looks and feels exactly like any standard landline handset — except that you can see the person you are speaking to, on a 5-inch liquid crystal screen. This IP Phone is likely to cost around Rs.23,000, however making Video conference calls is not your game, you can settle for a non-Video version of this IP Phone for a mere Rs. 7000.

However this definately kick starts a new VOIP IP Phone market in India. We hope to see more Indian companies taking on the likes of Linksys VOIP Adapter and IP Phones by Netgear etc.

Unlimited International Calls to Finland and Isreal

Finland and Isreal are fast becoming the telecom capitals of the world, with Companies like Jajah, Fring and Nokia based out of these cities. More and more people around the globe are calling these countries on a everyday basis.

Skype has decided to take on this market with their promising Unlimited Calls Package. Skype currently offers unlimited call to many countries in Europe and you can either take one single country or buy the entire europe calling package.

You can buy a unlimited calling subscription package from as low as 2.29 pounds. Skype gives you a flexibility to take the entire Europe plan or only specific country plan. Please remember they offer about 10000 minutes under it's fair usage policy and its only unlimited to landline phone.

Let us know if you know anyone who can beat the skype price and of course can offer unlimited calls (upto 10000 minutes a month). 10000 minutes per month under unlimited plan is really high, most of FUP are restricted to 300-500 minutes per week, which amounts to 1500-2000 minutes per month. I highly doubt if anyone is even close to 10000 unlimited minutes per month but please let me know if you know a VOIP Provider offering such deal.

Betamax VOIP monopoly - We need strong VOIP Competitor Service

I guess everyone would agree that Betamax pretty much rules the low cost international calls market. However, they take undue advantage of this situation and change calling rates overnight to make up for the low calling rate.

Over last 2 years of VOIP Guide, I have received over 100+ email from readers who complain about Betamax literally stealing from their pocket. We all know how betamax gets the new customers. They decrease the rates to the lowest international calling rates for a country. People like us gets lured by those lowest international calling rates and throw away our regular cheap VOIP service. Put $10-$50 into the betamax account and after about 2 weeks, betamax increases the rate (almost 50%) which is as good as or even more than what you are paying for on your regular calling card or VOIP Service. At the end of the day, we need really work out what's works best for you? Short term cheap calling rate or a long term stable calling rate? I would prefer a long term stable calling rate any time. I personally do not put money on any of the betamax product.

We really need a alternate VOIP Service which can seriously compete with Betamax with rock bottom prices. Most importantly the prices atleast need to be stable for 3-6 months. In fact, traditionally calling rates have been going down rather than going up. I do not see any real reason unless telecom infrastructure costing companies any real overheads to increase the calling rates or their telecom carries wants to make more money. Today, T1/E1 calling rates to India are as low as 3.99 cents per minute (no Grey routes). Grey routes can go at 2.99 cents per minutes. In fact, I spoke to one extremely large VOIP Service provider from Singapore (name withheld for anonymity), they said they can provide India calling rates as low as 3 cents per minute for retail customers. Looking at these numbers, I feel confident that India could be as low as 1-1.5 cents per minute by 2009-2010, which is as good as USA and if someone can absorb that cost with a strong advertising model, they can offer India as free international calling destination.

I personally believe VOIP Companies today lack focus. They need a bunch of marketers who understand how to market their world class VOIP service and take it to the masses. When people ask me why Jajah is so successful, I tell them "Jajah is no special, they did what you didn't. Market the bloddy Product and take it to the masses". There are only two things exist in oligopolistic markets, Either you stay in a niche and target smaller but lucrative consumers who pay you premium amount for your service or You charge pennies and get massive volume of consumers. If you are not in either of this, your future is THE END.

If any VOIP Companies needs consultancy on Marketing Strategy, they can now hire me as Consultant. I am already in the process to get my first client (hopefully soon). If interested, you can email me at ut(dot)godmode@gmail.comwith a brief on your business.

Readers, I would like to know who you feel is the most stable VOIP Provider in the current market and can be a good alternative to Betamax in Long Run.

Access Nonoh.net VOIP Service through Backdoor

I have received over 50 emails from regular VOIP Guide readers that nonoh.net VOIP Service is down. Nonoh was first featured here when they started their VOIP service and became instantly popular in USA and many other parts of the world.

Nonoh.net is one of the biggest Betamax VOIP Service and it seems their website is currently down/homepage broken. VOIP Guide is currently getting over 5000 visits everyday from people looking for alternate way to access nonoh.net. We finally found one. Thanks to Ranjeet, who shared with us a great way to access nonoh.net even during their downtime.

You can access nonoh.net VOIP Service through this page. Just for information sake, Nonoh offers totally free international calls to Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, France, Ireland and a few other countries. Nonoh.net always claimed that they are cheaper than Jajah :-) but yes for a few destinations nonoh.net definately offer cheaper international calls than Jajah.

So all those who haven't been able to use cheap international call service Nonoh, now can access via this backdoor page. Enjoy!

Lypp extends low cost conference call service to 20+ countries

Most of the low cost conference call and free conference call services are based out of USA and Canada and some in UK. However not many conference calling companies have really taken the other developed or developing markets seriously.

Especially Australia, Europe, India and China has huge potential for Conference Calling Service. With offices, Call Center and BPO services moving to office to get the cost advantage, companies are not replying on cost effective methods of communication and of course everyone needs to talk to their employees without the need to travel to different office. The need of Video Conference Call services and Call Conference solutions is extremely high during this transition period.

Lypp, a low cost conference call service now extended their services to over 20 + countries mainly Australia, UK, Germany. Existing and new users in North America can also now include participants from 20+ countries. They only charge you for minutes you use and there are NO additional long distance costs if you use the outbound calling feature. Lypp can be used via traditional toll-free conferencing or via outlook or blackberry phone.

We believe this market is going to increase further with more and more conference calling companies explore emerging markets for conference calling services.

Free Calls within Canada

Access Number based free calling services are back in Business. The good old AllFreeCalls.net and Yak4ever closed down due to issues with local Telecom providers, but it seems there are more VOIP companies exploring this option to make some money off this route.

ZeroCents a canadian free long distance provider offering free calls within Canada only. I am not a canadian but it seems that calling within Canadian provinces is like a long distance call, so you will be charged lot more than calling within your local area. e.g: I am in toronto and I want to call Vancouver, I would be charged more than a local toronto call.

Now ZeroCents promises to reduce this "extra" cost by routing your call through their VOIP network. How do they make money? By running a 5 secs audio advertisement at the start of your call. Unfortunately, their website has no information basides the list of access number and cities you can call via their VOIP network.

With these service mushrooming in the VOIP Market, consumers will have more choice but we see lack of innovation and these service will fade away as more competition comes up. AllFreeCalls.net and Yak4ever were really one of the best services when it comes to access number based Free international calls. You could call 40 countries + with their services, but calling within Canada with access number probably wouldn't make me jump with joy.

Maybe fellow Canadians can enlighten me, if they see any value in this Free Long Distance Calling Service for Canada. I strongly suggest a better service called ViaTalk Free, a Phone to Phone service which lets you make free calls to USA and Canada from USA.

cheapest international calls to India

Lately many Betamax services are reducing the calling rates to countries such as India and Pakistan. It seems slowly we can see that cheap international calls to India and Pakistan is now a possibility.

I was talking to one of Asia's largest Telecom Carrier's CEO a few weeks back and he told me offering India for 3.99 cents or even lower could be possible and it would still be a profitable venture for them. Considering tremendous growth in VOIP in India and with mainstream telecom companies like MTNL and BSNL entering the market, its just a matter of time that VOIP will be more mainstream communication replacing PSTN lines. There will be Vonage, Sunrocket, PhonePower and Lingo like companies in India which would provide Digital Phone Lines.

Now till that becomes a reality, Betamax has again given away India at cheapest international call rate of mere 2.3 USD cents (Landline & Mobile). This is cheaper than what Intervoip offers at the moment roughly 3.1-3.9 cents. Thanks to Ramesh Kumar (Regular contributor and reader from Bangkok) for sending in this update.

SMSDiscount is a betamax product so you can either use their softphone or Phone to Phone service or use your own SIP Phone or VOIP Adapter.

For using SIP Phone with SMS Discount you can use the following settings:

SIP port : 5060
Registrar : sip.smsdiscount.com
Proxy server : sip.smsdiscount.com
Outbound proxy server : leave empty
Account name : your smsdiscount username
Password : your smsdiscount password
Display name/number : your smsdiscount username or voipnumber
Stunserver (option) : stun.smsdiscount.com

We have noticed that Betamax often charges more while making calls via SIP. Please keep that in mind. You can also use X-lite with SMSDiscount.

We suggest make the most of this offer so you save some huge bucks on making cheapest international calls to India.