Free VOIP International Calls from Australia

Access number based VOIP services are on the rise everywhere in the world. Australia is also not new to this new VOIP medium. We have already used VOIP services like Aussiecall in the past.

Today, we look at a fairly new access number based VOIP Provider called Callr.com.au who offers totally free international calls to many countries worldwide including India, Bangladesh etc. This is a great way to make free calls to india.

Thanks to Keyur and Abhishek for informing about Callr.com.au

If you check out their countries list, it represents well over 100 countries. However, they clearly mentioned at the bottom of the page that only countries marked in Pink are currently free to call using Callr.com.au.

Who can make calls with Callr.com.au?
Anyone who lives in Australia and can make calls to their single access number:0404446663.

How can I call Callr.com.au access number?
Well you can use your mobile or landline to make calls. As per my information, In australia local phone service companies offer package deals which can gives free minutes to call mobiles phones across australia. You can utilize this packaged minutes to call their access number, Keyur (our reader) has confirmed that this call is charged at local mobile rates and isn't overcharged.

We sincerely hope that this new access number based VOIP service callr can help local australian students to save some money on calling to their home countries.

If you are currently using Callr.com.au, please give your feedback/comments on this service.

PidiPompi Long Distance VOIP Phone Service Review

After Actionvoip, smartvoip and nymgo, we didn't have many options to make cheap VOIP Calls to asian subcontinent. However, it seems the new VOIP Provider can join the cheap VOIP league.

Pidipompi is primarily a access number based Long distance phone service operating from NJ,USA. At this stage, Pidipompi Long distance phone service is only available in the USA and Canada or unless you can call the USA numbers.

When we looked at their calling rates, they are not the best calling rates available in the market but are very close to most of the betamax VOIP services. E.g. They offer 0.90 cents to India Mobile if you top-up with $5 credit and use a Local Access Number. The toll-free access numbers is also provided but then the calling rates shoots up to 1.9 cents per minute. Calling India landline is about 1.1 cents per minute.

Pidipompi also seem to offer great competitive calling rates to destinations such as Sri Lanka, Nepal and Pakistan.

Since this is a new long distance call provider as always we suggest you only try and test the service with the smallest credit top-up. If you are a existing Pidipompi user, we would like to know your review/feedback/comment on this service.

Chillitalk VOIP Calling Cards Review

A new VOIP based calling card company is advertising their calling card products through TV advertisements for a while. We decided to take a look at what Chillitalk can offer.

Chillitalk is part of Vectone,a UK based company behind other VOIP services such as Barablu.

Chillitalk calling cards can be bought online at chillitalk official website or at over 33000 shops displaying the e-pay or payzone signs, which we believe is only available in UK. For international users, we need to only buy through Internet.

Now the most important factor in choosing a VOIP Provider or a calling card service is the calling rates. Chillitalk however offers a pretty competitive rates to call countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. India can called at 1 pence per minute (1.60 cents per minute). Not the cheapest provider to call India but not a worst calling rate either.

In fact, chillitalk is currently running a promotion. You will get 100 free minutes to call India, Bangladesh, Egypt, and Ghana if you activate your chillitalk card by 31st may 2009.

Are you one of the existing customers of chillitalk, then do let us know your review on chillitalk cards or give feedback/comments on its quality.

Foonz Free Conference Calls Service Closed down

We didn't hear much negative news coming from VOIP market last quarter but it seems there is a major setback at Foonz which forced them to close down their free conference call service.

Foonz today officially announced through email to existing subscribers that they will be closing down the free conference calls service from May 22 2009.

The official Foonz Free conference calls service email says:

-----

We regret to inform you that as of May 22, 2009, we will temporarily suspend the free Foonz service.

We are disappointed that we have to do this, but we are unable to maintain our relationship with our current telephone carrier, and we have not yet been able to arrange for a new vendor.

We are working on an alternate solution, and we are hopeful that we will be resuming the service in the near future. Your account data will be maintained throughout this transition.

In the mean time, please let us know if we can be of any assistance during this service interruption.

--------

In our opinion several areas contributed to this falldown of otherwise excellent Free conference calls service. As I always said, the most important factor in any business plan is the revenue plan. Whenever someone approaches me for an investment, the first thing i ask for how will you make revenue from this idea. Trust me, 70% of the time people having great ideas doesn't know how they can make money off it.

Foonz didn't have any revenue stream which could keep them going. Giving away free conference calls and getting millions of users under your belt won't make you a great service. Especially when the VC's are looking for value buys and not just a surplus of userbase which is not going to convert for them or any other company who wishes to buy them. Afterall, everyone needs to make some profit.

For that matter, any VOIP service today offering free voip calls without advertisements or any other revenue source would fail miserably. The VC's are not going to hang around for long.

Were you one of the existing users of Foonz? What will you do after Foonz closes down on 22nd May? Will you switch to other conference call services? whats your next best conference call provider? Let us know.

Winners of VOIP Guide LocalPhone International Call Credit Giveaway

Did you win the VOIPGuide-Localphone $100 International Call credit giveaway? Read this post to find out if you won some cool free international call credit.

On 17th May on my birthday, I along with LocalPhone posted about a competition to win $100 free international call credit of LocalPhone.

As per the rules of the competition, There will be 20 winners with each getting $5 international call credit of localphone.

Here are the winner of the contest:

1) Iqbal Esmati
2) TJ Chowdhary
3) Dheeren Johri
4) Gaurav Gangwani
5) kulsigdel (Localphone ID not identified, Please resend your exact localphone login id.)
6) Usman abbas
7) Karan Singh
8) Surindra
9) Bishnu acharya
10)Rizwan Siddique
11) Prayank Sheth
12) Kaustubh Prabhu
13) Atif Zuberi
14) Joseph
15) Ravinder Reddy
16) Suman saha
17) Ravindra Ambati
18) adarsh samrat (Please provide your localphone id in email format)
19) Ghouse Peerzade
20) Praveen Mothe

Congrats to all the winners. One interesting fact I would like to share, many readers started following VOIP Guide on twitter but did not participate in the contest. This simply means they know how powerful VOIP Guide on twitter can be and how helpful it will be in future. If you still ain't following VOIP Guide on twitter, please do today.

Your international call credit will be credited to your accounts within 48 working hours (2 days) or earlier.Thanks to Localphone for partially sponsoring the event and my special thanks to Dave Cardwell for being generous to sponsor my birthday giveaway.

VOIP Guide $100 International Call Credit Giveaway

This is your only chance to grab $100 worth of international call credit to be given away on my birthday. I am being generous on this occasion and want to give back something to my readers. Don't miss this opportunity.

Today (17th May) is my birthday and I thought its time for me to give some international talktime to my readers so they can call their friends and family. I am giving away total $100 talktime. This international call credit will be from LocalPhone.

Surprisingly, LocalPhone wanted to the part of this event and they generously sponsored $50 talktime. That means, I will be putting my $50 + LocalPhone's $50 making it a total of $100. The call credit will be given to 20 people @ $5 per person.

Now lets see how you can win this free international call credit.

1) Register yourself at LocalPhone (If you have a existing localphone account, skip this step)

2) Follow VOIPGuide on Twitter (I hope most of you know what twitter is all about, if not read a bit on twitter first).

3) Try to post some tweets (this is optional but this can improve your chances of being chosen as lucky winner).

4) Very Important Step: Send email to ut(dot)godmode@gmail.com with your twitter username and LocalPhone username for me to verify.

This is really easy to win. I am going to choose the winner randomly or based on your tweet comments (if i find something interesting).

How following VOIP Guide on twitter would help you?

You would get some really quicker updates to new VOIP Phone services or international calling rates which are often not advertised but known to me personally. It would be a good platform for all of you to be engage with the blog and you can share some tips back to me via twitter.

When will the winners be announced?
This competition is open till tomorrow(around 48 hrs from now). I will post the winner most likely on 19th May 2008. Watch out for this space if you are the lucky winner.

When will the winners get the international call credit?

LocalPhone promised to credit the talktime within 48 hrs from the time the winners are declared.

How can I use my LocalPhone Call credit?

LocalPhone is a great service, it also won the VOIP Guide's Cheap International Provider of the year award in 2008. You can use Localphone through 66000 access numbers across the world, or you can also use Localphone via SIP. If you have a localphone VOIP account, you can use X-lite, or localphone SIP client or your own SIP Phone and setup Localphone account. Localphone also offers a free UK incoming number with their VOIP service. If your localphone VOIP service is not enabled, ask localphone support. If you win $5 Localphone credit, you can make upto 172 minutes of calls (approx 3 hrs calls) to India (landline + Mobile). Of course, you can call any other country in the world.

Participate in this competition and give me a chance to give back to the community. VOIP Guide was never built by me, it was always built by the readers. Thanks you everyone and I want to see large number of people participating in this competition.

Start following VOIP Guide on Twitter. I would like to thank Dave Cardwell of Localphone for partially sponsoring this competition.

Unlimited Free International Calls to India and many countries

This is huge. You can now make unlimited free calls to india (Landline +Mobile) and more countries such as USA, Canada, Thailand and Russia. This is VOIP Guide exclusive news, don't miss it!

You are already aware of the great free international calls provider Poketalk who constantly added more countries to the free calling list. Poketalk contacted VOIP Guide asking for suggestion on offering free calls to India. With over 2 days of testing, Poketalk and VOIP Guide is happy to announce that you can now make unlimited free international calls to India (Landline +Mobile)

The only downside for this service at this time is its only available for callers in UK or if you have a UK geographic number and are able to call to one of the Poketalk's Access numbers. Please note poketalk access numbers are o2 mobile numbers so if you have a BT, NTL or mobile operator plan which includes free minutes you can use them to call poketalk access number.

Let's see how to make a free international call to India or other countries offered by Poketalk under this Dial-in plan.

1) Register at Poketalk
2) If you are already registered with Poketalk and have a Poketalk PRO account, you can apply a coupon to get 10% extra credit. This is again another exclusive offer for VOIP Guide users. The coupon code is voipguides

How to Apply Coupon in Poketalk?
a) From Account Page, go to PRO tab.
b) Under PRO, you can see your PRO Balance. Click on Add Credit.
c) you would see 3 options, Choose Coupon tab.
d) in the code field, enter voipguides and click Send. This would instantly add 10% extra talktime into your account. This also works for existing PRO users.


3) Now from your UK Mobile or Landline, Dial one of the following Poketalk Dial-in Numbers:

447624100180, 447624100183, 447624100184, 447624100187 (If you are calling from UK, you can skip country code 44 and instead replace it with 0. I believe a local UK user would know this.)

4) Once you are connected to one of the access numbers, a lady would ask you dial the number of your choice in proper country code+number format + # key.

e.g If you are calling India landline in Mumbai, you would enter 912223420000#

Note: Wait till the lady finishes talking and then enter the number. If you enter the number before the call won't go through. This bug is reported to Poketalk by me today so hopefully they would fix this. I asked them to add a beep and then ask users to enter the number.
5) Talk as much as you want.

Now, I know many of you guys are furious over why this service is only for UK. Well, at this time this service is in beta and poketalk is actively looking to start this service in USA, Canada and many other countries. We have already requested for this. Don't worry, we will ensure that this happens.

All existing Poketalk customers, don't forget to use coupon code voipguides to get free extra credit. It applies to all old and new customers.

Secondly, don't forget that this service works for other countries such as USA, Canada, Thailand and Russia (Landline + Mobile).

Guys, Make the most of it and secondly, Please report your feedback on the call quality, new features etc. Thanks again to Shai Genish of Poketalk for working with us on this exclusive news.

Cheap Calls to Bangladesh

Bangladesh was always a heavily regulated VOIP country and had lot of illegal VOIP outfits. However after strong govt action against illegal VOIP, that market is pretty much out of focus.

Telecom carries were charging anything from 7 cents to 16 cents to call bangladesh. However after India becoming one of the cheapest destinations to call in Indian subcontinent, bangladesh is slowly becoming the second cheapest destination to call in this region.

All thanks to Betamax and Voipax for lowering the calling rates to Bangladesh. Voipian offers 2.1 cents per call to bangladesh landline and 4.6 cents per minute to bangladesh mobile. Many other providers like actionvoip also offers extremely competitive calling rates to Bangladesh.

Can we expect a really cheap call to Bangladesh at 1 cents per minute?
Well, it really depends on volume. VOIP is a volume business if the VOIP Providers can sell consistent bangladesh minutes they should be able to offer at close to 1 cent per minute to bangladesh. This could take some time and most importantly more people should start using VOIP over calling cards which literally steal your pocket by charging double calling rates.

If you are calling bangladesh and know a VOIP Provider offering lower than 2.1 USD cents per minute to bangladesh, do let us know.

Skype India 300 Plan

Skype a leader in PC to PC VOIP market wants to get a fair share of the PC to Phone calling market. After introducing some really cool Unlimited Calling plan, they are pushing into the more lucrative India Calling market.

Skype now introduced a new plan to make cheap calls to india. Well, lets see if its really that cheap when you use skype.

Skype India 300 plan basically gives you 300 minutes to call india landlines across india for €9.95(€11.44 incl VAT). Now that works out to 3.8 euro cents per minute which is really very costly. When actionvoip offers calls around 1 cent per minute to India, Skype India 300 plan really looks costly. Skype however would definately offer you better voice quality.

The biggest downside of using Skype is obviously its a PC based service unless you have a Skype Phone.

Considering the availability of the call, features and cost, we believe Skype India 300 plan is probably only good for Skype fans who find it easier to use Skype and not so tech savvy for SIP yet.

Skype can get lot easier than SIP at times especially with new users or people who probably have no idea how VOIP works.

If you are currently using Skype India 300 plan,please post your review/feedback/comments.

IPVaani launches IPDarshan Free Video Phone Service

IPVaani is all set to launch a Video Phone Service to expand their reach as complete VOIP Provider. IPVaani already offers a Peer to peer IP based VOIP service which is widely used across the world.

IPVaani now adding a free VoIP phone service called IPDarshan. Using IPdarshan video phone service, subscribers can make and receive unlimited Free video phone calls across the globe. IPdarshan video phone service delivers high-quality, full-motion video and audio over any broadband (Cable or DSL) Internet connection. We believe the internet speed should be minimum 512 Kbps without any packet loss for a good video quality.

IPDarshan doesn't need any setup and it has no monthly charges. There is however a one time price of $299.

As you may already know, IPVanni only offers Peer to Peer service that means its only within their network. IP to IP based services only work within the network, that means you can only call or video call with another IPVaani or IPDarshan uses. The Good thing however is you can take your phone with you anywhere in the world and use it. It carries the number with itself, its like any other SIP Phone.

IPDarshan like IPvanni comes with almost all important features of a VOIP service or a Video conference service.

Are you using IPVaani or IPdarshan, do let us know your feedback/Comments on this service.

0870 Phone Numbers to be charged at Geographic Telephone number rate

Ofcom, UK's Telecom Regulator has announced new rules to provide clarity about the price of calls to 0870 numbers.

According to Ofcom, All telecom opetators are encourage to follow new rules,

1) To stop charging higher prices for calls to 0870 numbers from fixed lines and mobiles than calls to “geographic rate” numbers (01, 02 or 03 numbers); and
2) To include 0870 calls in call packages on the same basis as geographic calls.

These new changes means 0870 numbers will no more be treated as premium numbers as they are charged at the national geographic number rate. However, all telecom operators are asked to follow the new rules, its still not a forced law.

However, recently BT has included 0870 numbers into it's calling package and stop charging extra rate for calling these numbers. Ofcom believes more telecom operators would follow the new rules.

Currently 0870 calls are mainly used by VOIP/Telecom operators as access numbers for their cheap international calls service to share the revenue generated by per-minute call charges. It would be interesting to see how this market is affected by this change.

It would be great if Ofcom can force this law onto the telecom operators rather than asking them to comply at their will.

Ofcom also asked all telecom operators/businesses to clearly mention on their website/advertisement/media about 0870 number charges.
The consumers have every right to know how much they are charged when they call the 0870 number. If you notice anyone violating this law, you may contact ofcom and lodge a formal complaint against the business.

If you live in UK, you would be greatly benefited from this move by Ofcom. Let us know your comments.

Tuitalk now offers free calls to India

This is a must read for everyone. We always dream about free calls to India even though calling India is now close to 1 cent per minute, Free Calls was still a dream This dream of calling free to India has finally come true.

Tuitalk is now offers totally free calls to India landline and mobile anywhere in India. The only catch is you can't make from India to India. Anyone who lives outside India can make calls to anyone in India for Free.

How would you make free calls to India with Tuitalk?

1) Download Tuitalk Windows softphone/iphone/windows mobile version.

2) Register at Tuitalk as new user.
3) To make calls use 00 + country code + phone number
Eg, calling US: 00 1 212 555XXXX
4) You can make free international and domestic calls around the world to over 40 countries including India.
5) You can talk for as long as your call is sponsored. I assume this depends on where you are calling from. Typically, USA callers would most likely get more minutes since US Ad market is more competitive.
6) you can call everyday for a certain period. Try using the advance profile option in tuitalk to get more calling minutes everyday.

Please let everyone know how many minutes you could talk to India and from which country you are. This should help everyone with how long they can talk from a certain country.

Now besides free calls to India, Tuitalk also offers free calls to many destinations around the world, so its worth a try.

Now since Free Calls to India is finally a reality. Thanks for competition, lower termination charges and overall progress of VOIP.

WorldPhone.in VOIP Phone Service Review

If you have noticed, a new VOIP company in India advertising their VOIP Phone Service in local daily. We decided to take a closer look at WorldPhone VOIP Phone service and see if they are worth your money.

WorldPhone.in is a Category "A" Internet Telephony Service Provider in India. WorldPhone claims to offer cheap international call packages through their VOIP service.

Let's quickly look at how WorldPhone VOIP service works:

1) ISD Goes Local: WorldPhone claims that they literally port ISD as a Local call for you by using a USA Virtual Number. For a Layman, it all sounds exciting but if you know a bit about VOIP, you know that getting a Free USA number is a cakewalk.

2) WorldPhone offers multiple VOIP Plans all through the USA Virtual Numbers and they are going to charge you anywhere from Rs. 750-3000 depending on the plan you chose. Take an example of a Unlimited USA/Canada plan which comes at Rs. 750.

Now, Will you pay Rs. 750 for a virtual number + USA/Canada unlimited plan??
If i was you, then NEVER. Why? Coz USA Geogrphic numbers are Free and secondly, there are many service which offer virtually unlimited calls to anywhere in USA/Canada (Mobile included). In short, You will end up paying Rs. 750 for something which is available for FREE.

4) WorldPhone claims they offer RS. 199 plan to talk unlimited to other WorldPhone Users. Gosh, SIP to SIP is Free, again waste of money.

5) On top of it, Worldphone will also charge you additional fee of Rs. 5000 per month.

Considering it's all Virtual Number based VOIP service, its definately not recommended to suscribe to WorldPhone.

If you are an existing customer of WorldPhone and think otherwise, do post your feedback/comments about WorldPhone.in

Voipian offers Unlimited VOIP Calls at 1 cent

We already know about a VOIP Provider called Voipax. Voipax has now started to introduce more VOIP service under its hood, just like betamax or dellmont sarl is doing.

VOIPax has introduced a new VOIP service called Voipian, which claims to offers 1 cent per call. Please read this again, its 1 cent per call not per minute. This deal is available during Voipian's beta test phase, which does not have any specific end date.

Voipian will offer cheap calls to following destinations at 1 cent per call:

Andorra
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Bahamas
Belgium
Brazil
Brazil Rio De Janeiro
Brazil Sao Paolo
Brunei Darussalam
Bulgaria
Canada (+mobile)
Chile
China
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Guadeloupe
Hong Kong (+mobile)
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Israel
Japan
Jordan
Korea South
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macao
Malaysia
Martinique
Monaco
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Panama
Peru
Peru Lima
Poland
Portugal
Puerto Rico (+mobile)
Romania
Russia
Russia Moscow
Russia St.Petersburg
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
United Kingdom
United States (+mobile)
Venezuela

Its good to see countries like Malaysia and Brazil are offered at 1 cent per call.

Voipian offers SIP supports, that means you can use Voipian through your SIP Phone, VOIP Adapter or SIP Softphone such as X-lite.

Voipian SIP Details:

Phone Number: Enter your (home) phone number.
User name: Enter your Voipian username here.
Password: Enter your Voipian password here.
Registrar: voipian.com
Proxy: sip.voipian.com

If you do not have your own SIP setup, you can always opt for Voipian Softphone. You can download VOIPian softphone from here.

Are you already using Voipian, do let us know your feedback on Voipian.

SmartVOIP hikes calling rates for India

In a totally unsmart move by SmartVOIP, they raised calling rates to India by 100%. If you call India Mobile or landline using smartvoip, you would end up paying double the calling rate.

SmartVOIP was offering 0.05 cents to India when lot of us credited our account in a hope that this is the cheapest calling rate to India. However, good old betamax is so good at making your dollars look cheap with one smart rate hike.

You will now have to pay 1 eurocent to call India which is not at all cheap. Actionvoip is currently offering better rates to call India.

Looking at betamax's historical call rate pattern, the new calling rate is here to stay for atleast 2 months or so. That means our $10 calling credit on smart voip is now only worth $5 :-(

Do you hate betamax for all the sneaky calling rate hike? If yes, we want to hear your comments on this stupid move by Betamax/SmartVOIP.