Hack22.Get the Best Deal for VoIP Telephony

Hack 22. Get the Best Deal for VoIP Telephony

Skype is not your only option for VoIP telephony. You may want to consider other providers instead of or as a complement to Skype, based on your needs.

Works with: all versions of Skype.

Skype offers free Skype-to-Skype calls and some of the lowest rates available for calls to regular phones. However, other VoIP providers offer rates lower than Skype for some call destinations. Some even offer free calling to destinations for which Skype charges. Moreover, there might be other services (for example, 911 emergency service) that Skype does not provide and which are important to you.

Of course, nothing is stopping you from having as many VoIP providers as you want. You have a great deal of choice nowadays, and you can pick and choose as though from a menu. It's certainly worth hunting down the best deal by keeping an eye on what's out there. For example, Finarea SA's Voip-Buster service (http://www.voipbuster.com/) offers free calls to regular telephones in some countries. Even Skype can't beat that!

At the time of this writing, Finarea SA was offering free calls (with some restrictions) to Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

For details, visit http://www.voipbuster.com.

You should consider many factors (such as voice quality, reliability, and usability) when deciding on the best choice for you, based on your calling habits. Even if you are a Skype fan, you can still choose to complement Skype with other VoIP offerings or, indeed, with regular phone and mobile phone offerings. Choice is a wonderful thing!

You can find plenty of VoIP alternatives to Skype by Googling on "VoIP phone service." But to get you started so that you have a sense of what's out there, Table 2-18 lists a grab bag of suggestions for where to start looking for the best VoIP deals.

Table 2-18. A grab bag of alternative VoIP providers

http://www.vonage.com/	http://www.voipbuster.com/
http://www.sipphone.com/	http://www.sipgate.de and http://www.sipgate.co.uk/
http://www.voipgate.com/	http://www.ineen.com/
http://www.gizmoproject.com/	http://www.lingo.com/
http://www.freeworlddialup.com/	http://www.packet8.net/
http://www.wavigo.com/	http://www.dialpad.com/
http://www.woize.com/	http://www.sunrocket.com/
http://www.jajah.com/

Many of these are "me too" services that have sprouted up in the wake of Skype's success. None of them comes with any sort of testimonial or recommendation from the author or publisher.