Understanding Free Internet Calling Without Pulling Out Your Hair
What it means to use the phone is something that is surely changing very quickly these days. It Is not about a phone any longer. It’s all about Internet calling options. And those have players like FreePhone2Phone, Skype, Line2 Google Voice, Globe7 and Fring. To anyone who isn’t actually keeping up with where everything is, it can really get confusing.
Let’s do a quick round-up of what the Internet calling today tenders.
First of all, while in theory, you should be able to use your smartphone data plan to make free calls to all kinds of places, there is no single app that lets you use your cell phone to make free calls everywhere. What you can do is use your computer and a service like Skype or Google Voice to call any number or computer on earth. Alternatively, you can use your smartphone, equipped with something like a Skype app to call other smart phones with the same app over the Internet for free, but you cannot use them to call phone numbers free of charge. Even so, the more you try calling over the Internet, from a computer or smartphone, the more you’ll come to realize that Internet calling is not really all that it’s cracked up to be. To start with, the Internet calling means making to do with crackly, distant and choppy voice quality. It also means waiting longer to connect and putting up with a certain number of dropped calls. And then of course, there’s the matter of voice delay. If you’re expecting voice transmission that’s as instantaneous as a normal phone call, you will need to take some time to readjust. Your voice takes longer to reach the other end, and you will find frequently that you and the other person keep talking over each other.
If you happen to be on Wi-Fi (and not your 3G Internet) though, calls from your smartphone or computer to anywhere can be pretty clear. If you call any phone number in America, it’s $3 a call, regardless how long the call is. And then, depending upon what application you are using, you can have different kinds of benefits. FreePhone2Phone is great in that it’s not an app thing. You just get to call land lines in almost any country just as long as you agree to listen to an advertisement. Google Voice is free, but it consumes your cell phone minutes to make calls. In addition, unless you’re using a complicated app called Talkatone you cannot use it on a smartphone. And the Line2 app on your smartphone functions like it was a separate number working on your phone. It becomes active when you have Wi-Fi. You pay $10 a month, and you can call regular phone numbers as much as you want.
And of course, all of these apps will only work for particular countries. Internet calling is still a system that tries to work around a number of obstacles placed by the service providers and the laws. Things should clear up quickly though.
