Free Phone Calls From Your Computer

If you’ve run any sort of business in the past or are running one now, you know that a significant portion of your monthly business costs can come from long-distance calls - or even local calls. That’s why many small business owners love the idea of free phone calls directly from their computer. (See 13 free or cheap tools, resources + services for more free tools for running a small online business.)

Calling from your computer is similar to regular calling, but you have the choice of using software (soft phones) directly on your computer or using a special phone, either wireless or with an USB cable. (If you have a computer that’s 3 years or less, it has USB ports on it, possibly in the front. They’re thin and long - about a half-inch.)

The best part about soft phones is that if you are calling someone else with the same soft phone, the call is free, even if they are half-way across the world. There are also promotions for some soft phone-based VoIP services. One is SkypeOut from Skype, which currently allows people in Canada and the United States to call any landline or mobile phone in these two countries for free, until Dec 31st of 2006. Skype is doing other similar promotions elsewhere.

Gizmo Project has a permanent promo offering free calls from pc–to-phone (computer to landline) to 60 countries, provided caller and callee have registered (free). Gizmo is based on an open standard known as SIP (Session Initiation Protocol). This simply means that you can call any other soft phone based on SIP. On the other hand, Skype is proprietary and cannot communicate with most other soft phones (although there are some efforts towards inter-compatibility).

Sightspeed does not have any free promo calling, that I know of, but they do have free video conferencing for up to four people in total. And their video calling quality is one of the best. All you need is an inexpensive videocam and a fair amount of RAM memory free. The person you are calling, provided they have Sightspeed, can see you even if they don’t have a videocam to reciprocate with. Skype has video calling as well.

If you are looking for other soft phones, here’s a list of 10 Skype alternatives. some of which are mentioned here already. The drawback with most softphones is that while you can call out to regular phones (and sometimes mobiles), for free or for reduced rates, they are not inter-compatible with each other - with the exception of SIP-based soft phones, as indicated above. There are a few new free software packages that bridge some of the soft phones and IM (Instant Messaging) text clients.

IM text clients such as MSN Messenger (now Windows Live Messenger), Yahoo Messenger, Aim Pro, Google Talk, etc., started out as text-mode only chatting software. Now, all of them have VoIP capabilities. (Although Google Talk cannot call out to regular phones or mobiles without also using a free softphone called Talqer.)

Both the text IMs and VoIP softphones have converged into a single style of client software that can be used for text chat, voice calls, video calls (some), file transfers, and more. Skype has the added advantage of an add-on (free) called Jyve, which will let you consult and be able to bill for calls. I’ll get more into Jyve and another similar service called Ether (which does not use Skype). If you have some unique skills and a good telephone manner, you could turn that into a home-based consulting business either full- or part-time. For this and this reason only, I recommend that you get a copy of Skype. (Not to mention the free calls to landlines and mobiles if you live in Canada or the US, until Dec 31st, 2006.)

Ultimately, there are a lot of choices for softphones, and which one you actually pick should depend on your location and needs. If you want high-quality video conferencing, I’d recommend Sightspeed. If you want free calling to landlines and mobiles in North America (excluding Mexico), go for Skype. If you want open source software that can connect to other similar networks, go for Gizmo Project. I actually use all of these, plus all of the IMs mentioned above, but for call-out, I use Skype for the free promo in North America.

In the near future, I’ll get deeper into how to use all this free VoIP software to run your business. For now, consider it seriously, as it can save you considerable money that could make the difference in your business (even if you have a bricks-and-mortar business). If you can’t wait for focused reviews of each soft phone or text IM, you can visit any of the following sites, VoIP Lowdown, VoIP Sol, or VoIP Now, for general news about VoIP.

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