Voip Comparison
Can you use a Voip type service without paying or needing special equipment? I want to use my pc as my home ph
I want to get rid of my home phone.Anyway other than paying for a special modem and a Voip service to accomplish this?
Public Comments
- You could use skype. Calls within the US, to cellphones and land lines, are free. Friends can call you if they have skype. Otherwise, you could also have a local telephone number, if you would like, to which your friends can call you (This costs $38/year, http://www.skype.com/products/skypein/).
- Skype- free calls within the U.S. and low world-wide rates. Only drawback is no 911 service. All you need is broadband internet. (Dial-up is too slow)
- To address each part of your question... "Without Needing Special Equipment" =========================== Yes, you can get VoIP type service without needing any special equipment. There are two types of VoIP - VoIP Services and VoIP Softphones. VoIP Services are the ones such as Vonage and Packet8 that utilize a standard telephone to make calls. A VoIP Softphone is one that is a piece of software on your computer. You then use the speakers and microphone of your computer to make and receive calls (using a headset or USB phone is recommended though). Examples of a Softphone would be Skype or PalTalk. This page has some expamples of hardware you can use with softphones... http://www.voipan.com/voip-phones/ Without Paying =========== While there are some free VoIP softphones out there such as Jajah, they have limitations and inconveniences that outweigh negatively the benefits of others that ask for only a very small amount of money. Here is a page that lists a bunch of softphone service providers that are very inexpensive... http://www.voipan.com/internet-phones/
