PC to phone calls
are easy to set up, easy to use and best of all,
cheap. You can save up to 90%
on long distance calls.
All you need to make a internet phone call is a computer
with a sound card (full duplex), a microphone, speakers, a
56K modem and an internet connection. It is a good idea to
invest in a sturdy headset as headsets will help eliminate
external noise making your call a lot clearer.
If you plan to make free internet phone calls on a
regular basis, you will want to get on a cable modem
connection or high speed DSL. Again
this will greatly improve voice quality. Using internet is
ideal for calling friends and family and as technology
improves, it will become commonly used for business calls as
well.
The software used to make your call can be found
directly in the companies web sites. Registration is
quite simple and when you are ready to make a call, a
dialpad will pop up on your screen. Now punch in the number
your wish to call and click to dial the number. After a
second or two - you are connected and can talk for an
unlimited time with most services.
The rates are per minute, regardless where the pc call is
coming from.
Look at the chart on
the left !!! Compare it with regular phone-to-phone rates !
Callserve
Callserve
has good prices and a nice quality. You download an
application, then you have to registrate, using your
credit card. A few moments later you can make you
pc-to-phone call.
Just download Callserve's
free Internet Telephone and follow the simple on-screen
instructions.
The rate
of the calls can match Go2Callfor some destinations (in
a few cases you can save up to 20% respect to
Go2Call), but for other ones Go2Call is cheaper.
Generally Callserve has great rates for countries of
European Union.
The best
advantage is about language: The site (and the software) is
written in multi-language, so you should not have
difficulties even if you do not know english at all. You can
even pay in many currencies, saving the commission that
many credit card companies apply on foreign currencies.
Go2Call
Great
Pc-to-phone company. You can use your PCto make calls to more than 200
countries around the world. The rates are
generally very low (look at the chart on the left), and
the quality is excellent: it can almost match
a good phone-to-phone regular call.
The site is
only in english, and they accept only USD (US Dollars), but
this company is (with Callserve) my first choice.
With a DSL
connection, the quality of the sound is even better than a
regular phone (provided you have a good headset, of course).
I connect here
One of the leading companies
in the Pc-to-phone industry. They have great prices especially
for calls to USA: only 0.03$ per minute, or -if
you choose a calling plan- a flat fee of 5$ per 400 minutes
(every month). It is almost impossible finding in other
companies a rate that could be compared to this (5$ per 400
min means 0.01$ per minute, very impressive).
Their rates are not very aggressive for
European destinations (especially for the countries of
European Union), but there are interesting prices for some
countries of Asia and South America, so give them a look
Pccall
Quite similar to Go2Call and Callserve, but
their prices are generally higher. This company is not my
favourite, but is still quite good. Their rates are
not impossibile, but still more expensive than their
opponents.
Pc2call
A
few months ago Pc2call was my favourite company for calling
overseas, cause their great rates and their quite good
quality.
The time has
passed, and their rates are still quite good, but the
trouble is about the quality... the calls are disturbed by
noises, and the voice is not very clear.
Furthermore, for many weeks every call dropped after
a few minutes, making a conversation impossible. In most
cases, the call dropped after 5-6 minutes! I tried to
contact them (writing many emails), but with no result.
For these
reasons, I cannot recommend this company.