Cell Phone Long Distance

[ronin308]

Albert you're right,  unless you want to reimburse them it will cost on their end.  Of course the cost in an internet cafe is about $1.25 an hour which is something you can easily reimburse the girl if you're serious about her.

[viking]

Nothing beats an actual voice on the phone. In my experience I have had many internet chats, by email, but when the voice is heard on the other end, sometimes that was enough for me to move on. But sometimes not. One woman only had to say my name and that was it. Hook, line, fishing gear and the whole boat.

[ConnerVT]

http://www.viopcheap.com

http://www.internetcalls.com

http://www.sipdiscount.com

Free telephone calls to Russia, calling THEIR REGULAR TELEPHONE.  They don't need a computer, an ISP, just a regular landline (as in not cellular) telephone.

My wife has been using it for the past month to call all her family and friends.  She's probably up to 1000 minutes by now, and it hasn't cost a cent (our original $10 account deposit is still sitting in on our account).  I would have been over $70 by now, using our 'discount' telephone provider.

(Sorry, Roberto, still not a bargain for those with metered broadband ISP...)

[Bruno]

But phone calls have to take a back seat. Have heard enough stories on how Skype uses your high-speed ISP to the tune of big bills...

Use a virtual process of Network Address Translation ( NAT ) ... or a broadband router with DMZ host...

So, only peer to peer communication ( you and your friend ) is used... and you are not more a relay for other communication... the band used is around 13 kbs on both side... some a old computer with a modem 56K give good result in russia...

I phone around 10 hours week in Ukraine with these system... never know problem... until the new version 2.0 with videochat...

[dorogoyroberto]

Mr. ConnerVT,

There is another side to the coin here: our electric bill last month  was $9, and that includes usage of two oil-filled radiators for the  balcony. So we can have a little wiggle room on the cable internet and  our phone bill, which averages about $78.

Lilya's Papa lives in Kharkovskaya village, and has a small apartment:  living room/bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and W.C. His electric bill last  month was 87 kopecks. It will be a little higher now that we gave him  our Thinkpad.

Roberto
Kiev, Ukraine

[viking]

Seems like everyone is circling around the computer as a means of communicating. Using the plan I have, I use my cell. I can call from home, in my car, anyplace where I want. I can call her home, her cell (more expensive so I stay away from that) but I have the freedom to call anytime when I am not home. And, she does not need to be near her computer because her phone line is also the computer line.

[ConnerVT]

Seems like everyone is circling around the computer as a means of communicating.

Of course.  "Telephone" communication, be it copper wire, cellular, VOIP, has been migrating more and more to the digital world for the past decade or more.

How many analog cellular telephone towers are still out there?  GSM and CDMA digital service is what you get these days. 

Call international long distance?  Using the 'Big' telephone companies, you still are using digital VOIP technology -- just over the company's 'private' network instead of the 'public' Internet network.  But many times, the telephone companies lease their unused capacity for Internet usage.  So your call goes over the same cable, regardless if you are paying $0.04/min or $0.40/min.

The (virtually) free setup I've been using has passed the "Wife Test" very well.  It has to sound good and be convenient, else my wife would just go back to our other telephone.  So far, she likes it very much, and everyone she's called has commented on how good the call quality is.