It seems there is hardly a day goes by without another new service offering Free Phone Calls over the Internet popping up !

The latest one I have come across is the Gizmo Project. This looks very simlar to Skype and there are versions available for Windows, OS X and Linux. In the USA Skype have been running a pilot to allow free Skype to landline calls so PC users can ring direct to a standard phone, however this hasn’t ( as yet ) been offered out side of the States.

With Gizmo however, calls to landlines ( and in about 16 countries calls to mobiles ) are free so long as the person you are calling has also registered and is using the Gizmo project. If the call you are about to place is to someone who hasn’t registered then you will be billed in a similar way to Skype ( ie you will need to buy credits ).

Another service like Gizmo that offers a slightly different take on this is JaJah. JaJah does not require any client software to be installed on your PC, it works entirely from the browser… To call someone with JaJah you login to the web site with your account ( which is free to register ), you type in the phone number you wish to ring from and the number you are trying to contact and press the Call button. JaJah then will ring your landline, you pick up the handset and you will hear the other parties phone ringing, when they pickup the phone you are connected ! The only difference to dialling the call directly from your phone is that the call costs NOTHING ( provided the person you are ringing has also registered on JaJah ) !

And this is just two of the services like this that are now available on the net…

Basically if you have to make long distance calls to friends and relatives and they have Internet access there is really no longer any need to pay for those calls, even if you call from your landline !

Have a look for yourself and let me know how you get on !