Free VoIP
Free VoIP is now being offered
by several carriers. Skype has offered free VoIP for
sometime now with peer-to-peer calling. Lately, though,
others have been jumping into the free VoIP market,
challenging Skype's future market share. Free VoIP means
consumers can call each other from PC to PC located
anywhere in the world.
In fact, Yahoo! has just announced
its free VoIP service and free VoIP-mail messages can
be left for friends who are away from their desks. According
to Brad Garlinghouse, Vice President of Yahoo's Communications
Unit, "Talking to your computer no longer means
you are crazy. It means you are smart, because you are
taking advantage of innovative technology and a unique
combination of features that only Yahoo Messenger offers."
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Free
VoIP was innovated by Skype, however, a software
company headquartered in Luxembourg. Skype was
the first and remains the largest VoIP company
offering free VoIP service between those who have
the free VoIP software downloaded on their PC's,
Macs and PDA's. Skype also offers low-cost solutions
for those who wish to make VoIP calls from their
PC's to traditional phones. |
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Other free VoIP service providers
include PC-Telephone, Earthlink, and Free World Dial-Up
by Pulver. PC-Telephone allows users to make unlimited
free PC-to-PC calls over Internet. The IP address of
the dialer and receiver is used as the phone number.
The one drawback for this method is for users who do
not have static IP addresses. With Verizon DSL for instance,
a user is assigned a dynamic IP address every time the
connect to the Internet.
In October 2004, Earthlink rolled
out its "EarthLink Free Online Calling" VoIP
service. According to Tom Andrus, vice president of
products and services at EarthLink, "EarthLink
Free Online Calling is part of our overall strategy
to develop and deploy a full suite of data and voice-based
communication applications. With the debut of EarthLink's
latest VoIP service, our broadband subscribers can call
and talk with friends and family over the Internet for
free."
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Free
World Dial-up allows users to make free phone calls using
any broadband connection using devices that follow Internet
standards. This can be a 'regular' telephone connected
to a packetizer, an IP Phone or any number of free soft-phones
(software for the PC or PDA). Free World Dial-Up says
it is the largest open network service provider for person-to-person,
advanced, real-time IP communications. The FCC had granted
the petition by Pulver declaring Free World Dialup's end-to-end
IP communications as an unregulated interstate information
service.
There are other free VoIP services
currently on the market or being developed. Google is
just one of them. Many companies see the advantage of
offering free VoIP service in order to market other
VoIP-related products and services that will be of benefit
to their bottom lines. Like any new emerging market,
the current players are jockeying for position with
additional players coming onboard all the time.
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