What is "Viber"? [Telecom]

Sure there is. Fire up Google Play, download and install it. Calls to other Skype users or to numbers in the US are free.

An alternative for making phone calls is Vonage (yes, that Vonage.) They also have an Android app that lets you call US numbers for free.

R's, John

Looks as if it's only good for communicating w/ other viber users -- quote:

Cheers, -- tlvp

Thanks, I didn't know it was there. I'll give it a try, although the slew of recent 1-star reviews doesn't fill me with confidence.

I'm not ready to ditch my local provider yet, although I've considered switching to Vonage in the past. It won't help my daughter while she's out of the country this summer, either.

Neither of those answer the original question, though. Viber seems to integrate nicely into the phone GUI, and doesn't require separate registration/login. I've heard from one person I know who apparently likes it and is impressed by the call quality. But I can't figure out what their business plan is. They don't use advertising, so where's the money?

john-

The Vonage app is just an Android app to make outgoing calls. It doesn't affect any other phone service you might have. I think for extra money you can get an incoming phone number, but you can do that with Skype and other apps, too.

It's like Skype. Calls to other people using the Viber app are free. If you want to make real phone calls, those are .019/min to US numbers. That's not partcularly cheap.

I use a service called Voipdiscount, which is a reseller of the German VoIP company Betamax (no relation to the video recorders), with a freeware VoIP app called CSipSimple. When I load up my VoipDiscount account with

want to call (landline and mobile in North America, landline only most

well.

Regards, John Levine, snipped-for-privacy@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies", Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail.

On 15 May 2014 20:07:46 -0000 in comp.dcom.telecom, "John Levine" wrote,

And also the Magic Jack app.