Pay as you go on minute basis VoIP plans....

Lingo's Lingo Link plan is $7.95 month for service plus 3 cpm for outgoing calls. Incoming calls and calls to other Lingo users are free. I don't know of anything cheaper if you want an incoming phone number.

If you just want to call out there's all sorts of pay per minute plans.

Stanaphone / MutualPhone is the answer. 100% free. You pay as you go!

I have been using Net2phone which has no monthly fee and no minimums. I do not like using headsets, so I purchased my service and IP PHONE from

Rates are about 2.5 cents per minute to a US land line, and the quality with the Phone is very good. It is a no frills service, no virtual phone numbers etc, but you just send them $25 or more at a time and use it like a phone credit card...been using it over a year on a normal Home DSL Line. I can check my remaining balance by pressing a button on the phone.

Like you, I hate c>I'm new to this whole VoIP thing.

You're right, such a thing does not exist. While it is certainly do- able, it is not economically feasible for a carrier to offer pay-as-you go for each call. The settlement costs would, more often than not, exceed the revenue generated by the call. This is why billing is either done periodically (your traditional monthly phone bill) or as an up- front purchase of a "bucket of minutes".

I haven't tried them, nor heard much about them yet, but GlobalVillage sells you on a per minute basis for outgoing calls. 2.9 cents a minute. If you want a phone # for incoming calls, its $3.95/month.

Asterisk is an open-source complete PBX system that runs on unix and supports a ton of different hardware/features/protocols.

Sipura makes hardware VOIP gateways and IP phones.

I've done some more research on the subject and also had an email chat with a cool guy named Kyler which helped me a lot. This is what I came up with:

There is a company called "Sipura Technology" which is a hardware company. For us "home users" (or any other), we would buy an ATA - Analog Telephone Adapter. What this box does, is convert analog data from a regular phone to IP packets. There are a couple of ATA they sell which are around $100. There is also a phone they sell. It is probably just a regular phone with a built in ATA. Nice if you wish to eliminate cables and conserve space. Anyway, now that I have the ability to talk on a regular phone and convert the analog signal to IP packets which are sent through the internet, I need to find a provider which will accept these IP packets and integrate with PSTN (public switched telephone network - "normal" phone network). Not surprisingly, they charge you for it. Can't blame them, they have to make a living. Anyway, it is *SO* much cheaper than what phone companies charge us. Such a company is LiveVoIP.

Now, if you want to have a "regular" phone number, you can buy such a number from LiveVoIP. This is called DID - Direct Inward Dial. Basically, they (LiveVoIP) buy the line from a regular phone company. When someone calls that number, they intercept the call, and convert the signal from the PSTN to IP packets and send it through the internet to your ATA which will make your connected phone ring.

As far as 911, it seems that currently you won't be able to call it through VoIP. As far as fax goes, I don't know either. Some may experience difficulties and other may not.

I guess from following this thread that you're all in the USA. Here in the UK we have

which gives you a free phone number and free calls to other users of the same system and also some others like FWD. You can register wherever you are in the world, but if you want a UK phone number you have to do so from a British IP address. There is no signup fee or monthly charge, you only pay for calls you make to the PSTN but note that as the system is aimed at UK residents, charges are as though you were here, wherever you actually are..!

Regarding your queries about Asterisk and Sipura, well Asterisk is basically a software PBX that usually runs under Linux or some similar system. Sipura

is a manufacturer of hardware, such as the SPA-2000 ATA which allows you to connect ordinary analogue phones into a VoIP system.

Hope this helps.

Ivor

Ivor

Sorry to state: "SUCH THING ALREADY EXISTS"

There is no monthly charge for US telephone number with

and You pay only for the minutes you make outgoing calls to out of network numbers!

Sekhar.

That's well over twice the going rate.

--kyler

have you looked at sipphone.com they offer a good veriety of choices for voip

MK

Note - calls to the US are charged at 1.5 p/min (see

)

So with the exchange rate $ / £ running around 1.8 (so equiv to 2.7 cent / min) it may work out cheaper than some US telcos you have been recommended in this thread (which seems crazy, but who says telco pricing makes any sense). The big drawback would be incoming call costs for someone who calls you.

not sure if sipgate have a US based gateway, but if not you may find the extra latency for crossing the atlantic twice a bit painful as well...

Thus spaketh stephen:

You can get a USA number from

and enter the Sipgate details, in place of the FWD details.

Jonathan, yes, try

it accepts per minute call, no monthly rate required if you just want to make IDD calls either using PC to IDD or using a Gateway adaptor to call. No hidden cost at all, pay what the rates stated in the website. Sign up as a basic subscriber. It cost US$0.02 per minute for US call or US$0.018 for most of European countries, Hong Kong at 2.5 cents per minute and Singapore at 2 cents per minute

Regards, John

But calls from the US to the US would still have to cross the pond twice.

Ivor

True.

[snip]

I've had excellent quality calls from friends in the US calling my ipkall number routed to my Sipgate number, but I haven't been back to the States since I got Sipgate. Next time I go I'll take my Sipura ATA with me and see what call quality is like.

Ivor

The setup messages would but the Voice stream shouldnt, As I assume sipgate have a peering agreement with US gateways so the calls Voice stream will be between the ATA and the Gateway so wouldnt cross the Pond even once. For Ip to UK they would use a UK gateway. Remember the SER that Sipgate uses for all their systems is based in Germany. which is 66mS away, Freeworld dialup is in the US 110mS away and voiptalk in london is 18mS away.

Ian

Ian

Broadvoice's BYOD plan is $1 cheaper, I think.

I'm using Libretel for incoming ($6/month) and Gafachi for outgoing ($0.02/minute to US, Canada, western Europe, etc., pre-paid in $20 increments). For a week or so I was having problems with completing calls on Gafachi during peak periods, but that seems to have resolved itself.

miguel

I can't easily do reinvites (in this country port 5060 is blocked so I have to use a cumbersome proxy arrangement) and I haven't experienced problems with CID, but the one thing about Gafachi that bugs me is the inability to send touch tones. Does that work with Teliax?

miguel