Free VoIP. Can it be true?

jimbobaggins

Established Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2002
Messages
492
Reaction score
19
Points
89
Location
Up North
OK, its early days, but after deciding to take a bit of a risk on our South African friends, I have spent the last two days solid on VoIPCheap, making outbound calls and so far I have only had one call with poor quality in 12 hours of calls! Total cost = £0 - how? Does anyone know how they do it? It is also massively more stable than Skype and uses a lot less memory on the PC.

Also I discovered something interesting - it is not totally unlimited, as the call stops after 1 hour, however you can just reconnect instantly, so I presume it is to stop people leaving it off the hook to annoy someone by tying their phone up.

Believe me there is nothing more satisfying than seeing the bill come up as nothing. I don't know if it is because it is still in beta, or whether I will wake up to find a few grand gone from the credit card, but so far so good. I will keep the board updated during the next few weeks with progress on this, but I have to say, so far I am truly amazed and for me it takes an awful lot.

As I am making national calls, I reckon I have saved nearly £31 in 2 days from BT's standard rate. Thats got to be worth a pop for anyone who uses the phone a lot.

Amazing.

Edit: Sorry they are Swiss not South African.
 
I also use VOIPCheap and find it great. Im sure the free calls to the countries listed will slowly disappear once their user base grows. Until then Ill still use it to make free international and local calls :thumbsup:
 
I'm eager to try it, it's kinda late now, and my parents didn't answered. But tomorrow morning first thing I'll try.
I also think it's not gonna be free for very long. Calling France for free from wherever is great.
 
Could be wrong here but I get the impression that VOIPCHEAP and NETAPPEL and VOIPBUSTER come from the same source.

If you compare their websites there are uncanny similaries. Also VOIPCHEAP and VOIPBUSTER use the same software. (When I tried to use my VOIPCHEAP username with VOIPBUSTER I was told it was already in use - this is very unlikely as my username is my own creation and very unusual). Although all offer free UK landline calls I get the impression that the rest of the world for the most part has been split up between them with just a little duplication. ie VOIPCHEAP has China, VOIPBUSTER has USA and NETAPPEL has Canada & Italy
 
theophilus said:
Could be wrong here but I get the impression that VOIPCHEAP and NETAPPEL and VOIPBUSTER come from the same source.

Welcome :hiya:

You're correct, they are all brands of our Swiss friends Finarea SA from Lugano :) They also run number of discount land-line services in Europe.
 
Been using it again today, still no problems, a few people think I am talking loud, but thats probably because I have a cold.

:clap:

Another clapping man day then.

Marvellous.
 
I've tried VoIPCheap as a result of reading this page but my calls within the uk are only lasting 1 minute
 
Lakeuk said:
I've tried VoIPCheap as a result of reading this page but my calls within the uk are only lasting 1 minute

I've found the answer - I need to add 5euros of credit to have the 1min limit taken away, I'll need to make the equivelent of 70hrs of local evening BT calls to make it worth while.
 
You get the fiver back when you ditch it, or you can use it for other calls ie mobiles, 08 numbers etc.

The free calls are UK landlines. National or local.
 
Reformat it. Always works for me!
 
jimbobaggins said:
You get the fiver back when you ditch it, or you can use it for other calls ie mobiles, 08 numbers etc.

The free calls are UK landlines. National or local.

Thanks - now added my fiver of credit
 
Quality has been less the last couple of days and also getting feedback of some echo on the line. It seems to be worse in the office than at home, so I guess it may be down to the network or something.

Also, it seems to vary depending on the person you are calling, which is interesting. Does anyone know if distance is a major factor - I guess you would expect more lag over a longer distance.
 
Ok.

I had to stop using it a few days ago as the call quality seems to be getting worse.

It appears that although it is fine at my end, the other end quality is poor. I just hadn't realised.

It may be due to the asynchronous nature of the broadband connection, so I guess with a bigger upload speed it may be better. It may also be affected by the processing power at my end as I guess the encoding and sending part is more intensive than the decoding and receiving side of the call.
 
Further to that, I received an update today for the software and have been using it all afternoon - back to perfect reception again, so VoIPCheap must have read my post.

Absolutely perfect reception and i think they may now be adding the inbound feature, as it appears in the new version.
 
Just to let you know, looks like Voipbuster have removed their free UK landline calls.
 
Also voipcheap have reduced to numbe on countries you can call to 3 :-

Ireland
Netherlands
United Kingdom

Looks like the free calls won't last long :thumbsdow
 
OK an update.

For a while I stopped using VoIPcheap as it was proving low quality, though whether it was my PC or connection I don't know, anyway I have been using it now for the last month with no problems at all and it is working fine on around 90% of calls.

I just had an email however, saying that my credit will expire next month, which is interesting. Anyone any idea why that would be?
 
I read somewhere that there was supposedly a limit of 120days on credit in an account - i assume this can only be if it is completely untouched?

The 120 days for my £5 runs out at the end of the month - i will let you know!

Cheers
P
 
mmm, just upgraded to latest software version (i found it stops working and you then need to uninstall/re-install if you leave it too long!).

It now tells me how many days of my £5 i got left - works out to nearly six months in total (10 days short) - i think - had a few beers!
 
Mine runs out on the 7Apr 6mths after taking it out, it's frustrating that there are no terms an conditions to tell you your credit is only valid for 6mths.

In 6 months I've only used 278 minutes on free calls so it's not worth me adding another £5 of credit to continue to get the free calls

end of the road for me it VoipCheap
 
Lakeuk said:
Mine runs out on the 7Apr 6mths after taking it out, it's frustrating that there are no terms an conditions to tell you your credit is only valid for 6mths.

In 6 months I've only used 278 minutes on free calls so it's not worth me adding another £5 of credit to continue to get the free calls

end of the road for me it VoipCheap

There didn't need to be any mention of the limit in the terms and conditions. Just the phrase "we reserve the right to change...etc, etc". These companies are not charities. All companies from the oldest, longest established comms company to the newest internet telephony company have to make at least enough to cover costs. At some point they will all require regular payment/subscription.:(
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom