Alternative Telephone Services
- Using software technically referred to as a softphone, any computer can make or receive voice calls to or from another computer. Skype is perhaps the best known service for this type of communication, but there are several others companies that do exactly the same thing. All of the major instant messaging clients offer voice conversations through their software. Most IM software clients also allow you to have a video phone conversation.
- A subset of the softphone companies will sell you the ability to buy computer to phone minutes. For a small, additional monthly fee, typically $3 to $5 per month, a traditional telephone number can be assigned to you, which allows anyone call you from a standard phone exactly as he would with any other phone number. Skype and Gizmo5 are probably the two top services in this area of alternative telephone service, but there are a number of companies, including Sipgate and Google that provide options worth exploring.
- The technology known as VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol, is sometimes marketed as digital telephone, and has found its way into the mainstream. Vonage is one of the better known service providers, but most cable companies offer this service. For a flat fee, usually in the $25 per month range, a residential customer can sign up for full feature telephone service that provides unlimited long distance calling to anywhere in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
- The latest innovation is using VoIP with cell phones. This adaptation of landline VoIP service can be used across the data plans that cell phone providers offer or across Wi-Fi networks in cases where the cell phone or PDA is equipped with Wi-Fi capability. Nokia supports this hardware service in many of its premium models but several companies including, Skype (under the name Skypemobile) iSkoot, truphone and Fring provide the connectivity portion of this service.
- Voice calls can be made across Wi-Fi networks. This requires a Wi-Fi equipped device or a dedicated Wi-Fi phone such as the Dlink DPH-540. Sign up with a company that can connect your calls, or terminate them in industry terminology, to the telephone company's network. Wi-Fi phone service with unlimited in-state calling is less than $10 per month plus the cost of the phone, based on a 12 month commitment.
