Internet Telephony – A few offerings – VOIP – Skype – Gizmo
This analysis looks at the offerings of a few popular commercial VOIP providers. The main issue was US and Canada inbound (local number) and outbound calling from PC and my Nokia N82 S60 mobile phone.
Requirements
- Outbound calling preferably with a caller ID
- Inbound calling with a local phone number in USA and Canada
- Voicemail with voicemail notification/alert
- Mobile client for Nokia n82 S60 client, preferably with the same per minute calling plan
Skype – Skype In – Skype Out
Skype is likely the most popular consumer and business VOIP solution, purchased by Ebay for an ungodly sum, but essentially running as a stand-alone unit
- Skype Out is the dial out option which has per minute or monthly subscriptions including an unlimited US/Canada for $2.95/mo
- Skype In is an inbound phone number with outbound caller ID for $60/year, with numbers available in 21 countries (for some reason not including Canada)
- Skype has quite a few nice options, including 25-person conference calls, send text messages, etc.
- Skype also offers a service called Skype-to-go which enables a local calling number that then uses Skype as a backbone to another number in another country. This is limited to only a handful of countries currently, but is worth looking into if you are interested in bridging between the following countries: Australia, Chile, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, New Zealand, Poland, Sweden, UK and USA.
- There are various Skype clients for the mobile phone at the Nokia Mosh site, however the Fring client really works best for me. It is a free VOIP and IM client that supports Skype, SIP phones, Twitter, Google Talk, Jabber, etc.
Gizmo Project – Gizmo5
Gizmo is a project of SIPphone
- Gizmo allows for forwarding to another phone number for per-minute Gizmo Call Out rates.
- Gizmo offers $12/3 months and $35/1 year (USA number price, higher for other countries or particular prefixes) call-in VOIP with no additional per minute charges for incoming calls, with numbers available in 28 countries (including Canada)
- For $4.00 Gizmo adds Caller ID to the Gizmo Call Out calls
- There are additional features like sending and receiving free text messages, free conference call-in numbers, and interoperability with other IM networks and group chats and call recording.
- Gizmo works on Win, Mac, Linux and Nokia Tablets. There are Gizmo clients for mobile phones but they increase the per-minute call out price. Just as with Skype, the Fring client supports Gizmo for call out and call in, though for the chatting, it is better to go with the Gizmo5 client on the S60 platform.
VBuzzer
Vbuzzer is a little-known Canadian VOIP provider with some great pricing and options
- A Toronto area code number costs $50/year. Prices are as low as 1.5 cents/minute for North American calls
- One reason I did not go this route is that I could not get a Vancouver area code number at the time (even though now I am in Victoria)
- On the Vbuzzer blog is an entry for Nokia SIP VOIP settings, and the Fring client can work because Vbuzzer is a SIP-compliant VOIP provider.
SIP
SIP stands for Session Initiation Protocol and is a 3GPP standard for multimedia session management, used most often with VOIP. With the use of standards, there are more options for SIP providers that SIP client and server implementations and interoperability, unlike the proprietary protocols used by Skype. XMPP, aka Jabber, is another open standard messaging protocol that has a similar role with regard to instant messaging.
Final Decision
At the end of the day, for flexibility and cost savings I made the following decisions
- Skype for dialing out with $2.95/mo unlimited calling to US and Canada
- Skype for computer-to-computer calling (easier for others to install and call)
- Gizmo for dialing in with a Seattle phone number for $35/year
- Fring for the S60 client for dialing out with Skype and receiving calls with Gizmo
- Final costs will run about $70.40 for the year of calling in and out internationally
- The main disadvantage is that I have given up the idea of using the regular telecom networks and have to rely on computer and broadband and wifi networks for the calls. The main advantage is a huge pricing difference that has actually increased my use of telephony and reduced the amount of transportation I use to have meetings.
- Note, the use of Zoho Meeting for desktop sharing and presentations is a strong supplement to voice communication (and the occasional video call).
Related posts:
- Skype is Evil – Other VOIP Options
- Virtualization Tools for Global Nomads, USA Edition, Update for early 2009
- Online Faxing Options – Via Web and Email, Send and Receive
- Google Calendar Sync Options, One More Time
- Text vs. Voice in Second Life and other Virtual Worlds
RSS reader
Subscribe via email
Facebook
Flickr
Google
LinkedIn
Twitter
YouTube
Leave a Reply