VoipCheap.com

Villain

Someone else mentioned these in another thread and I've been trying them out and they seem to good to be true.

They offer free calling to
Andorra free*
Argentina free*
Australia free*
Austria free*
Belgium free*
Canada free*
Chile free*
China free*
Czech Republic free*
Denmark free*
Finland free*
France free*
Germany free*
Hong Kong free*
Hungary free*
Iceland free*
Ireland free*
Italy free*
Japan free*
Liechtenstein free*
Luxembourg free*
Malaysia free*
Monaco free*
Netherlands free*
New Zealand free*
Norway free*
Poland free*
Portugal free*
Russian Federation free*
Singapore free*
South Korea free*
Spain free*
Sweden free*
Switzerland free*
United Kingdom free*
USA (+mobile) free*


They also have the cheapest rates for Irish mobiles I have seen @ 9.28 cents a minute. In order to have free calls you need to top by €10 and this lasts for 90 days, you can make up to 300 mins a week to free numbers.

Now just wait for the best bit: You can use a function called directcall where you enter the number of the phone beside you i.e. house phone number then you enter the number you want to dial and you press the call button. Your house phone rings you answer it and it now the number you called starts ringing so you can use your current landline for the calls.

You can also use SIP devices with it, I have tested it using XLite softphone and it worked 100%.

Obvioulsy more testing is needed to clarify reliability and call quality to different countries but it looks good, real good.

Foxwood

I've been using voipstunt.com for the last 4 months (voipcheap and voipstunt are both services of Betamax GmbH & Co KG, a German company).

My initial €10 (actually €11.60 including German VAT)was due to expire yesterday (120 days on voipstunt), but I topped up just before it expired, and the unused credit was extended so I currently have €15.84 in credit.

I've mainly been using it to call the US, so I hardly used any of the credit, but I made some calls to mobiles in the last few days, as they were paid for anyway. (Voipstunt charges 25c for calls to Irish mobiles). I've also been using the callback facility in the last few days because of some hassles with the microphone on the PC. (3c charge to set up a callback call).

I did use a couple of SIP "softphones" with voipstunt, but there weren't any advantages over using the Voipstunt client, so I went back to the default client (if I'd gotten my freespeech account working for inbound calls, I might have persisted with a softphone). I haven't yet invested in any SIP hardware, but if/when I do, I'll be connecting it to voipstunt.

All in all, I have to say it's a great service. I occassionally have to hang up and call again to get a better connection, but that's not a big problem.

I had been using www.telestunt.ie for over a year before i found voipstunt, and still use them occassionally, when it's not convenient to use the PC. It's the same underlying service, as far as I know.

Villain

Ok so still testing this out but its getting more impressive, I have setup a Hitachi IP5000 with my wireless AP which is connected to my BT dsl line and I have managed to get the device to register with VOIPCheap and the call quality is scary its so good, but I have only tested with Irish mobiles and landlines so far, hope to do some test calls with an Australian landline in the morning, now if the call quality is as good this is an awesome system.

I will update with results tomorrow.

GetOffMyPatch

QQ on this - With Voipcheap or Voipstuntdo you get your own number etc?

Do-more

GetOffMyPatch wrote:

QQ on this - With Voipcheap or Voipstunt do you get your own number etc?

They seem to have removed all mention of Free IN numbers from their websites, used to be there. The IN numbers were only available in a limited number of countries and Ireland was not included.

So the short answer is NO!:rolleyes:

bhickey

irish1 wrote:

I have setup a Hitachi IP5000 with my wireless AP which is connected to my BT dsl line and I have managed to get the device to register with VOIPCheap

Can you post the settings for people that want to use SIP hardware, e.g. SIP server and any other special boxes that you've found might need ticking?

Villain

Username: Your VoipCheap username
Password: Your VoipCheap password
SIP/Proxy registrar: sip.voipcheap.com
Domain/Realm (optional): voipcheap.com


Thats it really, remember you have to enter the full international number when dialling.

Villain

On to Australia for ten minutes so far and its perfect quality for free!!!!!!! over a wireless phone, the telephony world is changing so fast.

Do-more

We've been using voipstunt for quite a while and are now on voipcheap to take advantage of the cheaper rates to Irish mobiles. My missus is Swedish and rarely is on the phone for less than 30mins a time 4 or 5 times a week to her Mum or Sister! Normal usage would be about 16 - 18 hours of calls to Sweden each month. With Eircon that would be a shocking €365 - €410 a month! Even with Vartec who we used before, that amount of calls would be €77 - €87! With voipcheap the cost is about €4/month! (€11.60 every 90 days)

With call quality now so good, any business making a significant amount of international phone calls must wake up to the significant savings offered by VoIP.

Aquos76

This is seriously impressive. Just off my home phone using this for 30mins to a call in the uk and the quality was surperb.

thebromeliad

(1) Does anyone know if its possible to use an ATA/ router to make VoipCheap phone call?
(2) I an ATA/ Router classified as an SIP device

Thanks;)

Villain

Yea should be:

Username: Your VoipCheap username
Password: Your VoipCheap password
SIP/Proxy registrar: sip.voipcheap.com
Domain/Realm (optional): voipcheap.com
STUN server: stun.voipcheap.com

thebromeliad

I tried the direct call and it's brill! Would definitely recommend as a VOIP service . Best one out there! Only disadvantage is you can't stop paying line rental 'cos they don't have incoming calls but apart from that it's perfect!:D

esperanza

That Direct Call function on VOIPCheap doesn't seem to work.

thebromeliad

Can you make other calls? Try calling your home, then the number you want(e.g. your mobile) if they both work then put them into direct call. Tell me if it doesn't.:cool:

Aquos76

Unless you put credit on your voip account, you wont be able to call mobiles. I have yet to put on any credit and I am still availing of free calls to land lines with out the one minute restriction. I even had a 35 minute call to Spain last week. The quality was superb for the whole duration.

thebromeliad

Is it just me or is there a 3 cent connection fee for every phonecall made???

Villain

there is a 3 cent connection fee for using the direct call facility.

dkane

Just set up with voipcheap. havent bought any credit yet but able to make free calls. anyone know how long I can make calls for before I need to top up?

Villain

AFAIK its not the number of free calls that is restricted, its the length of those calls i.e. only a few mins

cubix

Irish1 nice find;) , so if you dont use there direct call facility then any destination that say free is total free?. Have been using it for a week or so now and find the quality super. How are you finding it using your Ata/sip device

Cubix

Villain

I found the quality excellent using a SIP device but using the direct call it can vary somewhat.

Aquos76

www.freecall.com (again owned by the same company)are now also offering this direct call feature and when you sign up they give you 5hrs talktime for free also.

probe

Aquos76 wrote:

www.freecall.com (again owned by the same company)are now also offering this direct call feature and when you sign up they give you 5hrs talktime for free also.

They actually seem to have lots of "companies" doing more or less the same thing, with slight variations. While the call quality was excellent on the test calls I made, there are some questions in my mind as to how they operate. I've googled around and found some complaints from people who claim to have had unused prepaid calling time being dumped. And they are a very difficult company to reach.

Based on what I have seen so far, I wouldn't be entirely happy giving them my credit card number.

probe

Villain

Use PayPal costs €11.20 or something for €10 credit, if you call international numbers at all its very good value, I have just got off a call to the uk, I was on for around 50 mins and it was perfect quality, my Ma has been calling Australia for a few weeks now and the quality is always excellent. You won't find better value imo, oh and 5c texts to UK mobiles is good too.

Foxwood

irish1 wrote:

Use PayPal costs €11.20 or something for €10 credit,

It's actually €10 plus (German) VAT. You'll notice that their Rates page has the (including VAT) price in a less prominent grey font. Not really a problem - it's a bit like the way you pay the tax on a bet "up front", rather than on your winnings.

As for credit being "dumped", I had the opposite experience. I hadn't used my credit in the 120 days that it's supposed to last, but I found the service so useful, that I added more credit in the 119th day - my unused credit was rolled over, so I now have €12 of credit in the account. I've started to use the callback facility for the sheer convenience, so I'm slowly eating into the credit in 3c chunks

(Though the client is currently teling me that it's charging me 1c/minute on each end for callback calls and 5c connection fee, even though the Call history list on the website is only showing the 3c connection fee).

And I second the PayPal suggestion, if you have a paypal account!

cubix

As I have said before,great find but I presume its in their TOC's that they can change destination pricing at a drop of a hat?

Cubix