This just totally rocks. Ran into an entrepreneur in the local Starbucks here in Coppell and he had a 15" TiBook like mine. So naturally we got to chatting. Somehow the conversation got around to VOIP and he showed me his tech. Very cool.
I went to FreeWorld and signed up for an account and got issued a phone number: 443326 for those who want to call me. Then I went and got a free softphone and installed and configured it on my OS X Powerbook.
Armed with my new virtual phone number and virtual SIP phone I can now make calls to any other SIP phone user and.. wait for it.. to real telephones.
Yep.. there is a bridging service, currently free, that lets me call real phones.
Just preface your number with a * and then the real phone number and you're off and running. Called my Mom (first thing, right) after making sure the phone actually worked.
This has got to be the wave of the future (or at least one of them).
Performance is pretty good. Better if one buys the softphone ('cause it uses better codecs) and even better (best) if one buys a hardware version of the SIP phone.
I just used my built-in laptop microphone (who would have thought it would work so well) after calibration and a standard set of headphones (useful for sound quality and to avoid feedback).
I heartily recommend it. Soft phones are available for Windows, Mac and Linux. All you need is a fast Internet connection (minimum 56k recommended for full-duplex). Give it a try and call me. I'll be leaving my phone on most days.. waiting expectantly.
No.. I don't yet know how to call an SIP phone from a landline. I have yet to investigate that.
Posted by artandscience at June 30, 2004 02:02 AMWow - I've been more and more intrested in consumer-grade VOIP over the past year or so.
I may have to give this a shot.
Posted by: michael at June 30, 2004 04:49 PMWell now I need to go get myself a headset. Tried VoIP but 5 years ago but I felt like Marconi :) I'll have to give this a whirl...amazing there's no catch to it.
Posted by: Gary at July 1, 2004 10:36 PMYep.. I'm stunned how easy it was. What is at least as interesting to me is the subversive nature of it. At pulver.com one can get set up for free. Vs. what Vonage charges you to use their service. Seems like their model will probably break down as time goes on--I wouldn't want to be investing any money in them.
It probably seemed like a brilliant idea "Let's charge phone company rates without any of the underlying hardware costs. We'll make a mint!" a couple of years ago.
Posted by: stefan at July 2, 2004 11:02 AM