VoIP is an acronym for Voice over Internet Protocol, or in more common terms phone service over the Internet. If you have a reasonable quality Internet connection you can get phone service delivered through your Internet connection instead of from your local phone company, or in addition to your traditional phone service. VoIP service providers usually offer better rates than traditional phone companies, but sometimes do not offer common phone services as 911 services, phone directory listings, or 411 services.
If you think about free VoIP services, you realize that none of them are actually completely free. Even in the best hypothetical case in which the VoIP provider does not charge you at all, you still pay for your broadband Internet connection. So, the goal is not to achieve completely free calls to all destinations, but to use the VoIP operator that suits your needs best. Most VoIP companies will let you talk for free in their own network but will charge you for making any outside calls.
The main way for free VoIP calls companies is to offer free calls inside their own network and also towards other specially selected destinations. Using this tactic users are drawn to make calls to free destinations and afterwards purchase credits to make calls towards paid destinations.
If you take Skype for example, one of the most popular VoIP services on the market, you will see that you can initiate conversations with other PC users of Skype free of charge. Of course, this is an advantage for long distance calls, as there is no fee for calls inside the Skype network. But if you want to make calls to regular landlines, you will have to pay. You can make free phone calls on a PC to PC basis using the Skype software, and the number of users on the Skype network is continuously growing. On the other hand if you want to reach someone that doesn’t have a PC or an Internet connection, you’ll have to pay the required fees.
Raketu applied a different approach, offering free phone calls to landlines in 42 countries and live video television. But, you have to pay $9.95 up front in order to use their free services. This security deposit is used as a credit if you happen to call destinations that are not on the free call list.
If you are in the pursuit of a real cost free VoIP service you can use something like voipCheap that allows you to make free calls to PC’s and regular phone lines. It also includes many destinations outside USA and Canada that can be called without paying a cent. The downside is that you have a limited number of 300 minutes that you can use each week, per IP Address. If you talk more than the included 300, you are required to pay for further calls. And, you are also required to pay for calls outside of the destinations listed on the free call list.
I have prepared the Rating List with 15 best VoIP service offerings on the market with brief description, access links, and rating:
http://www.rateitall.com/t-26054-voip-communication--free-services.aspx Sources and Additional Reading:
http://www.tech-faq.com/free-voip.shtml
http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/