Using VoIP for free international phone calls

Would you like free, unlimited calls to: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom and United States?

Here's how to do it:

First download a Skype-like application to yur PC from here, install it and use it to log in and create a user account (no cost). Following that you can make free calls via your PC up to 1 minute to any of the above countries. If you then add credit to your account (credit card required) here (minimum is only 1 Euro + 7% Swiss VAT) you can make unlimited free calls to the same countries, plus cheap calls to many others (complete list here). You don't even need to your their softphone application- using the SIP registry www.voipbuster.com and the same username and password that you registered with you can also register any SIPphone/ATA so can use a "real" VoIP phone if you have one.

You also get a number for incoming calls (mine is in Hannover), but I've had no success in using this. Don't really care about this, however, as the the advantage is mainly for outgoing calls.

Disclaimer:
I can't say if there are any catches, but neither can I see any. I signed up yesterday and added €1 credit to my account. I've confirmed with my credit card company that only €1 was deducted. I've also made more than an hour of calls to USA, UK and Australia, and my whole €1 credit remains intact, and there have been no further deductions. I suspect this may not be a long-term offer however... I have some reasons to believe that this (apparantly Swiss) company may be related to the UK call-by-call provider Call1899

YL6

A couple of people PM'ed me doubting the fact the calls I am making are completely free. For those doubting Thomases I attach below an excerpt form my call log/account for the last few days. I've made calls to UK, USA (both landline and mobile), Germany and Australia. Some were over 10 minutes long. All were free. My starting credit of €1 is still €1 ..

YL6

More info. VoIPbuster have said in their forums that the Free Calls would last as long as possible, but as use is quite high it won't be for too much longer.

Good news is that they said when they do start charging, all calls which are currently free will be charged at €0.01 per CALL.

And for those having trouble setting up the SIP proxies, it is sip.voipbusters.com NOT www.voipbusters.com.

And the incoming calls (as YL6 pointed out doesn't really matter ) DON'T yet work on your SIP hardware phone, only on their softphone.

OUTGOING calls work absolutely fine

KT

China, Poland and Taiwan just got added to the list of countries to which all calls over VoIPbuster are totally free...

am i being a bit naive here, but how do these boys intend to make any money if they giving all the calls away free? are they listening in and recording the juicy bits?

They are probably making use of surplus bandwidth that they have already paid or commited to...

But it works... so what the hell...

G

@Grinner

augustiner brewery do the same thing. if they make too much they give it away to anyone waiting at the brewery gates at midnight. got to be worth a look one night, eh?

The business model (which I've seen) is perfectly viable, and will make them money in the long term. Don't forget, these calls won't be free for ever, but they have been free for the last few months, and probably will be for a couple more...

YL6

Do I here a new TT "Night Out", meeting in the works??

OK, trying to get this working on my Fritz router modem. I have put in the sip details but all I can get is an engeged tone.

Any tips?

edit.. a test call just cost me 20 cents.. so its no longer free :-(
edit2.. I just realised that test call was to my handy so is probably why it wasnt free

Pah! too late to edit my last post. Anyway, I have got it working now and I think it rocks!

Free calls! woohoo!

It's getting very popular. You sometimes need to try a call 2 or 3 times to get through, but when you do get through the call is fine, unlimited, and free...

You don't get owt for nowt...

YL6

OK so now I have all of this working but some things are frustrating me.

For instance, there is one number in Canada that will work every time when using the Windows client, but when I try the same number from our phone(using SIP), it never works. Other numbers work fine, but this number has only worked one time. Even while its working from the Windows client it will still not work from the phone. Most annoying. Maybe the backend works differently for SIP and the Windows client connections.

So now we have been looking for other similar services but cant find anything. Any ideas there anyone? All we can find are monthly subscriptions and nothing even remotely close to being free.

It would be one of the few numbers that we need to be free the most that doesnt work with this... Typical. I know I know.. its free, and in beta, so we should be happy with what we've got, but its frustrating.

There's no such thing as a free lunch. Be happy you can make ANY free, international call. I use VoipBuster 5-10 times a day for international calls, all of which are free. I often need to try twice, sometimes three times, but I usually get through by then. For the price, I'm more than pleased...

www.voipcheap.co.uk provide free calls to UK, Ireland and Netherlands, but only using their client no SIP access...

YL6

Well I have tried endlessly and it's no go to a certain number in Canada (it takes 50-60 seconds to connect to anything and then you just get a double busy signal). Naturally it is the one number I want to call! I only really make calls to Canada so it really is useless for me...it might be great for making calls within Germany or to UK (which I don't make any of).

Ah well...it was a nice thought...in theory. No free lunch...no cigar.

www.voipbuster.com has started charging for many destinations, but it's still cheap (€0.01 to UK).

However, yet another has started up, currently with with FREE calls to the following countries:
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Canada
Chile
China
Czech Republic
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Gibraltar
Greece
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Japan
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Malaysia
Monaco
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Russia
Singapore
South Korea
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
United Kingdom
United States

The service is www.sipdiscount.com- You need to deposit at least €5 in their account otherwise free calls are limited to 1 minute. I just spent 40 minutes on the phone to a friend in Taiwan, so I know it works, and it cost me nothing.

You also need a VoIP phone or adapter. No software (Skype-like) solution on this one unfortunately..

If you have any questions feel free to ask someone else..

YL6

Gee them rates don't look at all like these rates in terms of format.

Same company obviously spinning off. I still have €10 of calls sitting in my VoIP buster account, so now i suppose i'll have to give the same company another €5 in order to enjoy continual free calls to the uk.

Hmm, €5 divided by 1.2 cents per minute = approx 7 hours of calls. Will I make 7 hours of calls before they start a third company and ask for another €5?? quite clever these guys.

@YL6 do you recall how long VoIP buster had free calls to the UK before they started charging? I need to do the 'math'.

Cheers.

KT

VoIPBuster started in March this year. They evolved form www.call1899.co.uk which still offers cheap landlines calls in UK (3p per call, no per minute charges) and turned laterly to VoIP services - I use these for cheap calls to UK mobiles (2p/min). VoIPbuster calls to UK still cost only €0.01/minute, so are still cheaper than landlines out of Germany. They are all backed by a rather shady Swiss company called Finarea SA out of Lugano - see www.finarea.ch. They are also behind:
In UK: www.telediscount.co.uk, www.telestunt.co.uk, www.topupnow.co.uk, www.voipcheap.co.uk. and www.telesavers.co.uk
France: www.netappel.fr, www.coucoutel.fr, www.remisetel.fr, www.telerabais.com and www.netappel.fr
Finland: www.teleale.com
Italy: www.liberochiamate.it, and www.telesconto.it
Blegium: www.briseprix.be, www.callcheap.be and www.belkraker.be
Austria: www.billignet.at, www.1031telekom.at and www.telediscount.at
Netherlands: www.telediscount.nl
and more I am sure.

If you click on just a few of the above sites you'll start to see a design trend...

YL6

Time to update. There's a new free call service on the block from our friends at Finarea - www.voipstunt.com

Free phone calls to landlines in the following countries:

Australia
Austria
Belgium
Canada
Chile
China
Croatia
Cyprus
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Gibraltar
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Japan
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malaysia
Monaco
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Singapore
Slovak Republic
South Korea
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
United Kingdom
United States (cellphones too)

Software based only (bit like Skype) no need to deposit any money, no limits on calls.

Enjoy

YL6

Not for Macs.

...or anyone else from Scotland.

Thanks so much for the update! Now I know what to tell Grinner. What has TT ever done for me? Saved a bundle in phone costs.

If Karma button would have been still available, YL6 would have got mine!!! a number of times!!! for many number of posts!!!

Cash, cheques and postal orders also welcome...

Voipbuster now offers you a free (landline) phone number in any one of
- Austria
- Czech Republic
- France
- Germany
- Netherlands
- Poland
- Switzerland
- United Kingdom

so you can set up a phone number in one of these countries and allow friends and family there to call you at cheaper, national rates. You need to deposit at least €10 into your account to get this number, but this is not touched when you setup the number, neither are there charges to maintain it... If you need numbers in different countries then setup multiple Voipbuster accounts...

YL6

This can be used with a SIP device using sip.voipstunt.com too, although if you want a VoIP IN (incoming number) you need credit on the account (10 euro)

For those mac users, you could 'borrow' the use of a pc to get the software and register an account, then configure your softphone (for example X-Lite from CounterPath).

KT

Of course! - I'd not thought of that. Good idea...Alternatively, sell the Mac

Then Download X-Lite - one of many Mac based VoIP softphones and configure it to use Sipdiscount

Any yet another one with free calls to over 40 destinations - http://www.Internetcalls.com

Argentina
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Canada
Chile
Cyprus
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Gibraltar
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Italy
Japan
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Malaysia
Mexico
Monaco
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Panama
Peru
Poland
Portugal
Puerto Rico
Russian Federation
Singapore
Slovenia
South Korea
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
United Kingdom
United States
Venezuela

That looks a hell of a lot like the other one before they stopped giving free calls to many places.

Not quite, but you are correctly identifying the trend - there's no such thing as a free lunch. Voipbustercut back on a lot of destinatations late last year but Sipdiscount (published here in early January with similar list) has not changed its free content...

Can someone please recommend a cheap SIPphone/ATA? I was gonna buy the one at http://www.draytel.org/ but that's in the uk; there must be a similar one here and probably cheaper?

Define "Cheap"

Grandstreap GXP-2000 - 100-110 Eur
Grandstream Budge Tone 102 - 53 Eur

For More look Here and scroll down to the bottom.

well the ata from draytel is £30 with free postage (to uk) so anything cheaper than that i suppose

weirdly, just as i posted the question, a man from Alice came to the door offering a free land line. Is he for realz?

I notice that www.voipcheap.com is now not expiring your credit.

I have never found anyone as cheap as these guys for international calls, but the only problem I had with them was that you had to put 10 euros in the account and that would expire in 90 days.

Considering you can call almost every 1st world country for free (NZ/Aus/US/UK/Ireland + most of Europe), that 10 euros is bound to expire, unless you've been calling mobiles. Therefore you do end up paying for these calls.

However, I have just checked their website, and there is no more expiration. All they are doing is that after 120 days, you must pay 1c per minute to all the destinations that are normally free. All other rates are the same. As soon as you top up your account again, its back to free time.

This company is the cheapest I have found out there. If anyone has a better suggestion, let me know but for now I'm sticking solely with these guys.

For about a month now, in line with the most others in the Finex stable. Their charges to mobiles are not so bad either, so it's a good idea to use them for those too, to deplete the credit and start anew with 4 months of free calls to international landlines. Quality has improved too, as they now include new protocols, and via their websites you can send SMS to many international destinations for €0.05, PLUS make inter-telephone connections (connect Number X to Number Y through and charge VoIP account). Allinall a decent service. You read it here first...

That is very true and I shall be very thankful to you for keeping us up to date YL6.

cheers!

Dan

Finex now have a new offering - www.smsdiscount.com. SMSs to most European mobile networks at 1.2cents per message without advertising - that's over 90% cheaper than sending direct from your phone, more for messages abroad. Send from your browser, their own installable application or via your own UI.

Do you know of a program that could be used as UI to send SMSs?

php or html?

Now I think I see what you were referring to (http://www.smsdiscount.com/en/sms_instructions.html):

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Using HTML SMSlink

You can also send text messages (SMS) without using our software or accessing the website. Use the following link and fill in the desired data:

https://myaccount.smsdiscount.com/clx/sends...text=xxxxxxxxxx

Explanation of the variables:
username: your SMS Discount username
password: your SMS Discount password
from: your username or your verified phone number. Always use international format for the number starting with +, for instance +491701234567
to: the number you wish to send the sms to. Always use international format starting with +, for instance +491701234567
text: the message you want to send

After creating the link in a text editor you can copy it into your internet browser's address bar:

Than just hit the Enter button and you will get a notification if the text message (SMS) was sent.
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Any updatrees on the best Voip service currently available. I see that Voipbusters has increases its free country ,no germany , list and that lasts for 120 days (till top-up), but Voipcheap has better international rates for the non-free zones but only lastes 90 days.
So whats the better service generally?

if you do a search in the forums you will find that both serices have the same company behind and share practically all of their features.

Or you could check this website which summarises the cost of all calls from the Betamax stable, so you can find the one that suits your calling profile best.

Topics merged by admin
Has anyone used VoipStunt for VoIP phone calls?

According to their rates page they offer free calls to landlines in various countries, including Germany, UK, Australia, New Zealand and United States.

Hey Malcolm,
Where I am living at the moment uses Voipstunt, it works amazingly well, I am pretty happy with it. I get 300 minutes a week to Canada, which is waaaaaay more than I could ever use.

I found voipcheap.com better. That's what I'm using now for all voice calls.

you also have justvoip.com. The same company other prices...

I have used VoipStunt the last 4 or so months and am very pleased with it. The only way I could put money on my account ("Buy Credit") was through a bank transfer (Überweisung) from my German account, as I have not yet been able how to download and use the verification program required for paying by several other means, including credit cards and PayPal.

All these companies are subsidiaries of Betamax. Not all support SIP so that you can make a call without switching on your PC. And it is not free, you need to top up credit every 90/120 days to make "free" calls. Otherwise 1ct/min to destinations in Europe and US.
EDIT - I use VoipCheap and quality is quite good. Calling is very easy when you have a DSL modem with SIP (like Fritz!box fon).