| Do you remember day when you paid $3-5 per | | | | based calls to standard phone lines. You as the caller |
| minutes to call international destinations? You could | | | | only needs to have special software to call other |
| not afford to talk longer than few minutes. That | | | | other user who can either be in a standard phone or |
| days are going to be over soon. With the advent of | | | | virtual phone running a VOIP client program. This |
| Voice-over-IP (VOIP), you can call international and | | | | gives this VOIP call the flexibility to call anyone on |
| long distance destination for free. There are | | | | the move (such as with a mobile) or standard land |
| considerable sudden changes happening in the long | | | | phones. There are few VOIP applications that truly |
| distance and international calling markets. | | | | makes it possible to call direct international or long |
| Now you can call your friends in many countries | | | | distance numbers for free. No more need to have |
| around the world simply free of charge. You can also | | | | annoying, expensive, per connection charge and per |
| get free number for receiving international calls. Free | | | | minutes rounding phone cards. All international calls are |
| calling from one PC to another was around since the | | | | made free with some obvious restrictions such as to |
| start of the internet but now you can make call to | | | | prevent abuse. |
| standard phones for free. PC to PC calling has many | | | | The other type of free VOIP is where you log-in to |
| disadvantages. The person you are calling needs to | | | | a VOIP service provider and get a local number to |
| run the same software program (either a chat | | | | you and your international or long distance friend. |
| program or Skype type VOIP application) and | | | | Then both of you can call each other unlimited with |
| connected to the server all the time in order to | | | | of course reasonable local phone charges if they are |
| receive the call. The sound quality of your call is | | | | any. The obvious disadvantage of this service is it is |
| dependent on you and your friends connection | | | | not completely free and sometimes those pesky local |
| speeds. When there are lots of traffic at ones, it is | | | | phone charges could add up. However, this service is |
| impossible to hold a conversation due to poor sound | | | | much better than calling international or long distance |
| quality. | | | | direct or using phone cards. |
| With the popularity of VOIP, you can make PC | | | | |