Use your iPhone to make long-distance calls at local wireless rates – RingFree allows VoIP over GSM
By Will Park on Saturday, January 19th, 2008 at 1:50 PM PST In Announcements, Apple, Applications, Services, iPhone
Now this is one intriguing method to make long-distance (international) phone calls for the price of local (domestic) wireless rates (not including any VoIP fees – which are incredibly cheap). RingFree basically allows you to call into their VoIP SIP server, pick the VoIP provider you’d like to use, and dial an international phone number – essentially allowing you to use your regular wireless minutes to make long-distance calls (say, to the UK, Finland, or Serbia).
The RingFree multi-VoIP service is available for iPhone users, and provides and iPhone-like numeric keypad to preserve that iPhone-feel.
Point your iPhone Safari browser to https://rf.com/ and register your iPhone number, some other relevant information, and then verify your PIN. It’s all fairly straightforward and hassle-free.
After you register, you are prompted to select your VoIP provider of choice, enter your destination phone number (via that iPhone-esque numeric keypad), and get your international call going for the price of domestic wireless minutes. There’s some JavaScript transferred over the EDGE data network to get things off and running, but it’s a small bit of code (you should have an unlimited data plan anyway).
Voice quality is reportedly good, and calls go through without too much delay. There’s no WiFi connection required and since barely any data is transferred, you don’t need a strong EDGE signal. Oh, and Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Talk and MSN Voice is supported too.
[Via: iPhone Atlas]
Thank you for this. This is the most useful iPhone application yet. I set it up in less than 2 minutes and I made a call to Ireland using Gizmo Project. Sweet and simple. I am happy and would be jumping up and down with joy if it let me call Skypers.
A nut case on usenet provided this bit of useful information.
QUOTE
“# RingFree enables you to use the SIP, Voice over IP, PBX and/or IP-
based phone systems you already have from your iPhone.
# Make international calls on your iPhone for the same great rate rates
you get from your home phone.”
So, for $30/yr, they’ll forward your SELLphone calls to your EXISTING
phone system so you can be fleeced AGAIN? You call them. They connect
your SELLphone to your own phone system so you can pay, again, at “the
same great rate rates you get from your home phone”?
This is stupid!
Wouldn’t free be better? How about calling Skypers, too, from your
iPhone (or ANY SELLphone as you don’t need to “run” anything).
http://www.mobivox.com/
Sign up for a Mobivox account, it’s free! Select an access POTS number
near you. If you have free LD on your SELLphone plan, it matters not if
Mobivox doesn’t have a local number, it still only costs you airtime.
They get hundreds of new access numbers every month. Have all you
iPhoney and other SELLphone friends sign up, too, anywhere on the
planet. Calls from Mobivox to Mobivox users, interconnected through
Mobivox servers is always free and unlimited. Talk forever, costs you
nothing. If you want to call to non-members and POTS phones, it’s
1.9c/min from your pre-charged account ($10 from your credit card) to
most civilized places who don’t force you to pay THEIR SELLphone bill by
remote control. The rates for the crazies are on Mobivox’s site, as
cheap as anyone else.
NOW you have SKYPE on your iPhone (or any other SELLphone), whether
Crapple or ATT wants it or not! Mobivox is Skype connected. It uses
caller ID to automatically download your Skype contact list from the
Skype server farm. To call your Skype buddy, Freddy, on your list, just
TELL the Skype girl who answers the access number. She’ll tell you how,
but you can talk over her if you already know. Mobivox is great for
Iphones because it’s voice activated, not touchtones.
For $30, what this call forwarder wants, you can talk to a POTS in
Europe for $30/.019=1578 mins or a little over 26 HOURS! You can talk
to other iPhones whoh are members and Skypers across the planet for
FREE!
UNQUOTE
What do you think?
Is RingFree a callback solution?