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Cheapest Phone Call Services of 2010

VoIP Services That Offer The Cheapest Calls in 2010

By , About.com Guide

We are all looking for ways for making cheaper phone calls, and we are right because there are plenty of VoIP services out there that allow us to make cheaper and free local and international voice calls. So, which VoIP service has the cheapest calls in 2010? Here is my short list.

1. GMail Calling

This service started this year as a result of the momentum of Google’s VoIP venture. GMail Calling allows you to make free phone calls to any landline or mobile phone within the US and Canada, from anywhere in the world. International calls to destinations outside the US and Canada are offered at rates that are among the lowest in industry. You can make these calls from within your GMail account, and if your contact is connected on GMail as well, the PC-to-PC call is free unlimited. Your GMail experience will even be better if you are already a Google Voice subscriber.

2. Nymgo

Nymgo popped out of the lot of mushrooming VoIP service companies this year as the company with the cheapest calls. You don’t get anything free with them, but on cheap rates, no one beats them so far. Nymgo allows you to make phone calls from your computer at less than half a cent per minute to certain international destinations. That’s the advantage when companies don’t offer free calls – the paid ones are dirt cheap.

3. Ooma

Ooma isn’t very new but the concept it brings makes it shine – it eliminates monthly bills. You buy a piece of hardware (that’s your only investment), plug to your broadband connection and phone and voila, your calls are all free within the US and Canada, and unlimited. Moreover, it does not require a PC. It is a good replacement for your home phone. Ooma also offers cheap schemes for international calling.  

4. MagicJack/MagicTalk

MagicJack brings the same concept as Ooma – it offers you unlimited phone calls without a monthly bill. You only buy a piece of hardware (which is 6 times cheaper than that of Ooma) and plug it to your computer and phone to make the calls. The fact that it requires a computer rules it out as a home phone replacement, but still, you get to make the free unlimited calls. The service has also released MagicTalk, a software that acts as a softphone on your computer to make the calls. With this software, you don’t need to buy the MagicJack hardware – you start off without spending a dime. Like GMail, you make free calls from anywhere to any US and Canada phone, and pay cheap rates for other international destinations.

5. Skype

OK, Skype’s rates for calls made to landline and mobile phones are far from being the cheapest on the market. But then, why is Skype on this list? It is because it has been and remains a simple and free way to communicate through voice and video to half a billion people worldwide. OK there are limitations like the need for a computer and the need for your contact to be on Skype. But if you use the same machine you are using for reading this article, the same Internet connection and the odds that your buddy is among the 500 million Skypers to communicate, then you can save a lot of money by avoiding to make otherwise costly calls. Many other services offer what Skype does, but none has even a tenth of its huge user base.

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