Pros
- No monthly bills or yearly charges.
- You can make calls and talk for 24 hr day and 7 days a week, unlimited for free.
- No contracts or commitments are required.
- Computer not required.
- 30 Day Return Policy.
- Plug and play- easy to setup and simple to use our service. No technical expertise is required and the entire process takes less than 10 minutes.
- Phone number that follows you - you can carry IPvaani adapter (ATA) while you travel. Connect it from anywhere in the world and talk as long as you want. The number will remain same.
- Can be used worldwide. International shipping available.
Cons
- Calls are allowed only to and from IPvaani users.
- Acquisition cost. Each user needs to have the IPvaani device.
Review
IPvaani lies between software-based VoIP services like Skype and no-monthly-bill VoIP services like ooma, Phonegnome and MagicJack. Like Skype, it allows completely free unlimited calls, both locally and internationally. It is better than Skype in the sense that it requires no computer to operate. On the other side, it is free from monthly bills and contracts like ooma and the like, but suffers the restriction of allowing free calls only to contacts using IPvaani.
IPvaani requires a regular phone set, an ADSL Internet line (plus router of course) and the IPvaani adapter (ATA), which ships to your place when you buy. The price is much better -- $85 – compared to the $250 for ooma. However, ooma compensates for the price by allowing calls to any phone in the US, be it mobile or landline, while IPvaani does not allow that. IPvaani is a peer-to-peer (P2P) service, which is why it allows free calls only within its network. On the other hand, ooma is restricted to the US, which is not the case with IPvaani. Phonegnome comes close to it – it allows free unlimited calls between users of the same service after acquisition of the Phonegnome box. MagicJack has a more interesting price in comparison, but carries the heavy handicap of requiring a computer on for the whole duration of the communication, and even outside this duration, for incoming calls.
Each IPvaani user gets a 10-digit phone number, which can be used for both incoming and outgoing phone calls to any other IPvaani user. IPvaani provides crystal clear voice quality without any delay or break (32kpbs bandwidth required).
According to IPvaani, the main target market of the service is immigrants, foreign students, small and medium sized companies with global offices, for whom International calling is still an expensive one. When they launched the service in 2006, the also had in mind the number of computer-illiterate people who needed free calling worldwide.
