Keeping Touch With Family Part II

In this second article I’ll discuss another potentially useful method of keeping in touch with family back home: VOIP.

Now technically Skype and calling cards (which we discussed in Part I both utilize VOIP, however true VOIP is a different beast all together. Skype uses a closed VOIP network, so to access it you can only use their software and special hardware that is designed for Skype. Open VOIP however is designed for interoperability and the use of any ATA you would like.

The advantages of VOIP are that you can get a little device called an ATA (analogue telephone adaptor) which you plug into a router that you can then plug a regular telephone into. This technology allows you to talk digitally over the internet, and the best part is it’s completely portable! Just think about that for a minute. Imagine being able to talk to friends and family with a fully functional incoming/outgoing telephone service! It makes it easy to keep in touch and best of all there are no phone cards to worry about.

There are many different VOIP providers, some designed to offer PAYG (pay as you go) service, where you configure your own ATA (this can be daunting if you are not a technically oriented person). These plans offer truely cheap rates (some as low as 1cents/min to many western countries) and are designed for the casual user. If you don’t think you will use more then 600 minutes a month then this pay be the type of plan you are looking for. Then there are are various VOIP services that offer you an “unlimited” calling package that for a fixed amount every month allow you to make/receive calls to a certain calling area.

Vonage

This was the grandfather of VOIP, and so I feel I owe them a shout out. Unfortunately they haven’t kept up-to-date with the times, and don’t offer as many of the “cool” features that a lot of the newer services offer. They did come out with a new “world” plan that lets you call many different countries for a flat rate of $24.99/month. However with taxes this figures comes out closer to about $35/month. You do have to have a US mailing address to sign up, however there is no restriction on taking your ATA with you. This is one of the advantages of VOIP, you can take your phone number with you to any country in the world. Since they also allow porting in, this may be a good way of saving a cellphone/landline number you thought you might have to lose when you began ESLing. You can check out Vonage on their site. Vonage has specific offerings for Canadians and those from the UK.

VOIPo

A relatively new provider, these guys are backed by Hostgator a strong web hosting company. They have various servers which they allow you to pick in their control panel. This helps you to avoid “latency” (you know that annoying delay you sometimes get on overseas call) by picking one closet to your physical location. So if you’re in Asia one day, pick the “west coast” server, and if you’re in Europe the next pick the “east coast” server.

When you login to your VOIPo account you get access to a control panel. This allows you to set how you’d like certain calls forwarded, or set “simulatenous” ring numbers. This a really cool feature that allows you to call two numbers at once. So if your mom is calling you (using a local number for her) you can set it to ring your landline number in Korea or your cell phone as well as your ATA in your apartment. So you can literally answer the phone wherever you are, and you don’t have to worry about missing a phone call again. VOIPo also sends your voicemails to your email address, and can send you a text letting you know that you have missed a call. Unfortunately my tests show that this texting features only work with US/Canadian numbers but hopefully they’ll expand that down the track.

They currently have a promotion going on giving you a year of service for $135 including taxes. This includes a local phone number in many US and Canadian area codes, as well as unlimited outgoing calls anywhere within North America, plus 35 different features (including caller ID and 3 way calling). VOIPo – Unlimited Residential VoIP

Free Month of Service with VOIPo

Finally if you’d like a free month of service (confession, this will give me a free month of service too) please enter 6477240800 when signing up under the VOIPo referral section:

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