The Shrinking Globe, More Free Calls
by Late Nite LeRoy
August 8, 2000
This technology versus privacy issue continues to get more perplexing every day. I confess that many of the freebies I write about in this column have both potential, if not direct loss of privacy issues attached. But since Echelon, Carnivore, Janet Reno, the Clintonistas and the whole "Big Government", "New World Order" movement back to Franklin Roosevelt have eroded away so much privacy I fear it's virtually a lost cause. So saying that, here's another freebie to add to the stack.
Calls placed using the sound card on your computer, through the Internet to another computer which connects to a local telephone network and then rings a local telephone is referred to as VOIP. Voice Over Internet Provider.
Free calls from the Internet INTO the USA are offered by DialPad and PhoneFree.
Free calls from the Internet INTO Germany, Ireland and the UK are offered by Go2Call.
Free calls INTO Communist China are now offered by MediaRing. Yes, you can now call Chairman Jiang and give him a piece of your mind free of charge. I don't think he has a listed number though.
All VOIP services suffer from some delay problems due to packet delivery of Internet data, but the savings on a social call where no critical business is being discussed should be well worth the trouble. Yet again I should stress when important business needs to be discussed, nothing beats a good direct connection. And you still don't have to accept the high rates charged by the majors. My commercial site offers a Best Rate Search Engine that allows you to compare most all the regular and discount carriers to any country in the world. So a little investigation on your part can even save on your business calls and still yield a clean, noise free connection.
PhoneFree also claims to enable video conferencing with your webcam. This should actually add considerable privacy for those who have struggled in the past with Microsoft NetMeeting's public Internet Listing Service and received an unexpected "flash", and I don't mean electronic. Happy chatting.
--LateNiteLeroy
DIALPAD http://www.dialpad.com
GO2CALL http://de.go2call.com/
MEDIA RING free calls http://freecalls.mediaring.com
You may send LateNite email at: leroy@commutefaster.com
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