Net Telephony

Note: This article mainly focusses on using Skype Phone Adapter. But if all you are looking for is a cheap and convenient long distance calling solution, then I suggest you visit this article of mine.

International Calling Solutions

This article is meant to provide cheap solutions for international calling. And by cheap, I mean really cheap. Also note, that I would highly recommend a 64 Kbps+ connection for enjoying best voice conversation.

I shall be using the following notations while trying to explain the possible solutions.

A,B represent two users who stay in differnt countries and want to talk to each other.
ISP-A, ISP-B are the internet service providers for A and B respectively.
TE-A, TE-B are the Telephone Exchange networks in the countries of A and B respectively.
PC-A, PC-B are the computers used by A and B respectively.
PH-A, PH-B are the phones used by A and B respectively.

A two-sided arrow means calls can be placed by either of the users. A one-sided arrow implies call is placed in the direction shown (i.e. to the user to whom the arrow is pointing)

i. PC-to-PC

PC-A <-----> ISP-A <-----> Internet <-----> ISP-B <------> PC-B

A shoud pay charges for using ISP-A i.e. A should pay only internet charges of his ISP.
B should pay charges for using ISP-B i.e. B should pay only internet charges of his ISP.

Two good software for PC-to-PC calling are Skype and Google Talk. Yahoo Messenger Voice Chat and other PC-to-PC voice chat software work the same way and hence all you need to use them is an internet connection.

ii. PC-to-Phone

PC-A ------> ISP-A -----> Internet ------> TE-B -------> PH-B

A should pay charges for using ISP-A and TE-B i.e. A should pay internet charges of his ISP as well as the charges for placing calls to the telephone exchange network in the country of B.
B should pay only charges of TE-B i.e. B should pay charges to the telephone exchange network in his country for possessing a phone.

Some good software which offer cheap PC-to-Phone calling are Gizmo (this offers cheapest calling to US currently - 1 cent/min), VoIP Discount (VoIP Discount offers the overall cheapest rates, also it has free calls to landlines of some countries which include US, UK, Australia among others ... check out all the VoIP Discount rates) and MyWebCalls(two good features which are very impressive in MyWebCalls are its per second billing and no account expiry).

Also note that if B is in US/UK, the telephone exchange network charges are really low and hence PC-to-Phone calling to US/UK is cheap (as low as 1 cent). But if B is in India, the telephone exchange network charges are high in India and hence PC-to-Phone calling to India is costly (10 cents or more)

iii. Phone-to-PC

PC-A <------- ISP-A <----- Internet <------- TE-B <------ PH-B

Phone-to-PC works this way. A buys a local telephone number in the country of B. B can call up this local telephone number which gets redirected to the computer of A. Therefore

A should pay for ISP-A and TE-B i.e. A should pay internet charges of his ISP as well as the charges for possessing a phone number in the country of B (which is around Rs.200 / month if US/UK).
B should pay charges to TE-B i.e. B should pay charges to the telephone exchange network in his country for possessing a phone and also for making local calls to the local phone number which A bought.

Some good software which offer this service are Skype (Skype In) and Gizmo (Gizmo Call In). Right now not all countries are supported yet. You can get local phone numbers in US, UK and a few other countires. Thus your friends n family in US/UK can call up that local phone number and your computer will ring. Also VoIP Buster and VoIP Stunt get a special mention here for providing free voip-in numbers in select countries.

iv. Remote Calling (PC-PC-Phone) [need to purchase the product DPH-50U mentioned below]

PC-A ----> ISP-A ---> Internet ---> ISP-B ---> PC-B ---> USB Phone Adapter (DPH-50U) ---> TE-B ----> Any local user phone

Now I think this is one real awesome product. Using the USB Phone Adapter by D-Link you can now call up any phone in your destination country using one of the local phone numbers of the destination country. This is possible because the USB phone adapter interconnects the PC with the regular telephone line. Look in the "Featured Products" section below for more information about this product.

A should pay for ISP-A i.e. A should pay only the internet charges of his ISP.
B should pay for ISP-B and for local calls using TE-B i.e. B should pay for his internet charges and also for all the local calls which A has made using his phone number.

There may be other products like the USB-phone-adapter which may offer similar functionality but I am not aware of them yet.

I do hope this article helps you in cutting down the bills of long distance calling.

Featured Products

1. Echostore's skype-to-usb phone adapter (also compatible with google talk, net2phone, etc.)

Now you can connect your cordless phone / any phone to your PC and make and receive calls to skype users. This has nothing to do with your telephone exchange network. This device is mainly useful for those who do not know how to use the PC / those who want the flexibility of talking using a cordless phone. Visit the product page for furthur details. Kindly note that you can find other similar skype to usb phone adapters on the internet. Why I chose this product is not only because it supports skype but also google talk, net2phone, etc. And they also claim it can be used in Linux but I had some problems to get it working in linux.

2. D-Link's USB phone Adapter(DPH-50U)

Now I should confess. This is one AWESOOOOMEEEEEEEEEEEE product. So far this supports only skype. Though this product works in a way similar to the above product, what makes it a much better buy than the above product is the "Remote Calling" Feature. The below description of Remote Calling Feature has been taken from the product's page.

******************************************

The DPH-50U can be configured to forward incoming Skype calls to another destination such as your cell phone so that you never miss a call while you are away. The DPH-50U also includes a toll bypass feature that is ideal for the following two scenarios:

The first scenario is when you are in the same geographical area as the DPH-50U and want to make an international call. You can call from your cell phone to the computer that the DPH-50U is connected to and make a low cost SkypeOut international call.

The other scenario is when you are traveling abroad and want to call someone who lives in your home area. You would simply make a Skype-to-Skype call to the computer where the DPH-50U is connected to and use your regular telephone line to make a local call.

*******************************************