'Free' PC to Phone Calls

Want to make 'FREE' telephone calls to UK, US, Canada and Australasia using your PC? You only pay for the local Internet connection to your Internet Service Provider. If you are using one of the 'Free' ISP's, then its absolutely free.

I have only commented on those services which appear to work with good reasonable quality upwards and reliable connection to their Websites. These services work through the Multi Media part of your PC and the Internet. You can use either a Headset or Microphone and Speakers plugged into your sound card. The quality varies from average to really good. There is often a short delay and the user needs to get used to briefly pausing at the end of sentences.

As with most of these services, the suppliers rely on advertising to pay for the service and you may therefore need to put up with some 'Pop Up' adverts. These are not that obtrusive and you don't really have to stare at the screen whilst chatting. Some sites have only static adverts advertising other low cost call services they offer. My view is this, if that's what it takes to get free phone calls and save money, then I'm all for it. Some people have Pop up advert filters and this will prevent some of the services working as the dialer is often on a Pop up screen! I use Adfilter v2.9 and have simply set Hot Telephone as an exception and this passes the adverts through whilst I use the service. There are lots of other 'FREE' phone services but these three seem to be the best and do work without sending you off all over the Internet or get you clicking on lots of pointless links.

There can also be problems if you have a 'Firewall' installed. All the sites give help and instructions for using their service with Firewalls. This usually entails no more then opening up a couple of ports in the Firewall. Simply go the the particular Webpage of the service you want to use and sign up. Its that easy.

The Services and Suppliers

Pc2call offers free calls to standard UK national fixed numbers. As with most of these services, they also offer low cost calls to other parts of the world. Sign up for free and give it a try. The service is reliable and quality is reasonable. I've had problems with drop out in the past but this seems to have been corrected. In peak Internet times, the delay can be obtrusive. They updated their site in January 2001 and since then its been very good. You may sometimes get a message about all the 'FREE' lines are busy, but that's acceptable if you want to share free lines.

4Ecalls **** Currently stopped their FREE service ****

No sign of them returning to 'Free' PC2Phone calls just yet but they are offering a 'FREE' Fax service on a trial basis.

A2ZConnect is essentially an Australia and New Zealand service which offers Free PC to Phone calls in those two countries. It also needs Microsoft Netmeeting version 3.01 installed. Its easy to register and didn't seem to mind that I was not resident in Australia. This is great for people who have relatives "Down Under". This is also a newcomer on the scene so it will be interesting to see how they go on.

Hot Telephone. Difficult to believe, but this service offers more Countries than the others. Including the UK and US, it also offers calls to Australasia and many other parts of the World. See their Website for a full list of allowed locations. The service has the most 'Pop Ups' but don't let that distract you. It also has the best quality and lowest delays. The downside is it can often be very difficult to get through. The gateway always seems to be busy and several attempts are needed to suceed with the call. I always try this site first for all calls but revert to one of the others for UK or US calls. I have had a few screens advising me that Hot Telephone are in the process of increasing their capacity and this may well overcome the connection problems. Just remember this site is very popular and I have more success early mornings for calls to Australasia.

Other Sites

There are a number of other sites which offer PC2Phone calls for various countries and with different service levels. There are also sites which offer calls based on you earning or buying credit. One site I was cautious off was asking for loads of personal information to earn credit. I don't think anyone should part with any information whatsoever to another party unknown to you. When looking for these type of services, its always a good idea to query the newsgroups and see what other people are saying.