While hunting for a VoIP service to call India, I found a fair variety of services that I'm sharing below. FreeCall appears the cheapest when calling India, at 2.5¢ per minute to a land line. I'm listing the rate from London to Chennai below. I'm not sure of the difference in voice quality between these. The only one I've tried is VoIPDiscount, which is not too bad. As a benchmark, remember that Reliance offers a calling card at around 7.3¢ per minute. ...
Broadcasting on Google Talk. Comments Dhar 28 Aug 2005 3:32 am: I tried streaming music to friends… Cool hack. The only thing is that it is not a broadcast… Can be streamed only to a single person unfortunately… :( Arun 29 Aug 2005 7:10 am: wow, this is pretty cool. Dhar, next time you are free, let’s try this out :-) S Anand 31 Aug 2005 7:20 pm: I did, this afternoon. I could hear Dhar’s broadcast clearly, but he couldn’t hear mine. Problem with my laptop, I think.
Google Talk is a Google instant messenger. It’s quite small (900K), very simple, and uses HTML+Javascript+CSS+XML. But I’m yet to figure out it it has any cool features. Quick review at DownloadSquad. Comments Prasenjeet 24 Aug 2005 12:53 pm: Not sure about the HTML/JS/CSS … looks like a tightly-written Win32 app to me S Anand 24 Aug 2005 2:07 pm: Oh, is it? Looked quite like a web page to me… will check out. Dhar 25 Aug 2005 12:08 pm: I tried out the voice chat. Leaving comparisons aside (as I have not used Skype), the sound quality was amazing. It was almost as if the person was in the room with me. Other than that, no cool features. :( S Anand 25 Aug 2005 1:35 pm: Probably thanks to all the fiber optic bandwidth they’re supposed to have purchased. But I wonder how. Dhar 26 Aug 2005 1:57 am: Finally got it working at home and tried exploring various features. At the end of the process, realized there are hardly _any_ features. Will take it some time to catch up with features of clients like Yahoo Messenger. jayant 27 Aug 2005 9:21 am: I guess it is better with less features. Thin client is all about that. Less download time. More functionality which avg users click more. Voice quality is great if both parties are using broadband. On dial up, it comes with bit of lag and some echo. Dhar 9 Sep 2005 3:42 pm: Anand, had some thoughts on where Google Talk may really be headed. Have put a rough outline here.
Skype allows you to call toll-free numbers free. This, to me, completely removes the need to use a telephone line. With a cable internet connection and a calling card, you’re set.
Skype – the software I’ve been looking for. It permits VoIP across corporate networks.
IP Telephony in India. At last.
All ISPs are going to start offering Internet Telephony pretty soon. Good.
Phone calls through the Net are legal. This is based on the GOT-IT report.
Internet Telephony in India is legal. Some stories: 1 | 2 | 3