Free World Dialup
Dan Gillmor raves about the goodness that is VoIP:
In the past month, I've done my part to undermine a monopoly. How? By making phone calls.
Dana Blankenhorn doesn't think VoIP is all that great, specifically in response to Dan (link points to front page -- permalinks are broken...).
Whatever. I want VoIP at home. Can't get it. Or, at least, can't get it at a reasonable price in Canada. But, I do now have a Free World Dialup account. My number is 48340. Feels like the early days of ICQ -- sign up now to get a low number that shows you're cool!
Of course, now I'm going to have to track down software that will let me work with it on my Mac...no MSN Messenger for me, thanks.
There is Mac2Phone, but it seems tied to a particular service (and is a crappily-written Java program). Hmmm...a Google search leads me to believe that iChat is in fact a SIP client, except it can't really talk to other SIP clients. Double hmmm.
Here are some more likely candidates -- Xmeeting (H.323 only), GnomeMeeting (need to run it under X11, can be installed via Fink). Put links in comments if you find others...
Here's the welcome message:
Welcome to the Free World!
Thanks for signing up for Free World Dialup (FWD). We hope you
enjoy taking advantage of what FWD has to offer and that
you can help us to continue to spread the word-of-mouth awareness
that FWD exists.Today, with Free World Dialup, as a user you get for free:
- FWD number
- CallerID
- Call Waiting
- Call Forwarding
- Call Transfer
- Multiple Presence - meaning you can have the same
FWD Number appear on multiple SIP phones.
- access to our free conference bridge
- Free Voice Mail is scheduled to become available by September, 2003.We launched FWD in November, 2002 with a small group of friends.
And as of August 04, the FWD service has over 42597 users from over 170 countries.
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VOIP phone
Buyed a SIP phone from www.ip-services.de and use it with pulver.com - works great!
From Jeff Pulver - re: Free World Dialup
Hey bmann,
Hope you are enjoying your use of Free World Dialup.
There is now a Mac Client available for OS X from Xten Networks. We will be formally announcing FWD Voicemail in the near future - plus some other new features.
If you ever would like to chat using iSight, please drop me a line at
jeffp@pulver.com
Best regards,
Jeff Pulver
http://pulverblog.pulver.com
Woo hoo!
I followed the X-Lite Quickstart directions and everything works! That is, I called 10001, heard the recorded message, and left a message myself.
The quality was...so-so. I have a bunch of other Internet apps running plus my firewall in between, so...
You should also somehow be able to place calls to me using my FWD number (48340). Not clear to me how to use a non-FWD account to call? Just entering 10001 put me straight through to the answer line...
iChat AV
I've been pretty happy with iChat AV. It won't interoperate with other SIP clients, as you said, but it's been convenient for long chats with family members and friends in remote locations that do run it as well. I just ended a 2.5 hour iChat voice session with a friend in Montreal -- can't imagine what the long distance phone call would have cost him now that Bell has changed his long distance plan on him.
Sooner or later
I think VoIP will be available sooner or later in Ottawa (Though you can use iConnecthere and maybe even Vonage.) The recent CRTC ruling separating DSL fron Phone service will only help to accelerate this. (In the past you had to have a local phone service before getting DSL; the recent ruling changes this)
http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/07/21/crtc_net030721
Hold up...
The recent ruling does not say that you can get DSL without phone service. In fact, what it says is that if I have Sprint local phone service, Bell must still provide me with Bell Highspeed if I want it.
That's all... You still need phone service.
Ahhh haaa
I guess you still need phone service. Perhaps cable is the way to go then.