Most people, even non-techies like my Dad, have heard of Skype at this stage. Skype gives you free PC-to-PC “phone” calls and allows you to ring normal international phone numbers for much cheaper than normal phone-to-phone calls. I’ve used it a lot and it works pretty well.
But Skype has a much less well-known competitor called Gizmo and you’d be nuts not to give them a try. Gizmo, unlike Skype, is built on a standard called SIP so it works with all other SIP-based products e.g. VOIP products that cable TV customers in the USA use. It also doesn’t chew up your PC like Skype can do.
Gizmo’s feature set has always been far better than Skype including conference calling from day 1, call recording, voicemail etc. I have always found the voice quality to be better too. It’s biggest drawback has always been the lack of uptake so that I have never done a PC-to-PC call with it since no-one I know uses it.
Recently they unveiled a killer feature. Any two Gizmo users can now do PC-to-phone calls for free. All you have to both be is signed up for Gizmo, only one of you actually needs to be at a computer. This is available in 60 countries including Ireland right now and even works for mobile numbers in a bunch of them too (not Ireland yet sadly). I’ve tested it and it works perfectly. If you make lots of national or international calls and don’t mind doing them from your computer, you could save a ton of money with this. If you have a VOIP phone or Router, then you may not even need to be at the computer! I need to investigate this more.
Check them out, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
[tags]Gizmo, SIPPhone, SIP, Skype, Michael Robertson[/tags]
comments powered by Disqus