Free VOIP Phone Calls?

I haven't made a post in a while because I am extremely busy with new business but I thought this warranted a quick post.

In the light of Skype now offering free calls to USA and Canada it had made everyone think about phone calls a little bit differently. Phone calls just got a whole lot cheaper and Skype have set a benchmark. Skype is of course the most popular VOIP provider and actually one of the cheapest. It's not until you dig deeper and look at the companies without such a large front that you actually start to see real VOIP value.

I dont know how they do it but VOIPStunt seem to be pulling a stunt by offering 300 minutes of free calls to a number of destinations around the world.

They offer Free calls to any regular landline in:

Andorra Argentina Australia Austria Belgium Canada Chile China Colombia Denmark Finland France Georgia Germany Gibraltar

Hong Kong Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Japan Latvia Liechtenstein Luxembourg Malaysia Monaco Mongolia Netherlands New Zealand Norway

Panama Peru Portugal Singapore Slovenia South Korea Spain Sweden Taiwan Thailand United Kingdom United States Venezuela

Looking at the software its just like skype but a little less bloated. I typed in my number and it was calling 2 seconds later. I was amazed.

There truly is such a thing as a free lunch.

Of course there is going to be some fine print but it's nothing too unexpected:

* Max 300 minutes per week of free calls, measured over the last 7 days. Unused free minutes cannot be taken to the following week(s). If limit is exceeded, a minimal rate of 1ct/min will be charged (as shown in the VoipStunt software).

So i's obvious here that they want people to use the service so much that they exceed 300mins and buy some credit. 1c/min is actually cheaper than Skypes global rate anyway so I think we have a real contender here.

Moral of the Story: Just when the big guys release something amazing and great, don't forget the little guys could already have something that kills it