Call Your Mother!

Remember the days when you had to pay for long distance telephone calls? Oh wait! Of course you don’t remember. You were like in middle school or something. Well, take it from me. There was a time when you did. And no matter how hard you tried to save money for the weekend, your girlfriend/boyfriend ate every cent by demanding you spend eight hours a week (at 10 cents-a-minute) listening to how much they didn’t like their roommates or how their professor was a total jerk and didn’t “get them.”

Well, there are fringe benefits (no, it’s not french benefits) to being a student ID card-carrying member of the Internet generation: free phone calls. And we’re not even talking about mobile phone minute plans, either. We’re talking cafeteria-style, all-you-can-eat, blab your face off until it hurts, sounds like the person is in the room with you, free phone calls. So go ahead and take advantage of that free T1 line feeding your dorm room.

Just in case you need a little help getting your feet wet, we’ve reviewed four of the most popular services, as well as highlight some of the toys that make calling more fun. A word of warning, however: Don’t let your parents know about this. You’ll never have an excuse for not calling your mother again.

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n DETAILS: Free, unlimited PC-to-PC calls anywhere in the world and free PC-to-phone calls in the U.S. and Canada.

n INTERNATIONAL LANDLINE RATES (PER MIN.): Canada, free; London, $.021; Beijing, $.021; Mexico City, $.021; Japan, $.023; Paris, $.021.

n NOTES: In order for people who don’t have Skype to call you directly, you must order “SkypeIn,” which supplies you with a local telephone number for $30 a year ($10 for three months).

n HARDWARE: Cordless 2-in-1 USB DUALphone, $139.99, www.dualphone-us.com

n REVIEW: Skype didn’t need a lot of help in the popularity department, but then the company announced that all PC-to-phone calls in the U.S. and Canada were free. Now it’s as popular as Nelly Furtado at a frat party. Downloading, installing and setting up the Skype PC software is very easy if you’ve ever used an instant messaging program. The service does require that you have a PC turned on to use it; however, the cordless phone means you don’t have to be near it as well. Did we mention Skype is free?

WWW.SKYPE.COM



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n DETAILS: $24.99 per month for Premium Unlimited calling plan. $14.99 per month for 500 minutes.
n INTERNATIONAL LANDLINE RATES (PER MIN.): Canada, free; London, free; Beijing, $.06; Mexico City, $.07; Japan, $.07; Paris, free.

n NOTES: You’ll need to attach a router to your broadband modem so you have something into which you can plug your Vonage device. We used one of the available hardline ports on our Linksys Wi-Fi router.

n HARDWARE: D-Link VTA phone adapter, $49.99, www.d-link.com

n REVIEW: Vonage is an excellent choice for your off-campus folks who want something other than your cell phones to use when you’re home. Split between five roommates, the service costs just five bucks each and for that you get unlimited calls to anywhere in the U.S. and Canada. The service was easy to set up, once we plugged the D-Link device into our router. (As it is a wireless router and not located in a convenient spot, this wasn’t as easy as it sounds). We would’ve liked the device makers to include a longer Ethernet cable. In today’s wireless world, chances are the router’s sitting in the basement on top the beer pong table.

WWW.VONAGE.COM

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n DETAILS: $19.99 per month, unlimited calls to the U.S. and Canada; $49.99 per month, unlimited calls to an additional 40 countries (listed at www.packet8.net/about/intplans.asp).

n INTERNATIONAL LANDLINE RATES (PER MIN., $19.99 PLAN): Canada, free; London, $.03; Beijing, $.03; Mexico City, $.04; Japan, $.04; Paris, $.03.

n NOTES: You’ll need to attach a router to your broadband modem so you have something into which you can plug your Packet8 device. We used one of the available hardline ports on our Linksys Wi-Fi router.

n HARDWARE: Uniden UIP160P 5GHz cordless VoIP phone, $99.99, www.uniden.com

n REVIEW: In terms of set up and sound quality, you’ll find the Packet8 service nearly indentical to that of Vonage. The Uniden phone was extremely simple to use. If a friend of yours visited and asked to use the telephone, he’d have no idea he was using a phone that was plugged into the Internet.

WWW.PACKET8.COM



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n DETAILS: Free PC-to-PC calls anywhere in the world, $.01 per minute PC-to-phone anywhere in the U.S. Free calls to landlines and mobiles in the U.S., Canada and up to 60 countries when both participants are registered Gizmo Project users.

n INTERNATIONAL RATES (PER MIN.): Canada, $.026; London, $.025; Beijing, $.034; Mexico City, $.029; Japan, $.044; Paris, $.029.

n NOTES: Gizmo has become the hero of the podcasting community for its ability to record every telephone call at the touch of a button. The audio file is saved on the PC as an MP3 file and podcasters can then splice that into their shows. Despite widespread demand, Skype has yet to add this feature.

n HARDWARE: Plantronics CS50-USB Wireless Office Headset System, $299.99, www.plantronics.com

n REVIEW: Here’s an idea. Record telephone conversations with friends and post them on your MySpace page. It’s extremely easy to do with Gizmo Project. The Plantronics headset is comfortable and the software makes it easy to use with any VoIP service, not just Gizmo Project. We would’ve liked a broader range of volume control but it has impressive wireless range.

WWW.GIZMOPROJECT.COM