Internet Phone (place calls to US #s) Application on iPhone 4 ???

[bella92108]

So I have been traveling a lot, and wherever I've been there's one common thing... it costs an arm and a leg to call back to the US from iPhone, regardless if roaming on AT&T, or using that country's local SIM....

I have both Google Voice +, and Skype.

GV + is nice for texting, but the nature of it's operation is you dial a number and it dials you back to complete the call, which negates the purpose because then it's still using airtime if roaming on AT&T, and if using a foreign SIM it won't dial out to connect the call to an international #.

Skype is great because when I'm on a hotel's WiFi or 3G network I can use it to call back to the US to toll-free numbers, however it doesn't allow free calls to standard area-code numbers (like home\cell phones.

Is there any alternative I'm not seeing? What do people use to accomplish this? I would love to see a company like Vonage or MagicJack come up with an application that would do what I'm looking for, but it seems like there are regulatory hurdles they're facing to accomplish it from what I'm reading online.

Any feedback\advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Ikyo]

There are a lot of ways to do it if you are willing to pay for the service. You could get a SIP application and go to one of the SIP providers online such as Axvoice. You used to be able to get your magicjack information, but a recent change broke that.

 

[bella92108]

There are a lot of ways to do it if you are willing to pay for the service. You could get a SIP application and go to one of the SIP providers online such as Axvoice. You used to be able to get your magicjack information, but a recent change broke that.

There isn't more of a consumer type service? I may just buy skype credit I guess.

 

[gerabbi]

There isn't more of a consumer type service? I may just buy skype credit I guess.

Skype credit is an option.
Check out Truphone it may/may not be cheaper than Skype.
Some Voip clients are:

Sipgate
Voipcheap
Spikko
Voipraider
Voipon3g
ippi
NetVoip

I have a Sipgate account but cannot really comment about the others. Sipgate is similar in pricing to Truphone. All of these are Voip and are probably cheaper than ATT. I also use Truphone. Good luck.

 

[sjdigital]

I would have thought that this Skype offer would do the trick. I don't think you're going to find any service that gives you totally free calls to a regular phone, whether landline or mobile. I suspect that Skype is far and away the best option with reasonable calling charges but a free service that has so many other uses as well.

 

[Nrwrit3r]

I know google just added something in gmail where you can call people...dunno how it works though

 

[bella92108]

Thanks for all the replies. Ideally I'd like to find a free service. My understanding was google's worked as a purely internet-outbound service, but I guess that's not the case. I need outbound more than inbound, anyhow.

I suppose I'll just have to pay for Skype or TruPhone on a pay-per-use for now as it seems there's nothing free.