Common wisdom states that “there is no such thing as a ‘free’ lunch”. And I firmly believe that. For instance, take “Airmiles”. In essence you just pay more for whatever products you buy. That money goes into a big marketing scheme that tells you you can save for “free” products. Yeah right. You payed for them yourself. Now here is an interesting pitch: call around the world to regular landlines or mobile phones, using your PC… And it’s for free!?
Sounds like a scam? Well, it seems not. This company calling itself “Voipbuster: the free calls phone company” is actually doing that. You download their P2P software (a lot like Skype actually) and you can call landlines for free from your PC. PC to PC calls are also possible, just like Skype. According to the website you get free calls to any regular landline in:
Austria
Denmark
Finland
Germany
Greece
Ireland
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Norway
Portugal
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
United Kingdom
United States
So what is the catch then? Simple: in the trial version you can only call for 1 minute with the regular version. Then the call just ends. But you can call over and over and over. However, to enjoy unlimited free calls you have to open an account and put in $5. Thats is. They probably use that money to invest in software development.
I still talk a lot to my (ex)girlfriend in the USA and guess what: calling her cellphone is also free! Unbelievable! How the heck do they do that? For other countries they have a whole list of VoipBuster-to-phone rates. So that is like the Skype-out. But look at the rates for Skype-out. It is not for free.
The only thing I haven’t figured out is, if you only call for free, how will you ever get your $5 back if you discontinue using Voipbuster? But you know what, I do not care. I will take advantage of it as long as possible.
So Skype does have a competitor. They’re called Voipbuster. And it’s almost a free lunch 😉