Monday, August 26, 2002		Dotcom World

Dialling through PC
Gaurav Sood

INTERNET telephony service connects PC to any phone around the world. The calls are established using the IP technology. With this service you can now call up friends and family anywhere at a fraction of regular ISD charges. To make calls from a PC one needs a multimedia kit, a full-duplex sound card, speakers and microphone, global PC-to-phone calling card. This technology has an edge over the others because of low rates and no dependence on ISD facility telephone line

www.phonewala.com

The site claims that it was launched to enter the field of voice-based Internet services. The portal helps making calls from a computer with the Internet connectivity to an internationally located telephone at a low rate. All you need is to download the dialler, type in your ID and start calling!

www.hotfoon.com

To make a call from this site you have to sign up, download and start calling select cities in India for Rs 5 a minute. The condition is before calling one has to be a registered user, having downloaded the Hotfoon and has enough credits to make the call. The site offers two types of calls —- calling another Hotfoon user and calling a phone number. The Website also announces that the voice quality is affected by the quality of the connection, the global Internet loading and the Internet connectivity at the called userid (or gateway).

www.net2phone.com

The site, net2phone.com, helps make calls from a PC to over 200 cities in the world. The site is available in six different languages. The portal claims to deliver new and innovative communication solutions to individuals and businesses worldwide. The site’s IP network extends to over 50 countries allowing users to place calls to any telephone or Internet-enabled PC in the world.

www.dialpad.com

This site was founded in 1999 and has become one of the world’s largest providers of PC-based telecommunications services. The site uses Java interface allowing everyone to access their account from any Internet-connected PC, without the need to install any software. The site offers different types of services i.e. PC-to-phone category -prepaid, monthly and in phone-to-phone section-calling card.