Free phone calls from your browser

Stephen Withers
Friday, 09 February 2007 04:13

IT Industry - Market

Skype rival Gizmo Project has introduced a new service that lets the public make free phone calls from web browsers.

Dubbed Gizmo Call, the service provides free calls to most fixed lines around the world and to "select" mobile phones. We couldn't find a list of which destinations are accepted for free calls, but it seems a fair guess that they are the same as the "all calls free" list that applies to Gizmo Project users.

Major destinations include Canada, China, Malaysia, Russia, Singapore and South Korea. Landline only nations include most European nations, Japan, several South American countries, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand.

Notable omissions are India and most Middle East countries, presumably due to the relatively high termination charges in those markets.

Free calls to regular phones are limited to 5 minutes a day and 15 minutes a week; registered users get double this allowance and may purchase additional credit.

Free calls can also be made to Gizmo Project and Gtalk users, Nokia N80i WiFi phones, SIP addresses, and North American 1-800 numbers.

So what's in it for SIPphone, the company behind Gizmo? Presumably it is a loss leader meant to attract customers to its paid services for the rest of the calls they need to make.

Gizmo Call works with Internet Explorer on Windows, Safari on Mac OS X, and Firefox and Opera on both platforms. Flash 9 Player is required, and a Gizmo plug-in must be downloaded and installed prior to first use.