Voip

[ricketkm]

Whats up I have friends and families in Jamaica, I would like to keep in touch with them via mobile. Blackberry is the hot phone in Jamaica so they don't have fring and skype on their BB. I wanted to know what's the best voip app for Android to call mobile at a good price...

 

[2CupsWithString]

I hear Google Voice has good international rates, it just counts as a local call then you pay Google separately for the international call.

 

[npark]

I did a quick google search and found that BBOS has SIP clients available for it.

You can use Google Voice (I'll refer to this as GV) along with a SIP service.

So, with the following:
- SIP service (There's a lot out there, I use Sipgate, but there's also SipSorcery, IPKall, etc.) with FREE incoming calls
- SIP client on phone (Android or BBOS)
- Google Voice accounts
- Google voice "callback" app (google search this)

So, this all translates into free VoIP calls with GV. Essentially, what happens is:

- Turn on GV call back app. When making a call, have it call back your SIP service phone number
- Make phone call with GV, it will call your SIP number (a little counter intuitive, but both outgoing and incoming calls require GV to call your SIP number)
- SIP client on phone configured with SIP service will ring
- Answer incoming call from GV
- GV will then call outgoing party

If the outgoing party has the same configuration, then you can call the other party's GV number configured for their SIP client.

Voila! end-to-end free VoIP curteousy of Google. There are a few caveats:
- It's not really "easy" to use or setup. Knowledge of GV, and SIP client configuration is necessary.
- Your carrier may have its own restrictions. Using wifi should bypass any ethical or imposed restrictions.
- I have no clue what sort of restrictions there are on SIP services over wifi or data networks in other countries

 

[Steve66]

end-to-end free VoIP curteousy of Google

Google Voice is a great tool and it'll do what you want, but I just want to point out that it's technically not VoIP. GV uses plain old telephone service, not voice over an IP data connection. Here's an article on it if you're interested.

 

[npark]

Google Voice is a great tool and it'll do what you want, but I just want to point out that it's technically not VoIP. GV uses plain old telephone service, not voice over an IP data connection. Here's an article on it if you're interested.

The article states that GV is VoIP, except for the endpoints.

Using a SIP service and SIP numbers means that there's PTSN switching going on to handle getting the GV call to the SIP client on your handset. As long as phone numbers are involved, then yes it's not true "end-to-end" VoIP.

However, SIP Client (VoIP), to VoIP carrier (GV), to another SIP client (VoIP)... with PTSN switching to make connections and then to say that this isn't a VoIP phone call is kinda an exercise in semantics.

The only alternative is VoIP client like Skype with endpoints on BBOS handsets and Android handsets--which isn't out there... and this is the use case presented by the OP. Do you have a better alternative?

 

[meriwether#AC]

I've been using SIPDroid, and didn't know there were so many others out there. What are the pros/cons of the various SIP programs?

 

[npark]

I use sipdroid as the client as well, the ones i mentioned were different services. For example, sipdroid does nothing by itself, it needs to be setup with pbboxes or sipgate, etc.

Think of sipdroid like a chat client. trillian, and other clients out there just work as clients. AIM, yahoo, gtalk is the service.

I do wish there were more sip clients available... iOS has a bunch