Ouch !! Man this is going to hurt some businesses… (including one I am currently working at)
Skype is offering free VOIP calls to any phone in the US or Canada. I knew this was coming the moment VOIP started… I was even cautious about getting VOIP because I had a feeling something like this was going to turn up and with my luck this would have turned up the month after I bought into a contract.
All you need to do is install Skype (for those of you with Pocket PCs they even have a PDA version) and then dial out to any other US or Canadian number. You need a microphone on your computer though and if you want people to call you using Skype then you need to sign up and pay them for a phone number.
So what is the catch? Right now this is free only till the end of 2006. But that is still 6 months of free talk time. All the telephone companies better watch out. They may be on the verge of getting wiped out.
This used to be a feature in the instant messengers sometime back. But I dont know if it is still free though.