My VOIP phone - How I get nearly unlimited worldwide calling for $5 a month

I'm a bit of a tech head.  I get right into computers, mobile phones, software etc.

I can't imagine what it would have been like being an expat years ago (ie Pre-Internet)  Now we've got skype, facetime, viber, bbm, whatsapp, facebook....the list of good applications is truly endless.

One site you need to get on if you're going to research technology in Perth is whirlpool.net.au  It is one of best technology forums in any country, and there are answers to pretty much any technology question you have in Australia.

whirlpool.net.au is the best source of tech info in Australia

I started doing research on phone plans shortly before coming over.  While mobile phone plans are very reasonable, fixed line / residential phones in my opinion are expensive.  They either charge high per minute rates (outrageous when calling mobile phones) or have high monthly rates.  As high as 90 dollars per month and still having to pay 36 cents per minute when calling mobile phones.

Have I mentioned my favourite money is the money in my pocket?

This brought me to start investigating VOIP?  Most people think of Skype, but for standard calling Skype is in my opinion not practical.  VOIP or voice over internet protocol involves a special phone connected to your internet service which works almost exactly like your standard phone.

I had used a VOIP service in Canada with fairly spotty results.  There are many many services in Australia but the fine folks on the whirlpool forums pointed me to mynetfone.  Website:  www.mynetfone.com.au

The way it works is this:

You buy a device.  Either an adapter which will work with a standard phone or a special IP phone.  You can bring your own or if you buy it through the VOIP service provider they often preconfigure them.

You plug the device into your internet router (it tends to be important that you don't have a really old crappy router)  You go ahead and start making calls.  I purchased the Gigaset IP610 wireless unit with 3 handsets and have been very happy with the call quality.  People I'm speaking with have not been able to tell I'm using a VOIP service.

On mynetfone they offer a package to whirlpool members (membership to whirlpool is free) called Neosaver which for 5 bucks givies you 100 untimed calls to 30 different countries (This includes my key US, Canada, Italy, Singapore and Malaysia)  I get a local Perth / Western Australia phone number which people can call us on and the phone works exactly as a standard land line.

It is not unusual for us to rack up over 20 hours of calls in a month a get the whopping $5 invoice at the end of the month.

Mynetfone has many competitors in this space including Maxotel , Siptalk, Faktortel, Didlogic, Clickandcallnow, Worlddialpoint, Freshtel, Telecube, etc.  Combined with a good internet service this has been a fantastic service for us which we use daily.

If I've missed something or you have questions...leave a comment...I do reply :)