Free Landline/Mobile Calls with VoIP Stunt
I heard about VoipStunt in the latest APC Magazine (April 2006). One of Betamax’s (German’s telecommunication company) Voice over IP (VoIP) front-ends, together with others like VoIP Buster, Internet Calls and SIP Discount, offers free* calls to many international landline and mobile phone destinations.
Yes — it is really free, with a little catch.
Here are some of example of per-minute call-rates — I especially picked the ones that might interest those from FOCUSer.
| Country | Landline | Mobile |
|---|---|---|
| Australia | Free | 0.15 |
| China | Free | Free |
| Indonesia | 0.072 | 0.132 |
| Hong Kong | Free | Free |
| Malaysia | Free | 0.048 |
| Singapore | Free | Free |
| South Korea | Free | 0.048 |
| Taiwan | Free | 0.084 |
| United Kingdom | Free | 0.216 |
| United States | Free | Free |
Yes — it allows you to call many countries for free — not just their VoIP but their PSTN and mobile phone numbers! It provides you a soft phone (which looks very much like Skype’s) that you can use to register an account and make calls, and there seems to be a SIP proxy configuration for it so you can make free calls from your SIP compatible VoIP phone or ATA.
What then, is the catch?
First of all, I searched all over the Internet and it appears to be a legitimate business — it is not a scam, and there is a big telecommunication company backing it. However, it is not completely free, despite some complaint about their “credit expiry”. To quote from their website:
To counter misuse of our network we have limited these free calls to a maximum of 1 minute for our trial users. If you want to enjoy UNLIMITED FREE CALLS to these destinations, you have to become a fully registered user by topping up your account. This credit deposit will stay untouched as long as you are calling the free destinations and remains valid for 120 days after your last purchase.
That is fair enough. Basically if you do not have any credit, you can only make free calls for up to one minute. To bypass this limit you will need to purchase credit, and the minimum purchase is 10 (AUD$16.30). This credit will allow you to make unlimited free calls, and will be used when non-free calls need to be made. However, currently there is an expiry on this credit — it will only last 120 days from purchase. That’s almost 4 months, and pretty good consider how many free local calls you can make.
I am not sure how this kind of business plan is going to survive. But do take advantage when the deal lasts.
I just signed up and tested it, called my my own phone at home. there is a time delay of around 2 seconds, is this always present? With PSTN there is no delay, or it’s not noticeable at all. How do you deal with the 2 sec delay or does it not bother you?
With my own experience, I found calling PSTN lines in Australia lags quite badly — up to 5 seconds sometimes. Probably due to relaying through their servers overseas. However making overseas calls are mostly fine, and it lags even less than calling Australian PSTN lines.
I guess it might not be an ideal solution for making unlimited free local calls in Australia because of the lag. Fortunately many commercial voip providers in Australia offer cheap flat-rate landline calls. However it is ideal to use it for overseas calls.
I have charged my account of 10 euro, and since yesterday I did not get any chance to be heard from to the other side. Despite of several emails sent I did not receive any feedback. I have checked my settings and they are fine included my microfone. I do not know but I am not very impressed by them. I won’t suggest the site to anybody.
Francesco, do you mean it was working fine BEFORE you put $$$ into your account? (i.e. using the free calls).
yes, it was. I have charged my account as I believed that was a good deal. Still today is not working despite of many emails sent. I am speachless.
If you want to compare the tarifs of all the Betamax products you could have a look at http://www.voipproducts.eu
They now offer 300min worth of free calls every week without having to buy credit,
(no longer limited to 1 min calls) which is pretty good!
i am from brazil, i would like know because the brazil is not in the list free in free cheaps? and when come back?
they offer 300min but u still have to buy credit, basically u can have 5 min of free trial calls after that it will hang up and then it will ask u to buy credit
im sorry to say but ian you are wrong. the 300 free minutes is there and usable without any purchase of credits. I have been using this service for a while now to call canada from the U.S. and so far I have not had to purchase any minutes what so ever. Also many of the mobile phone carriers are actually free even though they say that they charge like 0.013 cents or something of that nature. Reason behind this is because when you call a cell phone you are actually calling a landline phone (call center) which then will transfer your call through the towers and then to the cell phone. Either way the service gives you 100% FREE 300 minutes per week or 1200 minutes per month. Compared to Cingular an actual Wireless carrier, if you bought 1200 minutes a month you would be looking at paying about $80.00. So quite honestly this service is surprisingly one of a kind and exceptional at that. I DO recommend it to anyone. If you have ANY questions on this software feel free to email me at,
coltendfisher@midsouth.rr.com
I purchased credit ti my voipstunt account twice 10 euro each, and still no credit to my account despite several emails
I agree with Francesco. I have the similar problem. I have credited my account but the quality is bad, the person on the other end cannot hear me and sometimes the conversation last for less than a minute and the person stops hearing me. I can use the service to call from my cell direct but it charges a service charge and so the service is no longer free. I was very disappointed and even after sending several e-mails I have had no response from customer service.
If you wish to make cheaper calls via their direct calling option then this is the site for you but if you think that you are going to get ample free calls for your Euro 10.0 0 then think again as it will be ample 1 sided conversation calls. Tc
hey;
cud aneone tell me the link of the software which gives the 300 mins if free calls.
becos the one which i d downloaded gave me only 3 mins!!!
please give me the link!!!
after usin this a bit then only i can make up ma mind to buy credit!!!
I’ve been using VoipStunt for several months now, with no problems at all. I credited my account initially with 10 euros, of which I still have nearly 8 left - and I have called mobiles as well as landlines. I don’t call abroad very often, so I can’t give any feedback about this, but I am more than happy with the service and haven’t encountered any of the problems raised here.
As I recharge some of my calls for business purposes, I am very happy with the itemisation - which is both instant and historic. Given that I’m spending about 1 euro a month on calls (!) and recharging some of them, I’m quids in!
Correction to my post: I’ve just realised I’m spending about half a euro per month!
i’ve used voipstunt “since ever” and i find it the best solution to make voip calls.
the lag i founded out depends on your speed connection.
the free calls are “free” for real.
better rates than skype and others ….
david
Please note that is spite of the representation that your credits will never expire - they do if you do not use the service in 12 months - in Oz this would be a breach of the Trade Practices Act.
Does anyone know how to make the voipstunt call through cell phone? stunt website says it can be done through a local number, but I failed.
Calling to australia’s land line is not so good, it is lagging…
To pony:
Check out http://www.fring.com — as far as I understand, it automatically connects to an open WLAN (or WiFi, as it’s also called) network if available, otherwise it uses your normal 3G connection.
Just have one question: if you call a mobile number in the U.S. which is free does the mobile company charge the person receiving the call? Just wondering.
Hi,
i do purchased a credit from voipstunt, everything is ok for me except for US calls.
If i am calling any number to US like mobile/Land line, i am getting charged for that.
According to voipstunt both LL & Mob is free allover US.
The number i tried is +1-866-408-5408
+1 is US code and the remaining is the phone number.
Please some one help me.
Reg,
Karthik