[linux-audio-user] OT: fighting skype ...

[Rob]

On Saturday 19 March 2005 07:09, Steve Harris wrote:
> you need some kind of account for. There are services that offer
> SIP+RTP to phone gateways that should interoperate with the free
> VOIP implementations. I posted the URL of one a couple of weeks
> ago, but I forget what it was.

SIPphone.com is one such service, also spun off from Lindows/Linspire, 
and I haven't heard any bad things about them.  They've sued 
companies that sell phone to VOIP adaptors that are locked to one 
vendor (i.e., Vonage.)  I'm sure given enough time they'd become like 
Skype, but they use and support open standards and free software, so 
I feel good about them at present.  Haven't actually used them, 
though, since my mobile phone has so many minutes on it that I 
haven't had to worry about long distance costs since about 1998.

A friend of mine uses Vonage and apparently they offer a plan that 
lets you use your Vonage service from any SIP softphone as well, 
though you still have to have an account with them.  Naturally, any 
vendor I talk about is going to be pretty US-centric (SIPphone makes 
you dial PSTN numbers as though you were calling from an American 
phone, for example.)

While this started as an audio topic, I think we're veering into 
telecom territory here, so I'm marking this as OT.

Rob