Web Calling Services Provide Cheaper Alternative

The increasing number of Internet calling services on mobile phones is decreasing the cost of making an on-the-go call.

Wi-Fi chips and Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, let people like Mark Laris, a Dallas-based nuclear engineer, make phone calls through cheaper web-based phone services.

The VoIP technology can be found in phones from many manufacturers including Nokia, Apple, and Blackberry.  The soon-to-be released G1 Google phone will also feature a Wi-Fi chip.

The ability to make web-based calls saves Laris, and people like him, thousands of dollars each year. 

"I always make VoIP calls," he said, and added that the call quality is equally as good as standard cell phone calls.

The VoIP services use a Wi-Fi chip, similar to those found in laptop computers, to access Internet “hot spots.”  The phones then make calls through the Internet rather than going through a mobile phone carrier.

The VoIP market is still a very young one.

Only one company in the United States, Deutsche Telekom, offers Internet calling plans.  The plan costs an additional $10 per month.

A few other small companies are entering the small market including DeFi Mobile, Fring, Gizmo5, Sipgate, and Truphone.

These new VoIP services do have an advantage over established services like Skype and Vonage.  With Skype and Vonage, users must be connected to a computer, or laptop.  Now making a hands, and computer free call has become much easier with the new proliferation of mobile handsets for cell phones.
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Jeb Brilliant, an event planner, recently cut his monthly AT&T plan down to 700 minutes and started primarily using his VoIP service.

Truphone, which Brilliant uses, charges 6 cents per minute to call landlines in most countries and 30 cents a minute to call mobile numbers. The company also sells packages of minutes similar to standard mobile service provider plans.

Brilliant has found his mobile VoIP service to be more reliable than standard mobile phone service.

He recently found himself making calls on a hospital’s WiFi network when a family friend went into labor.

"You can get it (VoIP) in places where there is no cell phone reception," he added.