Phone calls for nought? *UPDATED* Not any more! (pc2call.com)

Member Name: helmet

Product:	pc2call.com
Date:	06/07/00 (194 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Free calls to UK landlines from any compatible PC on the planet.

Disadvantages: Not Mac compatible, fairly laggy, voice breakup and needs a good connection., NOT Free any more

I found a link to PC2Call (www.pc2call.com) in a magazine and had to check it out. This is another Internet Telephony site where you can make cheap phone calls over the 'net using a PC equipped with a full-duplex soundcard (one that let's you talk and hear together), microphone and speakers. As they are offering free calls from anywhere in the world to UK landlines, I signed up.

This doesn't require you to submit anything more than your name and a valid email address although there are a few lifestyle/hobby questions, etc. That was it; nothing big to download. The application runs in a web page and is basically a dialpad and the site gives you an address book to store commonly used numbers. There's a fairly good sound test page that lets you make sure your microphone/speakers are working and lets you make volume adjustments and there are a few hints if something's not right. It says it doesn't work behind a firewall but if you have a personal firewall that's configurable then it seems OK.

The first thing I noticed was the lag; about 4 seconds. It was like making a call from Australia 6 years ago and I reckon you would have to say "Over" when you finish speaking. The voice quality was good but was subject to breaking up a bit; I'm using a 56k modem (33.6k uploading, mind) so this would contribute to the quality and lag, I imagine it would be better on an ISDN or ADSL connection. I had to remember not to do any web browsing at the same time as this would take bandwidth away from the phone call.

Overall, the service is usable if you really wanted free UK calls or were living on the other side of the world and you're used to the lag. Otherwise, just pick up the 'phone.

*UPDATE*
After another dooyooer wrote an op on these free services, I checked back on PC2Call and found that it no longer appears to give free calls to the UK although the rates they now offer are quite low (not bad
if you're in NZ but no good if you're here).

Summary: