Want Free Long Distance? Grab Your Mouse and Click to Call Home; Internet-based PC-to-Phone Services Make Traditional Carriers, Phone Cards Obsolete
HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE via COLLEGIATE PRESSWIRE)--Aug. 31, 2000--Time for a pop quiz: what`s the name of your long-distance phone company? How much is it
charging you? Don`t know the answers?
There`s only one correct answer to both questions: tell your long-distance phone company to take a hike.
The next time you need to call home, don`t grab the phone or dig out a phone card. Instead, reach for the keyboard on your laptop or desktop PC to stay in touch with family and friends while you`re in school.
And here`s the really neat part: you can make those calls for free. How? Read on.
Until recently, making a telephone call from a PC was a cumbersome exercise. And the call quality was...well, it was bad enough to make you grab that old familiar phone. But not anymore. In the past couple of years, Internet telephony technology has improved dramatically. The proof: a recent study by International Data Corp. (IDC) estimates that the number of minutes of voice calls placed over the Internet is projected to grow from 2.7 billion minutes in 1999 to more than 135 billion minutes in 2004.
Making long-distance phone calls from your PC is now as easy as clicking a mouse. There are many companies that offer PC-to-phone services -- more than 300, according to IDC. After registering, users typically download a small piece of software that contains the on-screen telephone keypad and other features designed to make calling easy. Most PCs made in the past couple of years meet the minimum requirements that enable users to make phone calls over the Internet. Usually, the only other equipment needed is a simple headset, which helps to minimize audio feedback and can often be purchased for less
than $10.
OK, so which companies offer free long-distance calls? Unfortunately, very few do.
However, one provider --
WowRing.com -- offers a basic plan in which calls may be made free of charge to and within the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom. The company is also the only one that offers its service in Spanish, and it will soon introduce Portuguese and Chinese language versions of its Web site. Their home page is
www.wowring.com.
The bottom line is this: there doesn`t have to be a bottom line anymore when it comes to making long-distance phone calls. So grab that mouse and click to call home -- and forget about phone cards and long-distance bills.
For more information, please visit
www.wowring.com.
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