I have discovered an amazing technology. It really isn’t new, but until recently it wasn’t popular enough to really get on my radar. It is called SIP. It is a VOIP technology that is open. Open means that any SIP network can interconnect with each other. Cable companies, phone companies, Skype etc. provide VOIP services. But they are typically closed services, meaning you can only connect to other users of the same service for free and then pay them to call regular phone numbers. The genius of SIP is that all calls to any SIP network are free. This means if someone signs up with a different SIP provider I can still call them for free via SIP using my chosen provider. In addition there are many SIP providers that provide very inexpensive and sometimes free calls to select countries. And there are a few free services that provide a real United States phone number that will ring your SIP phone from the normal (current) phone network. And did I mention that this technology is 100% mobile. What I mean by this is that I can take my service to anywhere in the world where I can get onto a broadband internet connection and my phone will ring just like I am at home. Unless you were to tell someone that you were out of the country they would have no idea. So this means that people who travel a lot can have a US based phone number that will ring regardless of where they are on the planet.

So essentially what I have found is a way to have a real phone number that can receive an unlimited amount of incoming calls for free, no matter which VOIP SIP provider I choose. And I have found one provider that currently allows 300 minutes per week of calls to any US based landline or mobile number. So this means 100% free calling for me, since I won’t be calling outside of the United States. But even if you do call outside of the US most VOIP SIP providers offer amazingly inexpensive rates.

So what companies I have I signed up with to do this?

1. VoipCheap – this is the SIP provider I am using for free calls to US numbers.
2. IPKall – this company has provided me a free call-in number. It is a Seattle, Washington number,
3. SipNumber – this company has provided me a free call-in number. It is a Des Moines Iowa number.

I also bought a Sipura SPA-2000 ($35.00 on eBay) so that I can use a normal phone with these services and not need to use a computer to make and receive phone calls.

Services like this could really end up ruining the normal phone companies.