Ether VOIP Hack for Free Calls

We just heard over at the Tipsity forums about a new service which will let you make free calls to many countries including UAE. All thanks to Satphoneguy for finding this new service.

The service is run by AT & T and its called Ether. However don't get misleaded by their homepage. Ether is actually a paid to talk service, where experts can charge people to talk to them. Like for example, I can setup a account on Ether with the following description.

Listing Name: VOIP Expert
Tags: Setting up VOIP phone, SIP networks, Telephony, VOIP
Pricing Plan: Free until "*"; $0.01 per minute; Repeat

That means I can help you setup your VOIP at your home or business. If you want to contact me, just dial my ether number 1-888-MY-ETHER ext. 02703XXX. So consider you live in Michigan, have a old sunrocket gizmo and want to hook up a SIP service with that. However you have little or no knowledge about SIP or VOIP, of course you have no clue how Sunrocket Gizmo can be unlocked. There you need some expert help, so you can contact me and I will charge you 0.01 cents per minute. Ether takes 15% commission.

Now this is all what Ether told you right. Now here is the ultimate hack to convert this to a totally Free Calling Haven. Lets see how we do it.

1) Go to Ether and register.
2) Add a phone number. currently Ether offers about 20 odd countries. No India sorrry. UAE is accepted which is extremely surprising.
3) While you add a number, rememeber to chose the option,
Allow customers to start the call for free. The rate below will begin when you press *.
Now this is the hack. Remember this.
4) Now Ether will assign you a extension number like 1-888-MY-ETHER ext. 02703XXX.
5) If someone wants to talk to you, give them this number, 1-888-MY-ETHER (1-888-69-38437) and ask them to enter your extension at the prompt.
6) your call will be connected but remember dont press *, coz that will trigger the billing :-)

Talk as much as you want, its all FREE. The only worry is it's a USA number, however they are various ways to call USA number for Free. You can use Earthcaller, icall or Truphone to make calls to that Ether number.

Satphoneguy has tested the service have successfully called up UK Mobile, Germany and USA. UK Mobile is never given away for FREE. This is a great opportunity to use Ether to make free calls.

Let us know where you made Free calls with this Ultimate new way.

Blyk offers UK free calls

Not many companies in today's market offer free UK calls, really hardly any. Those who do have to cover their cost via funding or advertising. The ad based VOIP model has been tested in the past but doesnt seem like working good for those VOIP providers.

Thanks to Sriram, our regular reader to share a new provider called Blyk. So whats Blyk? Its a mobile service which lets you send 217 free texts and 43 free minutes, to any UK network.

How can you join the service?
- Be 16-24 years old
- Live in mainland Britain
- Have an unlocked mobile phone with picture messaging (MMS)
- Have a Blyk invite code

If anyone has a Blyk code, please share with others. Overall, this looks promising of they give UK mobile free calling minutes. Blyk is not a mobile VOIP service, its just a good old advertising model plugged into Mobile.

Remember Blyk makes money through advertising so when you share your mobile number, be ready to receive ads through SMS and MMS. I hope they do voice based advertising to really bug you :-)

Vyke VOIP offers Free VOIP Calls

There are bunch of VOIP providers out there who are providing free calls to certain destinations but it's always good to find a few more as backups. You never know when your favorite VOIP provider stops giving away Free calls or just disappears overnight :-)

In our growing hunger to find new Free VOIP providers, we found Vyke (Thanks to Sriram for pointing that out). At first Look, Vyke looked great to me. It's simple no frills VOIP service.

They offer almost everything under the sun, you name it VOIP Service, IP VOIP service (SIP based), Mobile VOIP & Free Calling to most european destinations. The best of all, a Vyke Callback service which is simply great. It really deserves a seperate post, which i would eventually post.

Vyke also gives you $1 of Credit to test their service.

Lets see how you can use Vyke.

1) Go to Vyke and Register
2) They will ask you to verify your phone number. Enter your number and wait for their SMS.
3) Enter code received in SMS in Vyke account and you are verified. They instantly add $1 credit to your account.

Now Let's look at their individual services.

1) Vyke Mobile VOIP
Vyke offers a good setup for Mobile VOIP, You can either setup Vyke manually using their SIP settings (given Below) or your their online guide to set it up. It basically sends a message to your phone, you need to follow the link and setup Vyke on Mobile. Of course, you can also setup Vyke on Fring, if you want to. Just use the following SIP settings.

Vyke SIP Settings:
Display name: Your Username
SIP/IAX Username: Your Username
SIP/IAX Password: ***** (Same as your vyke password if confirmed)
SIP server: sip.vyke.com
IAX Server: iax.vyke.com
Port: 5060
RTP port: 5090
DTMF: RFC 2833
Proxy settings: Same as SIP server
Register server: Leave blank
Supported codecs: G.729, G.711 (ulaw), gsm

Of course for Mobile, you need to setup Internet Telephony Service besides the SIP settings. If anyone is confused, I will write a seperate generic guide on Mobile VOIP Setup.

2) Vyke PC Phone: The most basic functionality by any VOIP provider. you can download their softphone

3) Vyke Call back: A really innovative way to make free VOIP Calls. You first need to register your number and then you need to dial, Vyke Callback number (i.e. +4918059908850 or +442071542887), as soon as you hear the busy tone, hang up! Within 10 seconds, the Vyke service will call you back and when you answer you will hear the dial tone. Enter the number you wish to call and you will be connected.

4) Vyke Web Calling: Vyke also offers Web calling, which will give you a flexibility of Phone to Phone Calling. Enter your number and your friend's number and click call. You can also delay calls if you want to. Another good feature.

Vyke apparently offering free voip calls to european destinations and US and Canada. However they charge 4 cents setup fee. We couldn't figure out if it was one time fee or a per call fee. If the call is unlimited, then 4 cent fee shouldn't be a big issue. If anyone manage to test this, Please report.

Overall Vyke has potential become a leading VOIP provider if they manage to crack this overcrowded market. With Free calling offers pressure cutting your bottomline, it's difficult for VOIP provider to continue to provide Free calls.

Please report your experience with Vyke.