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Slashdot software failure? Seems to have posted nonsense before. Here is the correct version, edited from a previous comment to another story:

Internet-initiated regular telephone calls: Internet-initiated calls using Bigzoo.com's BigTalk, which cast 3.6 cents per minute to call the U.S. from New Zealand, for example.

Free VOIP: An option if both sides of a call have internet connections is Skype. At present it's free, and provides better quality than normal telephone. Skype is a great way to try VOIP without paying anything. Skype provides AES encryption of your calls, too. Skype can use port 80 for connections, so it can get past any firewall. (This shows the alarming lack of security of firewalls, and the need for a software firewall like ZoneAlarm that alert you when a program tries to connect.) Skype is brought to you by the designers of the original KaZaa program.

3.5 cents per minute, but free to the U.S. caller: If you want someone with only a normal telephone to call you in another country without paying, you can put $10 into a BigZoo.com or OneSuite.com account, and give them the PIN number. OneSuite only costs 3.5 cents per minute from the U.S. to New Zealand, for example, if the U.S. caller calls from a local number. With OneSuite.com or Bigzoo.com can have as many accounts as you have friends for whom you want to provide free calling.

Other ideas? Are there any options like this that aren't mentioned here?

Internet-initiated calls: It may be interesting to compare this to Internet-initiated calls using Bigzoo.com's BigTalk, which cast 3.6 cents per minute to call the U.S. from New Zealand.

Free VOIP: An option if both sides of a call have internet connections is Skype. At present it's free, and provides better quality than normal telephone. Skype is a great way to try VOIP without paying anything. Skype provides AES encryption of your calls, too. Skype can use port 80 for connections, so it can get past any firewall. (This shows the alarming lack of security of firewalls, and the need for a software firewall like ZoneAlarm that alert you when a program tries to connect.) Skype is brought to you by the designers of the original KaZaa program.

3.5 cents per minute, but free to the U.S. caller: If you want someone with only a normal telephone to call you in New Zealand without paying, you can put $10 into a BigZoo.com or OneSuite.com account, and give them the PIN number. OneSuite only costs 3.5 cents per minute from the U.S. to New Zealand, if the U.S. caller calls from a local number. With OneSuite.com or Bigzoo.com can have as many accounts as you have friends for whom you want to provide free calling.

Other ideas? Are there any options like this that aren't mentioned here?

Skype seems fine to me. It has much better sound quality than regular telephones. I use it to talk to a friend in France. Neither of us have ever seen any bad behavior in Skype, in several months of use.

For those who want to use the traditional communication device, BigZoo and OneSuite are excellent. OneSuite is 2.9 cents per minute from the U.S. to France. BigZoo is 2.8 cents per minute.

I'd like to have a USB sound card so that I could isolate the audio from the electromagnetically noisy computer, however. Any ideas?

Internet-initiated calls: It may be interesting to compare this to Internet-initiated calls using Bigzoo.com's BigTalk, which cast 3.6 cents per minute to call the U.S. from New Zealand.

Free VOIP: Another option if both sides of a call have internet connections is Skype. At present it's free, and provides better quality than normal telephone. Skype is a great way to try VOIP without paying anything. Skype provides AES encryption of your calls, too. Skype can use port 80 for connections, so it can get past any firewall. (This shows the alarming lack of security of firewalls, and the need for a software firewall like ZoneAlarm that alert you when a program tries to connect.) Skype is brought to you by the designers of the original KaZaa program.

3.5 cents per minute, but free to the U.S. caller: If you want someone with only a normal telephone to call you in New Zealand without paying, you can put $10 into a BigZoo.com or OneSuite.com account, and give them the PIN number. OneSuite only costs 3.5 cents per minute from the U.S. to New Zealand, if the U.S. caller calls from a local number. With OneSuite.com or Bigzoo.com can have as many accounts as you have friends for whom you want to provide free calling.

Other ideas? Are there any options like this that aren't mentioned here?

BigZoo's 2.9 cents a minute makes it all irrelevant.

What I want is a plan that offers me a flat-rate pricing plan with a big number of minutes to whereever I call. Charge me $50.00 a month for 1,000 anytime, anywhere minutes and you will have my business.

Right.
1. Cancel whatever long distance service you have. Totally. All you need is local service on your line. ~$25/month
2. Go to BigZoo and sign up. $0.029 per minute, purchaseable upfront in whatever size block you want. 1000 mins is $29, so you're right near your $50 point.

Easy to use, cheap, and you can use it from *any* phone in the US. It's more or less a virtual calling card.

Vonage is increasing the price, and trying to make people think they aren't.

Answer: Try BigZoo. 2.9 cents per minute in the United States. 2.8 cents per minute to France from the United States. 75 cents per month. That's all. I've used BigZoo for two years with no problems.

No disad-Vonages.

But, there is a question: Why is it cheaper to call France from the U.S. than someone in the United States? Is this to annoy George Bush? The U.S. is a nation with a lot of weird prices.

This story would sound reasonable, except that there is another story in which the facts are easier to check: Telephone Price Wars Called Off. The story says that the long distance companies are losing money and need to raise their rates. I think the truth is that providing long-distance services has become cheaper, and they are only trying to squeeze the customers. Why do I think that? Look at BigZoo. That company is able to make a profit at 2.9 cents per minute and 75 cents per month.

If you begin to doubt the "telephone companies are poor" story, then it is likely that you will doubt the "Billy Tauzin is only thinking of how to manage this best" story.

Here is a southern Repbulican man who, even though he is an adult, is still called by the diminutive name "Billy". Is is possible that he would take $16,250 to slow the passage of extremely popular legislation while he tries to stop it? Has such a thing ever happened before? Or, is it true that Billy is taking an intellectual interest in the bill?

Did this whole idea of having a do-not-call list jump into reality last week? No, it has been around for a long time. Billy Tauzin could have "studied" it before.

A lot of newspaper stories are really paid advertisements for a point of view the payers want you to believe.

I have come to the conclusion that the telecom companies in the US are fighting a losing battle -- trying desperately to milk the last dollars out of a market and hoping that people don't have enough information to know that they're getting cheated royally.

Seriously, I get offers for long-distance in the mail for 7 cents a minute, or maybe 15 cents per minute "anytime", and they're trying to make it sound like they're doing me a favor. Then, when I decide that I'll go with a company like bigzoo for my long-distance needs, then they tack on some very dubious "taxes" and "surcharges" onto my bill to recoup their losses. I mean, I have to pay, not to have a long distance carrier! Is this fraud or what?

The telecom companies know that they're fighting a losing battle. It would be nice if they got on board and tried to lead the technology revolution, instead of getting dragged behind it. But that's asking a little too much of them, I guess. In the meantime, let them get screwed for promulgating such a stupid business model -- preying on people's ignorance.

Well, all the better for students and the less priviliged people around the world. Hopefully, at least in this aspect, the internet will set them free.

I don't know where Lawrence_Bird gets that, but I get .05-24/7 through GTC Telecom, (except in my home state of WA). I don't use them much these days since I can get .029/minute through BigZoo, (with a 0.75/month fee), Washington calling included. Hawaii & Alaska are more for some reason so I use the cell phone to call there. YMMV...

HTH

Personally, I'd kill to have this, assuming it also covers international calling.

My gf and I are spending nearly $80/month on calls back and forth from .sg.