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For SIP to SIP, that is always free.
I'm using Ekiga for that.
Use a soft phone to dial sip users as a user name is used instead of a phone number that can be dialed on a plain telephone. An ATA can be used to receive calls from SIP to SIP or from a provisioner. You can get a free SIP account from Ekiga https://www.ekiga.net/

For free inbound with a local Washington State USA number, IPKall is completely free. You can use this number worldwide. For example if you live in Australia, you can have a US number for people to call you.
http://www.ipkall.com/

For outbound calls there are a variety of low rate and unlimited plans. I'm using Lingo.
https://www.lingo.com/

All of the above can be used with an ATA adaptor that is not locked to a carrier such as Vontage.

Lingo is cheaper ($20) and has free calling to most of Western Europe. You can also get a foreign number in several countries for an extra $10/mo. The referral program is great too, both the referrer and referee get a $25 credit after 90 days (and the first month for the new signup is free). There's no referrer code or anything in that link, you enter the referrer's email address when you sign up. If anyone plans to sign up message me and we can both get a credit.

First I tried iconnecthere and after following their directions I had no service. I was thankful the first month was free so I could cancel before I was charged.

Next I tried Vonage whom I thought would be better. I had trouble signing up (I have no home phone and couldn't remember what number I gave the bank) and after trying three times to correct the information by following a link they gave me that didn't take me to the information I needed to change emailed them. Which I was invited to do in their email to me as I couldn't call the 800 number.
I emailed them three times.

Then I signed up with Lingo. The sign up went well (I remembered the number I gave the bank). The phone adapter arrived and I followed the directions. And it worked!

So then I pondered who I should call first.
Should I order pizza?
No! I should call Vonage and cancel my order. So I did.
After talking to three people and getting transfered the first two times I got this guy who had only been told I had problems signing up. I made it clear to him that I wanted to cancel because Vonage couldn't answer my emails so I went with a competitor.
Then he said "So you're talking to me..."
Me: "On my new VOIP service and it works GREAT!"

So I got Vonage to cancel my pending service and 911 is a little funky with my service right now. Basically when I dial 911 it will go my VOIP providers operators who will take the call and then call 911. So I had to verify that my living address was correct.

But I am not worried, I survived a collapsed lung without medical attention so I believe I can make my own way to the hospital if anything serious goes wrong. (Please don't bother replying how dumb this thinking is; I don't care)

I use Lingo as my exclusive phone service - I cancelled my POTS line after two days - SBC was very difficult to cancel when I told them I was going to VOIP

I have had absolutely no problems for the last two months. I get an amazing price - $19.99 for unlimited US, Western Europe & Canada, and the first three months absolutely free.

I can't imagine not having the convenience of VOIP. The online bonuses - email voicemail, detailed billing, etc are good too.

The rates to the rest of the world are good too

http://www.lingo.com/

* Unlimited US, local and long distance calls
* Unlimited to Canada and 17 countries in Western Europe
* 26 calling features like Voicemail, Call Forwarding and 3 way calling
* Keep your phone number, Emergency Calling Service and more...

Lingo Works great, $20 a month. Free calling to Western Europe.

With my VoIP provider I have unlimited calls to western Europe for $19.95/mo. That's not a whole lot of cellphone minutes.

You might want to checkout Lingo service from Primus communications. They are like Skype with added advantage of unlimited calls to Canada and 17 Western European countries. I myself am looking for good deals to India and a time when they start giving out free adapter/connection like Vonage.

I use the VoIP service from lingo http://www.lingo.com/ (a British TelCom co) and I get unlimited US, Canada, Mexico and Western Europe. Quality is good and I even get Voice Mails delivered as .wav files to my e-mail. For $20 a month on the unlimited plan I can make a HELLA lot of calls and it works with a dialup modem too (and I get full 53K speed (don't ask what I do on a modem over VoIP)). They send you a small adapter that plugs into your broadband and has an analog jack in the back - I ran it to a 66 block and distributed it through my house!

I use Lingo. http://www.lingo.com/

Lingo Insanely cheap and really feature-rich. Call quality is excellent too. Indistinguishible from a standard POTS line.

Are those in American or Canadian dollars? 30CAD is only 24.39USD.

$24USD sounds more in line with what US based VoIP companies like Lingo charge.

I've been doing a lot of research for the past 2 day and the Wisip phones are what your talking about. I've been drooling ever since I saw it.

Since SIP phones seem to be pretty damn cool (open standards, I guess companies like Lingo and Packet8 use proprietary hardware which can spell limited choices and hardware lock-in) Wisip phones seem to be the way to go (it helps that they've got that tech-fetishist look going on too!).

Pulver Innovatoins
Xiologix

An added bonus of using a SIP based service is you can use plain old computer hardware to connect too, which means even if you don't have the extra change for the Wisip, you can schlep your laptop with you and when you plug it into a (broadband) network you can access your phone, make calls, etc.

I don't know anything about any of that though, because I just started doing research. Maybe someone can jump in, I'm curious how well (or not) this all works.

So far my favorite company seems to be BroadVoice. Anyone have any experience? Is Vonage SIP based?

Overall, though the quality has been "good enough" and the price makes it all worth it. My wife gets to spend hours talking to her family in Italy and the quality on international calls is the same as calling next door.

Lingo offers $7.95/m plus $0.03/m US (thanks aacool). Calls to other Lingo customers are free. Seems like this should cost you under $9/m.

I have had absolutely no problems for the last two months. I get an amazing price - $19.99 for unlimited US, Western Europe & Canada, and the first three months absolutely free.

I can't imagine not having the convenience of VOIP. The online bonuses - email voicemail, detailed billing, etc are good too. Ob. referral - contact my id for a ref bonus:)

The rates to the rest of the world are good too

http://www.lingo.com

$20 buys unlimited calls to the US Canada and Western Europe and 1 month free

Light talker $15 same plan but 500 minutes a month

One I didn't see in this list or the comments is Lingo. I just signed up for them, but I've made a few long calls and have had no problems with them. Their tech support seems to be in India and I've had a few problems getting useful information out of their tech support (both inaccurate information and hard to understand accents). They initially told me to open ports 5060-5065 on my firewall, and what I needed to open was 1024-1027 to get my VoIP "link" light.

Other than that, I've been happy with them. I'm still waiting until I can figure out if I can configure my firewall to allow incoming calls before I turn off the land line.

Speaking of Vonage, I was wondering if anyone has tried Lingo? If so, any comments or differences in actual telephony quality would be much appreciated.