Voxalot’s Facebook application for really free phone calls
Source: goebel.net
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You know that I bashed Facebook very hard for being a terrible time sucker. Many Web 2.0 applications need too much attention, compared to their value. But there are some utilizations that make me smile, because the unleash the potential of Web 2.0 without wasting my precious time and money. Like Voxalot’s latest Facebook application, VoxCall for Facebook, that really disrupts telecommunications. It let’s me make free phone calls without touching the PSTN. Read the announcement:
On Monday 19th Nov 2007 Voxalot will be officially launching our new social communications application for Facebook called VoxCall.
VoxCall is an exciting new initiative from Voxalot that allows Facebook users to click on their friends and initiate phone calls. The beauty of VoxCall is that it is self-organising in that if your VoxCall friend changes their contact phone number, you don’t even have to be notified… VoxCall will use whatever number they have registered.
VoxCall also offers both public and private chat rooms where VoxCall friends can get together for a group discussion.
The underlying technology that VoxCall uses to connect calls is Voice over IP addresses (often known as SIP URIs). When you add the VoxCall application, you will be prompted to enter your SIP URI. To ensure that you are the rightful owner of that number, VoxCall will display a PIN number on the screen and then call the number you entered. Your phone will ring and you will be prompted to enter the PIN, which is validated.
As such, VoxCall supports calls between friends that belong to *any* "open" voice network (not just Voxalot).
The beauty is that VoxCall uses VoIP without touching the PSTN. My buddies just enter their SIP URI and I can call them with just one click in Facebook. When they change their SIP address I don’t have to bother to update my data since their Facebook button stays the same. We stay connected for free from SIP to SIP.
I find this much more nifty than the Facebook apps from Jajah, Jangl, Jaxtr, Rebtel, IVR Technologies, iotum, Sitfono or Grandcentral. They also connect people on Facebook and let them call me for free, in most cases. But there is always a telephone number involved, so that someone has to pay an incumbent telco which provides them.
