I've been beta testing Mobivox for several months. I used their PC based
software before they decided to server base it, worldwide.
http://www.mobivox.com/
What the hell is Mobivox?
Mobivox adds Skype access and really cheap overseas LD to any phone or
cellphone you have access to. You call a "local access number" (lists
worldwide on webpage) and Mobivox answers. If it recognizes your pre-
programmed caller ID, or username/password if from some other phone, it
lists the Skype users from your Skype contact list that are online. To
call one of them, you simply select the one from the list it reads you in
voice and Mobivox connects to their Skype, for free. If you're on a
cellphone on daytime, of course, you use airtime. If you're on N/W or
other free time on the cell, you pay NOTHING. There's no Mobivox local
access number, here, but my cell connects me with free LD to Mobivox's
Charlotte access number, same price..airtime during weekdays.
Once connected to the station on Skype, it's a voice-only Skype phone
call (My cellphone and Alltel don't support webcam video, dammit...(c

.
There is no Mobivox charge for this connection. Ok, that's one use of
it.....We can now call Skype computer VoIP from any phone on the planet,
even Skypers who have no SkypeIn phone numbers.
Mobivox SELLS their really cheap long distance VoIP service......now
server based.....
Mobivox used to be software that controlled YOUR Skype running on YOUR
computer while you were away from it. It used YOUR Skype In for
accessing and it created remote-controlled conference calls using your
resources and Skype Out credit. That still works, actually, as it's not
based elsewhere if you still wish to use it. It's free.....
But, now, Mobivox has shifted their business to a central server-based
system that doesn't require your computer be online. INstead of calling
your Skype In and leaving your computer on to use the old Mobivox, you
now just call one of their many "local access numbers" and use THEIR
computers/connection/servers, instead. They have numbers in lots of
countries, expanding all the time as deals are made.
We've just gone to Bern, Switzerland and are staying at the luxurious
FleaMart Hotel in a seedy part of town. What good is Mobivox? Well, we
pick up the hotel phone and pay for a local call to:
+41315500321
We identify ourselves when the computer asks for it and give her our
password. (Mobivox has a very nice-working voice recognition system
bypassing the hotel's old rotary dial limitation, by the way.) Now that
Mobivox knows who's calling in Bern, we can tell it to list our online
Skype callers or dial any phone number, which will be, just like Skype,
charged to our precharged Mobivox account, precharged with your credit
card. Instead of paying the hotel $16.50/minute to call Dorothy in
Kansas back home, you pay Mobivox rates, $US0.019/min....OR....if Dorothy
is a Mobivox user, FOR FREE!...EVEN IF YOU'RE CALLING DOROTHY'S
CELLPHONE!
http://www.mobivox.com/rates/
Don't forget to sign up Dorothy on her numbers with Mobivox before
leaving home...(c;
There, you've just called from a hotel phone in Switzerland, paid the
hotel for a local call at whatever awful rate that costs, but called
Kansas for the same price. The rates webpage tells you from where this
will work. I haven't tried it from the Czech Republic, though...(c;
Living in a dorm and can't afford a cellphone? No problemo! Register
Mobivox with your mom's landline number. Call the local Mobivox access
number from the dorm pay phone. ID yourself, username/PW, and call Mom
in Peoria, or Girlfriend 4.2.12 in Ft Lauderdale...on Skype...on her
cell...on her mom's phone. FREE if her cell is HER Mobivox user number!
Larry
--
Man, Verizon is gonna be PISSED!