Free Home Phone Service - Fact or Fiction?

Is there such a thing as a free home phone service? We were skeptical, but nevertheless decided to have a thorough look and see if such a thing might exist. Phone services are massively expensive operations to run, so any organization offering a free service must be using it either as bait to sell something or is attempting to entangle prospective customers with misleading promotions.

The Skype phone service is the closest available option to a credible free phone service. The company's strategy is to offer free online phone calls between Skype users as a means of building brand recognition and exposing users to chargeable services. In most respects the company has been very successful. It's acquired over 400 million customers and accounts for more minutes of international phone conversation than any other phone service without qualification.

Where the company has had less success is in making money. To users of the service such as ourselves, that's not a major concern as long as the service continues to be available. However, it highlights the fact that there are millions of users who are missing out on the incredible value of the pay-to-use services, because they are not completely free. There are also widespread misconceptions about how to Skype without using a computer.

The facts is that Skype is a credible phone service enabling users to disconnect their local phone service, ditch the landline and make a recurring monthly saving. Users can acquire a Skype phone number (a cheap toll free number) as well as make calls to landlines and mobiles at a nominal cost.

Skype Credit - to make cheap calls to phones and cell phones.

Furthermore, there are now dozens Skype telephones to choose from. The software is embedded in the phone and calls can be made or received even if the user doesn't own a computer.

How Does Skype Work?

Skype is a VoIP phone service. It uses IP technology to transmit voice as packets over high speed lines. In the very near future all telephone services will use VoIP and phone calls will become "almost' free, but the phone companies will inevitably find other ways of charging. We don't expect to ever discover a completely free home phone service.