Like a typical Filipino abroad, one of the first in my list when I moved away was to look for options on how to keep in close contact with my family and friends”¦ minus the burned holes in my pockets. To call direct from Germany using T-Online would have been affordable. That is, if I only called once a week, a few minutes at a time. And with T-Online’s rates, we would have only lasted until “O Kamusta ka na?”
Yahoo chat was an option that I used for some time. However, more often than not, we always ended up using the chat board due to our frustrations with all the crackling sounds and disconnections.
Thank God VoiP entered the picture.
VoIP or Voice Over Internet Protocol has made it possible to make a free (or low-cost, depending on the options you choose) phone call using the internet. Indeed, a manna from technology heaven.
As defined by Wikipedia, “œVoIP (also called IP Telephony, and Internet telephony) is the routing of voice conversations over the Internet or any other IP network. The voice data flows over a general-purpose packet-switched network, instead of the traditional dedicated, circuit-switched voice transmission lines.”
There are several companies offering softphones or VoIP technology, targetting millions of Filipinos abroad and their families back home.
Join me as I (along with the other authors here) review the different VoIP providers available to Pinoys all over the world.
Heck, last I heard, even PLDT wants to join the fray.
