magicJack Free Local and Long Distance Calling

Do you want to never pay a monthly phone bill again? With magicJack, you can enjoy free local and long distance calling, free voicemail, free directory assistance, and even a free phone number.

For free international calling, you can move around with your magicJack box and instead of paying $3.50 per minute, you can call anyone in the USA for free.

The magicJack is a rectangular box that you can plug your phone card into. The other end is inserted in a USB port of your computer, and the installation takes around 3 minutes. All you need is a computer with an available USB port (please do not use a USB hub), Windows XP, Vista, or Mac OS X, plus an internet broadband connection, cable internet, DSL, WiFi, or WiMax.

One thing I didn't exactly like about the magicJack is that when you configure it to work with a telephone handset, after you unplug the magicJack from your USB port your PC's external speakers no longer outputed any sound.

I had to run Windows Control Panel, and then set the audio playback device back to the Realtek AC 97 audio device. Anyway, that's just a small pet peeve given the huge phone bill savings you can have with magicJack.

We got a free US phone number with a California area code, so when people in the Philippines call their relatives abroad, the call is practically free. Of course, after the first year, you will need to pay $19.95 a year to extend your magicJack subscription.

Compared to typical VoIP, the magicJack is more responsive. Instead of the old "How are you?" [pause of several seconds] "I am fine", what you get is a faster exchange, as if you're just calling your next door neighbor. I'm amazed this can now be done with just a 256 Kbps internet "broadband" connection courtesy of PLDT myDSL.

And if someone tries to call your magicJack phone number but you're not "online"? They can leave a voicemail message which is then sent as a WAV file attachment to your desired email address.

Based on a $0.30/min overseas call rate, you'll break-even at the 60-minute mark. Well, in just two days, we have well gone over 60 minutes of talk time (yes, Pinoys love to talk with relatives abroad). We'll just need to talk a bit more to recover the cost of the magicJack unit itself, which retails in the Philippines for about P3,500.

If you want to buy a magicJack unit in the Philippines, please get in touch with Richie Cuaycong at phone number +63.2 572 4562 today.

[ First posted on 04/09/2009 by Manuel Viloria ]