These days, many of us are on a tight budget. Basic cell phone service plans offers 450 minutes (unlimited or 5000 minutes on nights & weekends) starting at $39.95 + surcharges + tax + other fees = $60 or more.

Fortunately, there's a little discussed program that the free version of Gmail offers to help to lower your cell (or home long distance) bill. It's called "Call Phones from Gmail". It offers unlimited calls from the US, to US & Canada for free. International calls can be made at their low rates.

Call phones from Gmail (http://www.google.com/chat/voice/#utm_campaign=en_US&utm_medium=homepage&utm_source=en_US-gizmo5)

It is free, only a free Gmail account is required. Last year & this year, Google decided to make this a free service to their customers. It may change in the future, as Google announces it on a year to year basis. The only thing that's required in to install the plug in, works with IE, Firefox & Google Chrome. Probably works with Opera & Safari also, but I haven't tried those out.

The really great thing about it, is that it's good for use at home & on the go. It works well at many free wi-fi sites, such as those that many eateries provides, as well as libraries. Of course, the faster the ISP speed, the better it'll work w/o breaking up. For best performance on notebooks, it's best to have a 50% or more battery charge.

To access your phone service, after downloading the plugin, sign into Gmail, the call phone (option) will be on the left, click onto that & the phone call box will appear to the right. It resembles a regular touch key pad, just click the numbers with your mouse.

Some users will find that a headset (with a mic) may be desired, or required if the computer doesn't have a webcam/microphone. An expensive headset is not needed, just a basic one is fine. This isn't music we're listening to, it's making a phone call.

Only caveat: It's outgoing calls only. I've tried returning the call that displayed from the service, it's no go.

It's my hope that users of this forum can use this great, free, no obligation service & start saving money today! BTW, it does work with Windows 8 CP.

Cat

It would be much better if it is available in other country.

That's true, it appears to be a US limited offer. But there may be offers for other countries, it would only take a web search to find out. I use it with my notebook on the go, because my cellphone is a TracFone, where I add a 60 minute card every 3 months, my phone is the double minute one, so that's 120 minutes for $19.99 + tax.

That would be the most expensive way for many, but all I use the phone for is business, not as a chat line. I always have plenty of minutes left over, which rolls over after adding that 60 minute (120 for me) card every 3 months. Whenever I go somewhere where there's Internet access for guests/customers, I carry my notebook to make calls on. Saves my minutes for when I really need them.

Cat