Vonage, Skype iPhone apps make global calls cheaper

Cellular carriers now offer decent pricing for domestic calling plans, with choices among large pools of minutes each month or unmetered (so-called unlimited) service. Rates for dialing from your cellphone to outside the United States remain usurious, however.

Most frequent international callers avoid such fees by using calling cards, installing home or work VoIP (voice over IP) Internet telephone service from firms like Vonage, or turning to a service like Skype for computer-to-computer calling. Vonage and Skype have now extended cheap international calling to the iPhone.

Skype and Vonage Mobile, both free to download and available for the iPhone and iPod touch, use their own calling networks to offer quite inexpensive per-minute calling to destinations outside the U.S. Each application comes with limitations, which are about to change.

The Skype app was released several months ago, but went through some rough early releases before getting to its current point of stability. The program can use an existing Skype account, and taps into services you may have already signed up for.

While Skype is known for free computer-to-computer calls, the company also interfaces with the worldwide public telephone network. You can pay for one or more incoming telephone numbers in most area codes in the U.S., and in many other countries, and place calls to regular phone numbers, too.

The computer version of Skype lets you conduct video chats, transfer files, and share your screen with someone else. The iPhone and iPod touch apps are limited to audio chats or phone calls and instant messaging only.

And calls may currently be made only when connected via Wi-Fi. That's a limitation that Apple requires for all VoIP programs for the iPhone platform. You can use instant messaging and access account features on either a cellular or Wi-Fi connection.

This week, AT&T said it would lift the restriction on using the iPhone's 3G data connection for VoIP calls; Skype will certainly revise its software.

The program's key remaining limitation is that it must be launched to receive incoming calls. The company would be well-served to use the iPhone push notification service that would let the firm alert a user when a call was coming in or if one had been missed.

With a Skype subscription, you can place unmetered calls to cellphones and landlines in the U.S. and Canada for $2.95 per month; $12.95 per month buys unlimited calls to landlines in 40 countries and mobile lines in the U.S., Canada, China, and a few other nations.

Calls can be as low as 2 cents per minute to the U.S., Canada, and many other nations, while calls to mobile lines typically cost from 20 to 50 cents per minute.

Vonage Mobile, launched just this week, shares similar per-minute pricing, but there the similarities seem to end. Vonage Mobile cannot place calls to domestic phone numbers, receive incoming calls, tie into an existing Vonage account, nor qualify for unmetered calling plans.

In the U.S., domestic means any U.S. number, but the application is also available in Canada and the U.K., where calls to those countries are disabled. Vonage Mobile is therefore useful only as a discount international calling service.

Vonage Mobile cannot connect domestic calls on the iPod touch at all, and calls to U.S. numbers placed on an iPhone incur normal usage fees or subtracting minutes from a calling plan.

For placing international calls, Vonage Mobile has two approaches. Over Wi-Fi — the only iPod touch option — the program creates a true VoIP connection to the company's phone gateways to place the call, using the Internet to carry your conversation.

However, if you use an iPhone and don't have a Wi-Fi network handy, Vonage Mobile silently places a voice call to a Vonage number, just like with manual calling-card services, and connects you to your call in that fashion. Such calls incur local cell-plan charges.

It's possible this cellular dial-around option will disappear because of AT&T's change in 3G VoIP calling. Vonage Mobile might also add domestic calling, too, although that might be an unrelated business decision on its part.

Vonage credits your account with $1 to try the service out. You must prepay for minutes, although you can set up your account so that a credit card is automatically charged for additional value if your balance drops below a preset amount.

There's one more entry in this field I didn't mention: Google Voice. The program was either rejected (according to Google) or still under review and not approved (according to Apple). Google Voice allows free calls in the U.S., and a host of other telephone features for having voice mail, text messaging, and other services in one place. It challenges some fundamental revenue sources for cellular carriers. Calling rates outside the U.S. compare to Skype and Vonage.

The FCC was reviewing whether Apple and AT&T violated any regulations in actions regarding Google Voice, but AT&T's decision this week may make the issue moot, and we may see Google Voice for iPhone and iPod touch soon.

Glenn Fleishman writes the Practical Mac column for Personal Technology and about technology in general for The Seattle Times and other publications. Send questions to gfleishman@seattletimes.com. More columns at www.seattletimes.com/ columnists