WebProNews asks: is there such a thing as free VoIP service? A lot of previously free services have changed their terms, or various long-distance call promotions have ended. Still, there are a lot of free VoIP services still around.

In fact, one more VoIP provider is offering free PC-to-PSTN phone calls. SIPphone announced these free calls for active members of their Gizmo Project soft client. Skype currently offers free PC-to-PSTN calls for Skype members within Canada and the US. However, Skype's promo offer is over at the end of this year. SIPphone's offer is permanent and includes 60 countries, but caller and callee must both be Gizmo Project members. Members list all their phone numbers in their user profile.

Consider that with Skype this week, I called, for free, the support line of one my web hosting companies, as well as someone I was interviewing for an article, neither of whom had to be Skype members. I also called a someone who has no computer earlier in the week. In light of this, I think Gizmo Project will have some time to go before they move from their current user count (reportedly under a million worldwide) to have as wide a market share as Skype (reportedly 280 million users worldwide).

But I think that Gizmo Project will have the advantage in the long run, not only because of the free calls to 60 countries, but because they are based on the open source SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) standard. That means that anyone using other SIP-based VoIP soft clients, such as Sightspeed, would be able to VoIP Gizmo Project members and vice versa.