jgxenite wrote on Sep 29
th, 2008 at 8:18am:
Why not ask your sister to sign up to
Freewire Phone, and then you can call the 020 access number to contact her.
Whilst I'm sure it's a good service, and releavant given it's being promoted by the University, there seems to be something inherantly flawed in suggesting using a VoIP service which then requires an international call to contact the person!
If the OP wants to sugest his sister goes the VoIP route, then, apart from the various software-at-both-ends options, such as Skype, MSN, etc, there is the more sensible route of just getting a SIP account with a provider that offers free incoming and/or outgoing calls. Most of the betamax brands, among others, offer free calls TO the USA, for instance, and i don't know about their number allocation availability in the US, but there are plenty of other providers offering local USA numbers, which the OP could no doubt call into for substantially cheaper than dialing internationally.
A SIP based service can then be used with a range of softphones or an adapter that connects a standard phone directly to a router.
I can hunt out some specific examples of services if necessary, but but shouln't be hard to find if that's the way they want to go.