The soft phone runs on Windows machines, and users have 120 minutes/month of free calling to numbers in a list of countries including US, Canada, UK, France, Austria, Spain, and more (check their list).
Users are assigned a telephone number during the sign up process, and can receive normal phone calls from anywhere in the world - I've tested with my own number calling from New Zealand.
StanaPhone Communications says this is the world's first free telephone service available. StanaPhone uses Voice over IP (VoIP) technology, and works on computers running Windows 98, 2000 or XP (and sound card of course). The service requires no monthly fee or set up charges.
Michael Choupak, CEO of StanaPhone Communications, said, "Years ago, there were legitimate concerns about the sound quality of VoIP. Now, technologies are maturing to the point that industry analysts are predicting that up to 44 percent of the world's corporate telephone traffic may be IP-based by 2008. StanaPhone is already ahead of that curve, having worked extensively with some of the world's leading acoustic experts to ensure high-quality voice communications. Plus, unlike other VoIP services such as Vonage and Packet8, the convenience and flexibility of StanaPhone is free."
Similar to popular e-mail accounts, such as Hotmail, subscribers who activate a StanaPhone telephone number can keep it as long as they use it regularly. If the number is idle (no calls made for 45 days), the number will expire and the account terminated. StanaPhone subscribers receive 100 free minutes of outgoing calls to regular and mobile telephone numbers per 30-days (each month). Other calls to and from StanaPhone are unlimited. StanaPhone's Account Manager feature enables users to view their account information online 24/7 and see how many calls have been made and the corresponding details.
