[Ekiga-list] Info on calling normal phones?

["Topher Hunt" <hunt topher gmail com>]

Hi Ekiga community,

I'm a two-year Skype user and I've been very happy with Skype until someone pointed out to me that because they aren't open-source, I can't count on them innovating as quickly. The only problems I have with them really are that the Linux client is out of date and I can't control how I receive my voicemails.

I do a lot of international calls and I can't afford to lose my voicemails; however I regularly switch between four computers, on any of which my voicemails might be downloaded and after that I can never move them.

I checked the Ekiga FAQ and was delighted to find that Ekiga can handle PC-to-phone calls. But I still have several questions.

Can anyone tell me how Ekiga's calling credit system works? Are rates comparable to those of Skype? Does Ekiga support calls to Germany, South Africa, Nicaragua, Mexico, Taiwan, etc.? Does Ekiga support voicemails? If so, is there an option to save voicemails on the remote server (like webmail does) until I choose to delete them? And finally: does Ekiga's PC-to-phone sound quality match up to Skype?

If I can get an answer to these questions and Ekiga meets my user needs, I'll switch over from Skype in a day. Thanks for reading.

 - Topher Hunt
hunt topher gmail com
ESL teacher, economics major, Middlebury College
XP Xpat, newbie Xubuntu user