But I have not been able to navigate through their payment mechanism (moneybookers) to buy time for to call land lines directly.

If privacy doesn’t matter, Google Voice coupled with Gizmo5 (sipphone) is entirely free. Free to make and receive calls, no setup fee either.

A Google search will turn up many articles on it, though many are sparse on information.

The debate was brought up by AT&T to deflect some criticism against them for the whole Apple/AT&T “rejecting” (keeping in an unapproved status) the Google Voice iPhone app.

The crux of the argument is whether Google Voice is a telephone company, and thus mandated to connect to all numbers, no matter what the charge, or more of an overlay service since they do not terminate phone calls, per se, but direct them between existing phone lines.

When you sign up for Google Voice, and you go to choose your number, I noticed that all the phone numbers available in my area code were labeled with completely boondock towns that I’d never heard of. In fact, I was afraid that even though they were in the same area code as me, calls to a Google number there might be long distance for people who don’t live close to that town. So I chose a D.C. number, which is a tiny geographic (yet NOT rural) area code central to the metro area, so I hope longdistance isn’t an issue.

But I digress from the topic at hand.

This was one of AT&T’s ploys to distract the FCC’s inquiry about their own bad practices with Google Voice. They just spun it the other way and asked why Google doesn’t have to play by the same rules they do, even though GV isn’t a phone company.

That said, I’d highly discourage people from using any service that has fees. Services like Rebtel and Voice are just flat billing with no complicated charges. That’s the way to go (unless you’re on the phone so much that some kind of unlimited plan makes sense to you and VOIP is not an option).

So if you don’t own a cell phone or fixed line, then yes, Rebtel wouldn’t work for you.

I’ve used the Mega Clean & Stable Card for the past 3-4 years. Still satisfied. Having no additional connection or maintenance fees is very nice. Also one of my favorite features is the pinless dialing (up to FIVE different numbers!) which is especially useful when you (and family) are constantly on the move.

For the people using rebtel, what do you do if you want to call from a different phone than the one originally registered? It seems like you are only limited to call from one phone number. If that is the case, isn’t that defeating the purpose of getting a phone card(pin)?

And a totally free option is to just go into some chat room, and chat away!

I love playing Yahoo Spades, so often times when I’m overseas, I’ll tell my loved one to play a game of spades with me in Yahoo Games and we can talk and play at the same time.

And no, we’re not cheating while playing.