PhonePower has introduced an ‘International Plus’ plan which gives users 20 hours of free international calls to India and unlimited calling in the US and Canada. There are three payment options for this plan.

• 24 months term costs  $19.95/month.
• 12 months term costs $22.95/month
• And the month to month plan (no contract) costs $24.95/month

Compare this to Vonages Vonage’s Vonage World℠ plan which is very similarly priced at $25.99/month(month-to-month). The difference being Vonage’s plan doesn’t have a cap on the international calling time. But I believe PhonePower’s 20 hr/month India calling minutes is good enough.

But if you were to go with PhonePower’s 12 month or 24 months terms, your cost will be much cheaper.

Lingo voip offers a similar plan that includes unlimited US/Canada calling and unlimited India calling. The plan costs $23.95/mo  (month-to-month, no annual contract).

Compare other India Calling Plans including calling card options here.

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PhonePower has added a new international calling plan which includes unlimited calls in the US & Canada plus 20 hours of international calls every month.

This positions PhonePower in direct competion with Vonage’s Vonage World℠ global plan. At the cost front, PhonePower offers three payments options compared to Vonage’s one monthly option. PhonePower’s monthly payment option costs $24.95/month (no contract) compared to Vonage’s $25.99/month(no contract).

There are two more options PhonePower offers that will bring down your per month cost.

The 12 month term option costs $22.95/month and the 24 month term options costs $19.95/month. These rates are very competitive and  the “20 hours of international call per month” should be enough even for regular callers who make calls to countries like India, China.

We believe this new PhonePower international plan will attract callers who make frequent India/China/Mexico calls and are looking for a Vonage alternative.

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We recently had a post about Voip.com and in that post we had explained how Voip.com is a PhonePower company and how the voip service plans offered by the two are very similar pricewise as well as feature wise. So I was wondering about what if a current PhonePower customer wants to switch to Voip.com or vice versa, can he/she port his/her existing phone number.

With that question in mind, I just inquired with the Voip.com/PhonePower customer service posing the same question.

And the answer was “NO”. An existing PhonePower customer can’t port his/her phone number to Voip.com. So I am assuming the reverse will be true too. No number porting from voip.com to Phonepower.

I don’t like this idea but I can understand their will be some regulatory issues porting a number between the two since both are the same company.

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Its been a while since Voip.com was acquired by Phonepower.com, a leading voip service provider with great service for residential voip customers.  Since the acquisition, though the service plans offered by Voip.com  has been alligned nicely with the Phonepower.com service plans. The Voip.com website has also undergone some face lifts and now greatly resemble that of Phonepower.

In all practical purposes, the voip services offered by Voip.com and PhonePower are the same, the technology behind the two are the same, customer service behind the two are the same.

Where is varies slightly is in the residential voip space, Voip.com offers a prepaid plan for a year of unlimited local and long distance calls in the US and Canada and free 60 minutes of international calls for $99, which brings the average cost down to $8.33/month. PhonePower’s pre-paid plan is for 2 years of unlimited calls in the US & Canada and free 60 mins of international call at $199.

Side by Side Comparison Voip.com & PhonePower

Features:

Both the providers offer the same array of features on all of their plans. Some of the major features are

• Free 2nd Cloned line
• Caller Id, Call Waiting, Call Hold
• 60 minutes Free International calls every month
• Block list
• Call Routing
• 3 Way Confernce
• *69 Call Return
• Soft Phone
• Free Fax Receive

and more. They list 45 calling features on their websites.

Read a full Voip.com review.

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Localphone new customer get 10% extra credit on first orders in the month of November. This is for new customers only and expires on 30th November 2011.

Coupon code:  LPTEN

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Rebtel offering a 200% bonus on the first deposit for new customers who sign up on November 25.

The way the offer works is new customers who deposit $10 instantly get $30 credited to their account ($10 deposit + $20 bonus from Rebtel).

You need to provide this voucher code: tripleup25nov

This offer is valid only one day, November 25, and only for new customers.

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Localphone 20% Extra Credit

LocalPhone currently is offering the 20% extra credit, which gives new users 20% extra free credit when they top up for the first time. The code to quote at the checkout is LPTWENTY and this expires on 31st October.

Localphone Student Offer – 100% Extra Credit

They also have an ongoing student offer that I wanted to highlight here. Students get 100% extra credit when they sign up.

Localphone will give students 100% extra credit on their first top up, to a maximum of £10. They need to register with their academic email address on this page localphone.com/students and receive the voucher code in email. The code will expire after 30 days.

If a student adds £10 credit, they will get £10 free. This is the equivalent to:

United States 5000 minutes
Canada 4000 minutes
India 2000 minutes
Brazil 2000 minutes
Bangladesh 800 minutes
Pakistan 952 minutes
Nigeria 454 minutes
Germany 2857

Full list of rates can be found at localphone.com/prices

Some of the highlights of the Localphone plan

• All new customers receive a 5 minute free call to try us
• Minimum top up is just £1 (or $1).
• No monthly plans or hidden charges
• Rates are over 80% cheaper than our competitors, to more than 250 countries
• Customers can use Localphone from their mobile, landline or computer
• Cheap international SMS as well as calls

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Localphone.com August voucher code LPAUG11 gives new customers 10% extra credit when they top up for the 1st time. This offer ends 31st August. This voucher/coupon is for new customers who sign up for the localphone service only.

Here is or experience with the LocalPhone service and a short Localphone review.

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I reviewed the Localphone calling service in one of our previous blog posts. I have been using localphone regularly since then. It definitely is the a very robust and easy international calling service.

I have just one  issue with a small additional fee that they charge you, which you can absolutely avoid, if you are paying attention.

When you add a new international number in your address book  in the localphone interface and localphone  gives you a local number to dial which will connect you to the international number, there is a small check box below, which is checked by default. What it does when checked is, it sends you a text message to your cell phone with the local number they assigned you for the intl number you just added and that sms text  costs you 9¢.

I don’t have a problem with the cost or the sms. In fact, its fine if you would rather get the sms and its very easy for you to save the local number from the sms in your cell phone’s address book.

But I would have liked it if the checkbox wasn’t checked by default and I was given a choice to check it if I wanted the SMS. Or even a pop up like, “Would you like the number sent to your mobile for a small fee?”.

So just pay a little attention when you are adding a new international number and uncheck the checkbox, if you don’t want to receive the SMS which will cost you 9¢. Or leave it checked if you want the SMS.

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I just tested the India calling service offered by Localphone.com and liked it very much. Localphone.com offers cheap calls to many countries including India for very competitive rates.

To make it easy for you to try the service, it offers five minutes of free calling to a number of your choice to a country that is serviced by them. To try the service you will need to create an account with them by filling out a small form or you can link your facebook account for ease. You don’t need to provide any credit card details yet to try the free 5 minutes .

Once you sign up, it will ask you the number you want to call. Once you provide the international number you would be calling, and the number from where you will be making the call from, it will give you a local number which when called will connect you to the international number. This is the only step that you may not like, but if you are used to dialing long pin numbers to make international calls, then this little inconvenience won’t bother you.

Remember you just need to do this step only once for each international number. Once you set up an international number in Localphone.com and get a corresponding local number, you can use the same local number for your future calls.

I went through the same process to create a local number for the India number I was going to call. As I dialed the local number I was greeted by a recorded message that  it was a free 5 minutes call that I m trying and once the 5 minutes of calling is over the call will disconnect. As the message ended, it promptly connected me to the India number. There was no delay. The call quality was crystal clear and I had nothing to complain. The call ended after 5 minutes was over.

Overall I was happy with the India calling service. I would definitely recommend it to others.

Once the free call is over you will need to add some money to your account to make more calls. Localphone.com does not charge you any maintenance fee, connection fee etc. The rate to India was 1.7¢/minute which is pretty competitive.

If you are looking to find a good and cheap calling service to India, you may want to give Localphone.com a try. You may also want to refer to our comparison of different India Calling Plans.

Voucher code: Sign up at Localphone to make a 5 minute free call. Then, use the voucher code LP2011JUN15 at checkout to gain an extra 15% free credit.  Voucher expires on 30th June 2011.

Just a fyi, if you use PhonePower voip home phone service, their rate to India is also 1.7¢/minute after the 1st 60 mins of free India calling every month.

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