Cheap Ways to make & receive phone calls, all via our computer (in Vancouver, Canada)

[bigfoot]

Hello,
We've just moved homes and are wanting to save on phone bills by not getting a regular phone line. We would like to try doing all our telephony over the internet.

We would like to know the cheapest ways to make outgoing calls to regular phones (not to PCs) within Vancouver, Canada. Also, we would like to know the cheapest ways to receive incoming calls from regular phones to our computer.

Some things about us:
1) We have no regular phone line
2) We have no Windows OS on the computer
3) We have a headset
4) We use Ubuntu Linux 7.10 (Gnome version)
5) We have high speed internet access
6) We don't make too many calls.
7) We would like to have a Metro Vancouver phone number (aka "D.I.D." number). Area codes in Vancouver area are 604 and 778
8)We don't mind a separate program for making phone calls and a separate program for receiving calls, if that is economically wise (read: cheaper)
9)We would prefer that the incoming phone number (DID) be transferable,just in case we find a better company. But it's no big deal if it can't be transferred, if the price is right.
10) For incoming calls, we would like to be able to receive voicemail in case the computer is shut off, we're away from the computer, or we're on the line. We would also like the ability to have this voicemail emailed to us, so that wherever in the world we are, we can see who has left us voicemail.


Thank you!!!


I've checked out a few options and here're the results:

Making Outgoing Calls from Our Computer to regular Phones

GizmoProject.org:
Phoning Out: 2 cents a minute

Skype:
Option 1) Making Calls: Without Vat: $0.0021. With VAT: $0.0024
Receiving Calls: No Vancouver number (604 or 778 area code) at this time

Option 2)SkypePro: $3CAD/month for any calls to Canada or USA
About 3,000 minutes (50 hours) a month, under Fair Usage Policy. This is more minutes than I need.


Yahoo Voice Messenger:
Not available.
When I was overseas, I used a Windows XP computer. On the Windows computer, I used Yahoo Voice Messenger (http://messenger.yahoo.com/) to make calls. I have found them to be the cheapest so far. For calls to USA or Canada, it's 1 US cent a minute. However, Yahoo Voice Messenger is still not available for linux. I've tried GYachE Improved (a.k.a. GYachI) (http://gyachi.sourceforge.net/) and it says it has Voice Chat, but I think it's for PC-to-PC voice chat. It does not do PC-to-regular_phone calls at this time.


VoipBuster.org (and other Betamax services)
After payment the user is allocated a number of "Freedays", depending on the amount and the used payment method (€10 by credit card adds 120 Freedays). During "Freedays", no costs are charged for calling to designated destinations. One can converse up to 300 minutes per week for free, measured over the last seven days. If this limit is reached, or no more "Freedays" are left, the ordinary costs for the destinations are charged ($0.19 per minute to USA or Canada).


Link2Voip
Minimum payment of $30 USD into balance. 5% tax deducted means there is 30- 1.50 = $28.50 left. 1.1 cent call for anywhere to Canada. 1.5 cent call for Contintal USA.



Receiving Incoming Calls from regular Phones to Our PC

GizmoProject:
$35/12 months(about $3 a month) or $12/3months (4 bucks a month)
No per minute charge


Skype:
Not available. No Vancouver number (604 or 778 area code) at this time

SipBroker.com
SipBroker.com does indeed offer free phone-to-PC calls.I had someone call me (during late night) by first dialing a sponsored DID number in my area code, and then dialing a prefix, and then dialing my sip number (on Gizmo). This made my Gizmo Project softphone ring. However, on another time, a friend told me that the number was busy. So I don't think I can rely on SipBroker's free PSTN number for incoming calls.


Les.net
Option 1) Per Minute D.I.D: $3.50 per month PLUS $ 0.011 per minute
Option 2) Flat Rate D.I.D: $8.88

Link2Voip.com
Option 1) Per-Minute DID Pricing: $2.49/month and 1.1¢/min
Option 2) Unlimited DID Pricing: $9.99/month and 0¢/min