When you buy a prepaid phone card, you are provided with a Pin, meaning a personal identification number which is a unique to every card and a toll-free access number. At the time of making the call, you first need to dial the access number and then enter the Pin. The Pin lets you make a call and know your credit extent. Once you enter the Pin, your call then gets connected to the operator’s computer and gives you your available balance in terms of minutes. After this you can proceed with the number you want to call. When you call ends, the computer tracks the duration and deducts the appropriate amount from your available balance.

In this way, your prepaid card helps you make calls faster. You also end up saving a substantial amount on calls through prepaid calling cards. On account of these reasons, prepaid cards are considered to be the best way to make international and long distance calls. However, significant considerations should be paid to the connection fees and the call rates before buying a prepaid card. Different companies have different call rates. The domestic and international call rates may also be different. The buyer should, therefore, know about all these important matters before making his purchase.

Pic from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fpsurgeon/2384524600/

This prepaid tariff plan is very much less. Per minute calling rate is just some cents like for example; it is as low as 10 cents per minute. Another reason for making savings is that in this calling plan there is no connectivity charge. Once the caller enters his PIN number, he is connected to the long distance calling zone. Apart from this, there are no hidden costs like service charges, taxes, payment of minimum tariff, minimum advance etc. All these add to make this tariff plan most economical.

Frequent callers will save much more; thanks to the phone cards. The more they call, more is the discount offered on per minute calling rate. So, it is like pay less to talk more! Persons having business connection with a particular country will make further savings. Such persons can purchase the calling card of that particular country. By this, he will get special discount.

These are prepaid tariff plans and are available for a particular denomination. For every call made, the amount is deducted from the balance available. At the same time, it will have the validity within which time, the balance in the card should be used. But, most of the calling companies have a scheme whereby if the caller buys another card from the same company, then the balance in the old tariff plan will be carried over to the new plan. Thus, the caller will not use any money.

All these have made the phone card the most sought after calling plan.

While no details of the lawsuit were released other than PennyTalk is using a 2000 patent of theirs for a “long distance telephone communications system.”

IDT’s PennyTalk cards, which can be reused as customers add more money to their accounts, charge 1 cent a minute for U.S. calls and 2 cents for international calls.

Net2Phone, which IDT bought in 2006, sued eBay and Skype the same year in federal court in Newark, N.J., over patented technology for Internet telephones. A pre-trial conference in the case is scheduled for June.

source: Mercury News

The competition has 2 categories, the first one is for films to be shown on regular screens and the other for films to be viewed on phones. The winning film will receive 500,000 yen (US$4,500).

“Being the first time for the festival, we weren’t sure what to expect, but we’ve had a range of films from regular narrative stories to more experimental films,” organizer Yuko Mori said.

“Of course, the resolution is comparatively low on phone cameras, so effective use of that is important,” Mori said. “People have also made films where only a camera phone could go. One entry, by grade-school children, was even shot inside a fridge.”

The festival also will feature symposiums on the possibilities for new content and applications using the medium of camera phones.

source: Reuters

There are plenty of offers out there for calling Iraq but here’s what you need to know before making a choice.

Most military bases have AT&T pay phones installed and allow for the use of phone cards but these may not deliver the full amount of minutes since a pay phone fee is applied.

There are also DNS phones that can connect the soldiers to their homes. The rates are similar to that of calling from your home phone in the US.

Many phone cards offer some features to make them easier to use: no connection fee for calls placed, cards never expire, and the one the bought them can recharge them so the recipient doesn’t run out of calling minutes. Below you will find an useful list of codes you’ll need when you use your phone card to Iraq.

Main City Codes:

Amara 43, Baghdad 1, Basra 40, Diwaniya 36, Erbil 66, Hilla 30, Kerbela 32, Kirkuk 50, Kut 23, Mousil 60, Najaf 33, Nasariya 42, Ramadi 24, Sulaim Ani 53

Communications: Iraq

Telephones – main lines in use:

675,000 (1997); note – an unknown number of telephone lines were damaged or destroyed during the March-April war

Telephones – mobile cellular:

NA; service available in northern Iraq (2001)

Telephone system:

general assessment: an unknown number of telecommunication facilities were damaged during the March-April 2003 war

domestic: the network consists of coaxial cables and microwave radio relay links

international: satellite earth stations – 2 Intelsat (1 Atlantic Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean), 1 Intersputnik (Atlantic Ocean region), and 1 Arabsat (inoperative); coaxial cable and microwave radio relay to Jordan, Kuwait, Syria, and Turkey; Kuwait line is probably nonoperational

Internet country code:

.iq

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):

1 (2000)

Internet users:

12,500 (2001)

1. Argentina Phone Cards
2. Australia Phone Cards
3. Brazil Phone Cards
4. Bulgaria Phone Cards
5. Canada Phone Cards
6. China Phone Cards
7. France Phone Cards
8. Germany Phone Cards
9. India Phone Cards
10. Iran Phone Cards
11. Iraq Phone Cards
12. Israel Phone Cards
13. Italy Phone Cards
14. Japan Phone Cards
15. Korea South Phone Cards
16. Mexico Phone Cards
17. Pakistan Phone Cards
18. Philippines Phone Cards
19. Romania Phone Cards
20. Russia Phone Cards
21. South Africa Phone Cards
22. Spain Phone Cards
23. United Kingdom Phone Cards
24. United States Phone Cards

“This conference gives us yet another opportunity to demonstrate our technology leadership in the Cisco VoIP community,” said Jean Champagne, General Manager of Sagem-Interstar. “From our market-dominating XMediusFAX IP fax server to the new SAGEM Fax ATA 101S, we’re providing customers with the industry’s most cost-effective, state-of-the-art fax solutions for full and seamless integration within Cisco-powered Unified Communications environments.”

XMediusFAX caters to organizations of any size. Whether they have deployed or plan to deploy a VoIP telephony infrastructure, XMediusFAX enables organizations to FAXimize their Cisco IP network. Field-proven to manage large fax volumes and deliver high levels of reliability and availability, XMediusFAX connects to Cisco voice gateways via SIP or H.323. XMediusFAX is tested compatible with Cisco’s T.38 Fax Relay via the following Cisco VoIP gateways: 1700, 1800, 2600, 2800, 3600, 3700, 3800, 7200, 7300, and 7600 CMM Series; and AS5300, AS5400, and AS5800 Series.

“We believe HQ will be the next industry standard for video calling,” said Gareth O’Loughlin, Skype’s head of hardware services, last Wednesday. O’Loughlin admitted to ZDNet.co.uk that HQ was no match for the high definition (HD) capabilities of more expensive, enterprise-oriented rivals such as Cisco’s TelePresence or Lifesize’s Express, but pointed out that Skype’s offering “does not require £10k worth of equipment in a room somewhere”.

“We don’t get phased by what others are doing in a different space,” O’Loughlin added, while suggesting that small-business users could afford to put one of the new Logitech webcams on every computer in their organisation.

According to Skype, one in four of the free calls made over its network is made using video capabilities.

In recent weeks, a certain rumor has been circulating in the blogosphere. Bloggers are talking about Google’s intention to acquire the world’s leading online VoIP service, Skype. Rumors started with the UK’s well-respected Guardian newspaper on Monday, and even though they do not have a solid basis they continue spreading.

“Currently in favor around London’s webbist community is the rumor that Google has been in negotiations to buy Skype,” wrote Jemima Kiss, a blogger with the Guardian. “Google bases all of its mobile projects in London, so this is the fitting place for such a rumor.”

Skype and Google also have some shared interests with regard to an upcoming 700-MHz airwaves auction in the U.S., where both companies have pressured regulators to make existing wireless carriers “open up” their networks.

A Google acquisition of Skype “makes sense on a number of levels, particularly because it fits with Google’s ambitions for disrupting the mobile industry through its new open mobile phone development platform Android,” Kiss wrote, noting that a such a deal might also be attractive to eBay, “which was recently forced to admit that it had paid too much for Skype.”