FWD Experiment
I signed up for a Free World Dialup (FWD) account today and managed to configure the X-lite sip phone (which I don’t particularly recommend as I have little experience with it). It is harder to configure a SIP phone for FWD than to install and run Skype, so its hard to imagine the install base will grow.
I was able to call North American toll free numbers for free, which can be useful if you don’t want to tie up your phone for 90 minutes while on hold for customer support or a particular toll free number is not available from your calling area. I have a headset for my PC but not for my desk phone, so its frequently more comfortable to use the soft phone. I can’t do this for free from Skype.
FWD provides gateways to other VOIP networks although it seems the major VOIP providers like vonage, skype, and shaw have no interest in participating, so the gatewaying is of limited use.
I further registered my home # with http://www.e164.org/. If you know my home phone number, you can now look up my email address, SIP uri for my FWD account, and MSN messenger ID. It doesn’t seem yet that I can add my google talk ID or skype id. If your phone software (i.e. pbx etc) is configured to use e164.org enum lookup (i.e. asterisk), it will attempt to contact me via computer (via the the FWD service and my SIP phone on the computer) when you call me rather than my telephone when you dial my number.
Technorati Tags: asterisk, FWD, SIP, VOIP, E164, SKYPE, xlite