I came across two products which can convert any phone including the regular home phones, mobile phones, PDAs, smartphones and the iPhone into a Wi-Fi phone.  A Wi-Fi phone makes call using the Internet and can save you money on long distance calls.  Both of these products offer plug-n-play kind of service and you do not need to download any kind of software to make calls.

The first product, magicJack, is like a USB storage drive which can be connected to your computer’s USB port from one end and your phone at the other end.  Once you connect the magicJack with the computer and your phone, you can start making calls to any landline or mobile phone.

The magicJack is priced at $39.95 and the service for first year is free which includes free calls to U.S. and Canada numbers from anywhere in the world as you can take the magicJack along with you while travelling .  For making other long distance calls at cheap rates, the minutes can be purchased online.

The second one is 1ButtonToWiFi which converts any phone into a Wi-Fi phone minus the limitations with traditional Wi-Fi phones like the distance from a Wi-Fi hotspot.  The service from 1ButtonToWiFi comes with a VoIP box which can be set up at your home and with the push of one button, connects your cell phone to the Internet connection at your home or office from any distance.  Once you are connected, you can make a call from anywhere to anywhere in the world at cheap rates.

The 1ButtonToWiFi box is priced at $199.95 and comes with 5 hours of free talk time from any home phone or mobile phone.  The minutes for long distance calls can be purchased online and their rates are really cheap.  In certain cases, I found the call rates to be more economical than Skype.

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