Betamax Dialnow has more 0c/min destinations
 

I have noticed that the Betamax callthrough service 'Dialnow' has a few more free destinations on offer. There is not even a connection fee. However as with the VoIP brands I suspect this rate is available for a limited period (e.g. 90days) after your putting credit on the account.

This will be useful for those in Germany who have a 'Flatrate' tariff or for those in other countries who can nominate a favourite number, or have some form of cheap/free access to call fixed numbers within their own country. (e.g. Pay 1 minute..talk for 60 etc.) There are fixed line access numbers in several European countries as well as Canada, Argentina, Mexico, Argentina and Japan.

The 0 cents per minute applies to calling fixed lines in:
Argentina
Australia
Sweden
Spain
Canada (inc. mobiles)
France
Poland
Denmark
Ireland

As always with Betamax be careful as soon as you buy credit all will change! However remember the normal rates are also very cheap. (e.g. Their 0.5c/min to many countries).

Some of their other brands are also allowing use of their freedays to a range of destinations, some with publicity about it, some not

It's hard to keep track of which, as the use of the same callthrough numbers across several brands can mean I don't know which one I'm using if my mobile is listed in more than one account

It should in theory apply to mobile numbers in Canada, too (they are indiscernable from fixed lines and we use the callee-pays system, not caller pays).

Yes it does. I have called Canadian mobiles with it too. Sorry I should have mentioned that. I will edit it now.

with betamax and all names they market it under you have to look out for:

some services will not allow you to use a hardware sip device but you can only use their software.

some services will allow webcallback. You type your number and the number you want to call and you receive a call and get connected. Normally calling this way is not for free and has to be paid according their rate schedule.

Rates, free destinations can vary from week to week.

Don't expect real customer support if you have any problems. Betamax customersupport is famous for not answering mail.
There is a forum at www.voipbuster.com/forum where you can ask questions.

Yes this is all very true. Just one small comment...

Dialnow is slightly unique amongst their other brands as it is not regarded as a real VoIP service. It therefore has no SIP or softphone interface. It can be purely used through various access numbers like any other callthrough/account or phonecard service.

However it is possible to setup a web callback with it and there is an extra 5ct connection fee but AFIK the per minute rates are the same for using this.

On the brands with Freedays, they don't apply with this, though they have done with sms callback

Using the mobile Java client, now available for all brands, the connection charge is not one-off, but a 1 cent per minute supplement (I haven't yet tested this across several brands).

The surcharge or different rate is probably the case with Dialnow too. Haven't really felt the urge to test that.

Dialnow confuses me. It has no connection fee, does not appear to have "freedays" but yet they have these 0c/min destinations. Seems a no-brainer to me!

For people in the UK, where you have a surplus of free SIM card offers you can use the free credit to open an account via SMS topup and then make free calls to many destinations (or even if they change them to no longer free they are still about the lowest rate I can find).

I used a freebie SIM from BT Mobile but I suppose you could use Virgin UK etc. It's also worth mentioning for other PPGSM readers abroad who are maintaining UK SIM's and if you have surplus or free credit (e.g. if you are crediting the SIMs to keep them active) it is possible to do Betamax SMS topups via shortcodes even whilst roaming. You just have to remember to select UK as your country when registering the Betamax service in order to activate the SMS topup option.

It is also worth mentioning that with Dialnow you do not have to use the credit from the phone that you are topping up from. e.g. I have just topped up from a UK free SIM and am using the credit from a Spanish phone. Just remember to specify the number you will be using the service from first and then do the topup from the other phone. The system is primarily driven by CLI, (which recognises you) though if you want to use it from another phone you can enter a PIN.

The only downside is that for a £5 text they only credit you €4.30. Pretty poor conversion, but not bad if the £5 was free credit. However, I have also experienced that due to some bug they give you 2 topups (€8.60) for a single £5 debit! :-)

Hello to all,
just to make sure that I got it right - I have a flatrate contract with 02 where I pay E 20 per month and get to call all "Deutscher Festnetz" (German Landlines, if my dictionary is correct) for free. I need to call Canada. So, I sign up with DialNow, pay their fees, dial their German local access number (as Motel told me it seems like a landline number), then dial the Canadian number, and I can talk for basically free? Is it possible that 02 might kind of sort of see through this method, and start charging me for a direct call to Canada even though I use DialNow? I am paying 0.89/minute if I call Canada directly, and my Bill comes in one month. During this month I will probably talk for at least 4 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 4 weeks. What's the chance that I will have something like a E 1000 calling fee showing up on that first bill...?
Cheers,
Pawel

Edit:

There is a clause on the 02 website which says the following:

"Inlandsgespräch ins dt. Festnetz außer Sonderrufnummern, Mehrwertdienste und Rufumleitungen."

http://shop2.o2online.de/nw/produkte...haupt-art.html

This relates to the flatrate calls to German landlines. Can someone who knows German, or has experience with this service can pipe in and help explain whether this means that calling the DialNow number will be considered a "special number"?

Thanks a lot,

Cheers,
pawel

Hi, they will not charge you for the call. BUT: please remark that o2 recently barred the connection to several calling card access numbers, voice chats and other landline numbers where they detected heavy usage. Seems they dont mean "flat rate" if they sell one...


Chris