For several months, I’ve extolled the virtues of Google Voice (via GoogleChat) to everyone I meet. Calls to the US were free, the sound quality was good, it didn’t require additional equipment… the only limitation was that it only really worked for outgoing calls. Our friends and family back home had to reach us by email or Skype if they wanted to initiate the conversation.
But, ALAS! They’ve just changed things, slightly. Calls to the US (or Canada) from abroad are now $.01 per minute (yes, a whole red cent). That’s a far cry from the $.52 per minute I paid my first year in college to SBI to call home occasionally, and from whatever insanity I paid to Sprint and various other companies to call home while on study abroad or other international travel in those years. But… I’m used to free calls, and I haven’t gotten over the shock yet.
Neko and Panda's 