PhoneGnome is a free service providing free calls between members and cheap call rates to any other numbers worldwide. PhoneGmome provides four primary means to use the service:

• Web-Activated (ike Jajah) where you enter the number to call on a website, then PhoneGnome rings your phone and phone number you are calling and connects to the legs together.
• PC-based - (like Gizmo, FWD, etc) using PC softphone to place calls. The company provides a free Windows-based softphone but the service supports any SIP softphone (including Asterisk)
• The PhoneGnome box - the company offers a customized ATA/Gatway device that SIP-activates any existing phone service (whether a traditional line, VoIP service like Vonage or Sunrocket, or a Cable phone service). More information is available at PhoneGnome Box
• Mobile Phone - the company provides a J2ME application that permits use of PhoneGnome service directly on the mobile phone handset. Of course the above web-activated service can be used with moblie phones, as long as the number qualifies as well. An add-on product called MobileGnome ($24.95 per year) provides hop-on/hop-off and callback features. Since the service supports SIP, wi-fi SIP phones can also be used.

Free for calls to members. Rates starting at 2.1c/min for other calls. Users do not need to be on-line to receive calls but they must sign-into their My PhoneGnome portal site periodically to keep their account active.

PhoneGnome members using the PhoneGnome Box can also use any SIP-based service for PSTN terminatrion for calls to non-members (in other words "Bring your own ITSP").

Features:

• Open Access
  • Buy your PSTN termination minutes from any provider you wish - you are not stuck with only the rates or plans offered by TelEvolution Inc. or any one company
  • Quickly change service, or even use multiple accounts at the same time
  • Buy Virtual numbers (DIDs) from any provider you want
  • We make it easy and convenient to purchase these services from our partners, but you are not required to do so
• SIP interoperability
  • Open SIP credentials that can be used with any softphone, ATA, Asterisk, Trixbox etc.
  • Exposed SIP addresses permitting directing calls to your PhoneGnome account from any SIP system, Free World Dial, SIPphone, Gizmoproject, Asterisk systems, PBX systems, DID providers etc.
  • SIPbroker support and interoperability - peering with hundreds of VOIP services
  • Use the PhoneGnome box like a remote SIP-based "FXO card" for your Asterisk server
• Interoperability with IM systems for Voice
  • Free calls with Gtalk, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo! IM users.
  • Optionally connect to Skype on your PC to use your existing regular phone as a Skype phone.
• Full ENUM support, including e164.arpa and enum.org as well as private ENUM-based VoIP peering
• Peering relationships representing millions of telephone numbers
• Support for ITAD/ISN (http://freenum.org/)
• Free end-user WEB 2.0 XML-RPC APIs with every PhoneGnome account:
  • Interface to contact lists
  • Initiate click-to-dial calls
  • Access call history logs
  • Integrate with your web or blog site
  • Use the APIs on your data enabled mobile phone

Asterisk Setup:

Login to your account PhoneGnome account and then: See Features > SoftGnome Remote Access > Edit > View SIP Credentials To view the SIP settings.


See also:

• http://www.phonegnome.com/
• http://www.phonegnome.com/blog Official PhoneGnome Company Blog
• PhoneGnome Support
• PhoneGnome Support Forum on Voxilla
• PhoneGnome API