VoipStunt's 'SkypeIn' equivalent free and Caller ID enabled (Anders Jacobsen's blog)

January 06, 2006

VoipStunt's 'SkypeIn' equivalent free and Caller ID enabled

Logging into VoipStunt today I found a promotional message offering me a free inbound phone number for my account. I logged in to their website, and sure enough, there was the option to get an inbound number. Clicking it, I was automatically assigned a UK/London number (+44 208 ...). No charge (beyond my initial 5 euro top up of my account) but also no information for how long this number is reserved for me - required account activity etc.

That said, the REALLY cool thing about this is that CLI / CLIP (Calling Line Identification Presentation, sometimes known as CLID Caller ID Display) was instantly available as an option (set in user profile) on outbound calls. This means that when I call a compatible phone, the receiver's phone will display my VoipStunt number as the caller(!)

This might not seem revolutionary, but is quite useful, and it is something currently not available in Skype (and something that frequently crops up on forum.skype.com)

We like. We also like that calls are still free.

A not so minor hitch is that the application struggles to get on top when an inbound call actually happens - the ring sound comes, the window doesn't render (and doesn't give the option to answer/refuse the call - changed process priority to 'High' with little result (note: Skype auto-sets priority to High when in use)). I'm sure they'll sort this out shortly!