The latest and greatest craze MAGIC JACK. www.magicjack.com and www.magicjacktv.com.

$40 first year $20 year after first
Stateside phone number
UNLIMITED CALLING TO US!!!
Little USB device the size of a thumb drive, plug regular phone into USB device and start calling.

Skype, Yahoo, Magic Jack are not Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP), these services use a modified Point-to-Point (P2P) protocol. If you block P2P, then you'll have to block every thing.
Vonage uses a particular series of IP addresses. LG Dacom/SSRT loaded these IP addresses into their proxy server and that's how they can block you. However, per the Bell Send's message, this agreement was signed June 30, 2007. So LG Daycom/SSRT jumped the gun and blocked people that fell within the grandfather. If you had Vonage prior to June 30, 2007 and were in Korea, than print out your initial user agreement, bring it to the LG Dacom office and they will unblock you UNTIL 30 Jun 2008.

Read the fine print in the LG Dacom VOIP service....they will hit you with so many fees it's crazy.
Yes the phone is free for a year...what you don't see is the modem they give you to make the phone work. That's $10 a month, plus your calling plan ranging from $10-35 per month....PLUS your monthly internet connection....so $85 for a Korean numbered VOIP phone that will be an international number for the US to dial in....

Do you know of any one in the dorms that has this magicjack? How effective is it and what is the quality of the calls? Unless I misunderstood their website, it sounds like you can call from your magicjack (regardless of where you are at) to the US for free. Sounds like a great deal.

You didn't misunderstand their site. From their FAQ:
How do I make calls to locations outside the USA?

• Call any person on their magicJack number in any country and the call is free.
• Call back to the US from another country with your magicJack and it's free.

If I call someone on a magicJack overseas, do I need to dial the country or city code?

• No, you would dial as you would normally from the United States.

If I call back to the US or Canada from overseas, do I need to dial a country or city code?

• No, you would dial as you would normally from the United States.

Sounds like a good plan, and cheaper than Skype (which I use); however, I haven't run into anyone using this new product.

I arrived about a month ago, and reside in bld 475. Although i've had 0 experience w/ vonage, i've been successfully using Skype for almost 5 years now.

Whoever said "skype is too expensive" is an idiot. Vonage is 25 bucks a month, that's 300$ a year, although it's unlimited calling. Skype (the skypeout option) is 3$ a month. You get your stateside number, and can pick the area code too. Calls are about 2 cents a minute back to the states, and no charge for incoming calls. At that rate, you'd have to call outgoing over 1000 minutes a month for it to be more expensive than Vonage. And the plus is, if you deploy *gasp* you arent being billed monthy @ 25 bucks for a service you cant use. Your credit is waiting for you when you return.

I put 20 bucks of credit on my phone about 1 time every quarter, or even 4 months, and call back stateside quite a bit.

As for not being able to sit at the pc or having to sit at the pc... USB headset/mic costs all of 10 dollars if you want to make your calls infront of the computer. Or, they do sell skype phones for a resonable price at aafes or wallmart.

gumby, thanks for sharing your experience. I hope they don't end up blocking skype like vonage. I'm not technical enough to know if it uses same protocol/system. Anyways. I'm a sucker, I ordered magicjack so I can test it out before I leave for Korea. I'll let anyone know who is interested if it works or not. BTW, what is bldg 475? amn dorms/nco dorms/snco dorms/other? Also, I asked this in a different thread but does anyone use landlines in the Osan dorms?

Bld 475 are the NCO dorms for the 303 IS squadron. Or as it's known now, the 694th Detatchment 1...

I dont use landlines, there isnt really much point. Everyone has a cellphone.

Good luck with magicjack!

I'm going to second the magic jack. I was a previous skype user, but I heard that magic jack had an even clearer connection. I gave it a try and it's MUCH clearer than skype.

The only bad thing (and I mean ONLY) is that they won't ship to APO addresses. I had to mail it to my parents and they forwarded it on to me.

I highly recommend Magic Jack.

I use ITP www.itp4you.com It's setup is the same as Vonage. It's $20 a month unlimited.

PM me if you plan to sign up, I'll send you an email so you get 1 month free.

My magicjack arrived Sat and we got it configured. It took 15-20 min tweaking but it works. In case someone is interested in buying it, check this site out for reviews and suggestions from magicjack users:

http://unofficialmagicjack.forum2u.org/

Once I get to Osan and hooked my laptop up for internet connection, I'll let you know how it works in country.

MagicJack works in Korea. I sent one to someone at Osan and they called me in the US a few days ago.