Internet telephone company Vonage has released a new iOS app called Time to Call which lets you make phone calls over the internet from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. It works over both WiFi and 3G, but the 3G feature is currently exclusive to the US and Canada.
Time to Call is offering your first 15 minutes of call time to 190 different countries free of charge, but that promotion is a limited time offer. After the free trial, the price for a 15 minute international call goes up to a flat rate of 1.99 or less to 100 countries.
Prices are higher for the 90 other countries Time To Call can reach, with prices ranging from $2.99 to $9.99. You can discover more country-specific pricing through Vonage’s new web tool.
Overall the prices seem a bit higher than Skype’s rates, which start at $0.02 per minute for domestic and international calls.
But one particularly convenient aspect of Time to Call is that it bills you directly via iTunes, rather than its own client or a third party site like PayPal. Also, for a limited time, unused minutes can be used for additional calls (also known as rollover. )