Gizmo Project Offers Free Calling

In an effort to one-up market leader Skype, Gizmo Project has announced a new "All Calls Free" plan that makes calling landline and mobile phones in 60 countries free of charge. The catch: both individuals must be active Gizmo users.

Skype currently offers free calling to traditional phone numbers within the United States only. Gizmo's new offering covers landline and mobile phones in 17 countries and landline-only calls in another 43. No fees will be charged for calls to these numbers, the Gizmo Project says.

The promotion is intended to bring more user user-signups to the Internet telephony service. In order to make and receive calls free, both sides must have downloaded and signed up to Gizmo. The user receiving the call must have entered their phone number into their contact information, which the caller clicks to dial.

"We reserve the right to limit call length if we see people abusing the service, but that seems fair, right? Of course, we also encourage you go purchase some of our services such as additional Gizmo Call Out credits or a virtual Call In number to help us continue offering these innovative (and free) calling plans," the company says.

In order to be eligible for the free calling plan, both users must be active users of Gizmo, meaning they regularly make voice calls using the software. "If your account, or the account of the person you are calling is inactive, the call will just be charged at our normal low calling rates," the company explains.

Gizmo Project is available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.