Free calls with Asterisk/Gizmo5 trick

Gizmo5, the entity formerly known as sipphone, has a lot of untapped potential for routing free calls across the Internet, says IP PBX site Nerd Vittles.

Turns out Gizmo5 has peering deals with a number of phone companies routing calls over the Internet. Its list covers more than 10 percent of both phones and cell phones in the United States, including a number of cable companies, IP/Internet Telephony Service providers and wireless carriers. Brand names Gizmo5 can reach include: Alltel, Cablevision Lightpath, Cbeyond, Cincinnati Bell Wireless, Comcast, Cox, RCN, Sprint PCS, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and XO.

Gizmo5 has a feature called backdoor dialing; type 0101 and the 10 digit number of your choice to see if you get a free call. You need to have some Gizmo5 CallOut minutes/money to activate the service, so there is a $10 cost to establish an account. If you want people to call you back, throw in $3 a month for a phone number.

If you aren't afraid of getting your hands dirty, there are plenty of gritty details to do a configuration within the Asterisk "FreePBX" variant, some other tricks to take advantage of Gizmo5 phone numbers and routing, and also ways to add ENUM support.

For more:
- Eat up Nerd Vittles "to do" for getting Gizmo5 free calls using Asterisk [1]