Wrong Number

When I first moved into my apartment, I was considering what type of internet connection I was going to get. At first, I got Celcom wireless broadband but that turned out to be a really bad idea. It turns out that Maxis and Celcom's wireless broadband do very badly in the Klang Valley, too many users.

I remember calling Celcom to complain and they said they will add more capacity in my area but I have to wait 3 months, I then asked them why should I pay 3 months for a service I'm not getting? They said, it's actually a mobile device and it wasn't meant to be used in only one place. So I cancelled it right away.

In the end, I when back to Streamyx. It turns out Streamyx is still the most stable and fastest I've tested.

Now, with my Streamyx, I also had to apply for a phone line. Since my wife and I both use handphones, we both don't use a fixed line anymore. The streamyx customer service representative at their shop said I could pick a number so I looked through it.

I picked a number with a few repeating numbers so it's easy to remember. I didn't tell anyone except our families the phone number since I figured no one will ever call me on the fixed line. A few days after installing the line, the phone started ringging and I started getting calls from Telekom staff who kept asking me if wanted to register Streamyx. The customer service rep did warn me about "people" calling to ask but I didn't realize it was going to be like 3-4 times a day.

In the end, it did stop but I now get calls wrong number calls. If the house phone rings, it's most certainly a wrong number. I think picking a nice number has its drawbacks, I think my number must be similar to other people's office number because I keep getting people calling asking for strangers.

Previously, in my old house, I had a land line in my room too for the Streamyx. I think the number was similar to a sundry shop near my house so people kept calling the phone asking for sundry goods to be delivered to them. Once, the phone rang and I got fed up and I just picked it up and hang it up again. The second time it rang, I picked it up and an old lady screamed "why you keep hanging up? I want to order my groceries!".

I want to unplug the phone but I have to keep it for emergencies. Sometimes the Maxis reception in my study room is bad, so my wife calls the house phone to get me.

How to make free phone calls from your handphone

My father just showed me something really cool, how to make free calls to land lines from the handphone. He bought a new Nokia phone, E51 which had WiFi and could also make SIP calls. His friend recommended he use www.voipstunt.com, a SIP provider.

So what's a SIP provider? Basically, they allow you to make calls over the internet to a phone number. What's interesting about voipstunt is that they all you to call land lines in Malaysia and a few other countries like in the US, United Kingdom and Australia for free. Just sign up and you get free 60 minutes the first time. Buying credits get you more free land line calls.

Now most phone won't be able to make SIP calls on their own so you have to download a program to make VOIP calls. I use Fring on my Iphone and it works for a variety of phones too like my father's Nokia E51. I downloaded the Fring software onto his phone and signed in using his VOIP account.

The nice thing about fring is that you can also chat and do voice calls to friends on your MSN Messenger, Yahoo messenger, Skype, ICQ, Google Talk and a variety of other messenger services. There is a dialer in there that lets you call any phone number either through SIP or Skype so you can choose to use your SIP or Skype account. I tried calling a friend in Canada with the skype account, it worked. Connection was a little dodgy at times but other than that, it worked quite well. I spend 30 minutes on the phone talking to someone in Canada for almost free! (I have to pay for my Wifi connection at home after all).

So now, if I go to anywhere with wifi, I can call a Malaysian land line for free. So I can call lets say my office from my handphone at home for free. Cool right?