I am in Thailand. I have used MagicJack for two months in the US and three months in Thailand, and I'm thrilled with it. Having a US phone on my desk in Thailand is a great time and money-saver, especially with three kids in the USA, as well as my spouse quite frequently. I got lucky and got a local number, as well.
There is no advertising on the regular service - none. The quality is fine. I have had a couple of lost calls, but I just hit redial - it's not like it costs money. I get this on all VoIP calls, including ones I was paying 25 cents a minute for.
I use it for one to three hours a day, which even at today's card-phone prices means I've saved a couple of pocketsful of money. Did I mention it's nice to have a US phone on my desk in Thailand?
Here's what I hate about it: Every call, in or out, the ugly interface pops up. So I got a free program that blocks it from popping up - Download.com has it. I have heard it's difficult to uninstall the MJ software, but I don't *know* that since I have had no reason to uninstall it.
Frankly, I wouldn't mind being a MagicJack shill. It works exactly as advertised, it is totally trouble-free for the near-half year I have had it, and I don't mind saying so. I'd say the same if MagicJack slipped me a few dollars under the table.
Here are the facts. It works as described. There are no hidden costs including no advertising. The quality is fully VoIP, i.e. quite good. You use a regular, ordinary telephone, no dorky headset, and you call any phone anywhere, not just computer-phones. It's isn't *quite* free but $20 a year for hundreds or thousands of international minutes to/from Asia is darned close to it.
ws
EDIT:
Good grief, there are a lot of cynics around here. A review has to be negative to validate it? Lighten UP, people. Some of you sound like you haven't been out dancing for months!
I wrote a review of MagicJack for my weekly column in the technology section of the Bangkok Post newspaper. It's here:
http://www.bangkokpo...0Sep2008_data013.php
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