No, a free VoIP provider doesn't pay for such free calls. True, a VoIP provider may give you some free introductory minutes. But he can't continue with it indefinitely unless he wants to go broke.

This is because when you make a call from your pc to some landline or mobile phone, your call travels over the internet but it has to connect with a landline or a mobile company for completion or termination of the call.

For this service, the VoIP provider has to pay that phone/mobile company. If a VoIP provider were to give you free service then this money has to come from his pocket - something which he can ill afford to bear for a long time.

This means that there cannot be anything like totally free pc to calling at all. At the same it is also a fact there are a few VoIP providers that give you such facility.

Then who pays for such pc to phone calls?

The answer to this question is YOU. It is you that pays for this service. Not in money but by your time.

How Free Pc To Phone Calling Works

A VoIP provider earns his income comes from promoting third party products and services on his site.

Such promotions could be ad impressions, asking for free information or free trial offers. For any of these promotions to succeed, the VoIP provider needs traffic to the VoIP site. Somebody to see the ads, ask for free information or try out a product or service. That somebody is you.

You Make It All Possible

When you sign up, you are providing the traffic to the VoIP site. When you complete any of the offers you are helping the VoIP provider to earn income because except for CPM - cost per thousand impressions - kind of advertising, the advertisers pay the webmaster by results of the promotion.

In return for this help, the VoIP provider pays you in free time to make pc to phone calls. So it is actually you that is making the free VoIP service possible.

How Much Free Time Can You Earn?

Your earning in free minutes depends upon your involvement in completing the third party offers and the time you spend for them.

Offers to ask for free information or free downloads pay comparatively less than free trials because the advertisers feel that only when a large number of surfers ask for free information or download a software, there is some likelihood of converting a few of them into paying customers.

On the other hand the free trials usually pay more - sometimes as much as $5 - in free talk time because most such offers require you to use your credit card. You are not charged during the trial period but it is upon you to cancel the offer before the trial period ends. Do check the terms of service when you go for such offers.

The bottom line: No, free pc to phone calling is not free as such but it comes very much near to that as you don't have to pay any money for it. So why not earn some free minutes for the calls you have always wanted to make?