# Callin a girl friend on line? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 27, 2002, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/callin-a-girl-friend-on-line/116180 "2002-06-27T04:46:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Craneop2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6bbea6/32.png) [@Craneop2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Craneop2)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2002, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/callin-a-girl-friend-on-line/116180/1 "2002-06-27T04:46:10Z")
OK I have a friend I would like to call online…I used to be able to use my computer “free” to talk long distance…Did the phone companies shut that down?? Did big daddy dollar shut it down?? How did they do this??? ---
**Author:** ![Beastal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Beastal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beastal)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2002, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/callin-a-girl-friend-on-line/116180/2 "2002-06-27T04:55:12Z")
There are many programs you can use to have a ‘voice chat’ with someone online. Provided you both have a microphone and speakers, you can use a programs like NetMeeting, ICQ or Yahoo Messenger to engage in a voice chat. ---
**Author:** ![KellyM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/57b2e6/32.png) [@KellyM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KellyM)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2002, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/callin-a-girl-friend-on-line/116180/3 "2002-06-27T11:56:10Z")
Most of the “free internet phone” companies ran out of money and shut down during the dot.bomb. Virtually all of these companies were classic [dot.com](http://dot.com) ventures with no business plan except “get a lot of venture capital and spend it on expresso machines while hoping that some established company decides to buy us out”. This is, obviously, not a business plan that is viable in the long term. You can guess where they are now. ---
**Author:** ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2002, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/callin-a-girl-friend-on-line/116180/4 "2002-06-27T12:10:05Z")
What he’s talking about is when _you_ have a computer but the friend has only a phone … and I have no idea. Anyone? ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2002, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/callin-a-girl-friend-on-line/116180/5 "2002-06-27T12:14:26Z")
I think you can still do this with Dialpad or Net2Phone, but I don’t think it’s free anymore. Still, worth a look. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2002, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/callin-a-girl-friend-on-line/116180/6 "2002-06-27T15:30:44Z")
If you are deaf & she is hearing, yes you can with a net relay. Thing is, its owned by that phone company on the news yesterday. sigh. ---
**Author:** ![JS\_Princeton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/57b2e6/32.png) [@JS\_Princeton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JS_Princeton)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2002, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/callin-a-girl-friend-on-line/116180/7 "2002-06-27T16:28:41Z")
There are no more free luches. [Dialpad.com](http://Dialpad.com) and Net2phone both provide 5 minute calls that are free, but who wants to deal with the hassel of calling back every 5 minutes? The sound quality is horrid and the connections unreliable. My advice: by a phonecard.