It is very likely that there will come a day in the near future when you can buy a mobile phone and you will only need a data plan for Internet service as well as for voice calls. The technology is certainly available to theoretically allow you to do that. All that is needed is for all of the components to be integrated with one another. When that day comes, the wireless carriers will have no excuse to sell us overpriced voice plans.

At the current moment, there are some viable apps that allow you to make and receive calls through 3G or Wi-Fi. Most of these apps provide their service at a very low cost or for free with some limitations. Talkatone (pronounced talk-a-tone) is an app that gives you the ability to make calls over a data connection and is completely free.

Talkatone actually requires that you have a Google Voice account so this is another front end for Google Voice, but whereas the other apps, including Google’s own app call you when you want to make an outgoing phone call, Talkatone allows you to make that call completely within the app over a Wi-Fi or 3G connection so that you don’t use up any voice minutes. By contrast, the Google Voice service is excellent for receiving phone calls and overall it’s quite good also—though you’ll use up your minutes using it in conjunction with your iPhone. Talkatone routes Google Voice calls through a data network and brings you one step closer to wireless freedom.

Alas, Talkatone is far from perfect. The quality of the audio is inconsistent and is often accompanied by a static noise. You can buy an upgrade for higher voice quality, but the quality seems to be about the same as the default quality. Also, although Talkatone is designed to receive calls while it idles in the background, often it sends calls straight to voicemail. That can be frustrating if you’re depending on being able to receive calls.

Despite its flaws, Talkatone’s developers update it regularly and are constantly working to improve it. Hopefully someday soon, Talkatone will be good enough that you could reduce your voice plan or, if the cellular gods allow it, eliminate your voice plan.

[etRating value=“ 3.5”]

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