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Free phone calls have taken a step closer to becoming a reality. The Gizmo Project is telling people to "call all of your Gizmo friends for FREE on their landline or mobile phones." However, one can't help but notice the asterisks dotting all of the company's offers.

This development is making headlines all over the place, and it is an exciting idea. Don't get too excited, though. Scroll down to the bottom of this Gizmo Project page, and you'll see that "the All Calls Free plan applies when both call participants are registered and active Gizmo Project users. A person is considered active when they are making phone calls with Gizmo Project on a regular basis. We reserve the right to limit call length."

Does anyone else see the potential for a lot of things to go wrong (at least from a user's point of view)? Define "regular basis," for starters - Gizmo might interpret that very differently than you would like. And that bit about limiting call length could result in a lot of conversations being cut short. That's on top of the impossibility of getting certain older relatives to sign up for such a newfangled thing.

But even if you do end up paying for calls through Gizmo, their rates are pretty affordable. The site claims a "1 Minute Call Out Rate For All US Calls." There's one more tricky bit, though - it'll be another $2.90 to $4 per month to get a "Call In number." Still, that's not a bad deal.

I appreciate the Gizmo Project's attempt to bring us free phone service. I'm less thrilled with the amount of fine print and unusual costs associated with the program. Just the same, you may find the Gizmo Project to be worth a look.

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Doug is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest eBusiness news.