Bueno: Advanced Social Networking with Unlimited Free International Calls [Review]

While Facebook, Orkut, or Myspace are hogging all the limelight, there are some great social networking options beyond these. Today we review Bueno, an innovative social network with a VoIP twist.

Bueno combines the power of social networking with VoIP. When you register with Bueno, you get all the social networking benefits and a personal free US incoming number. So, if you are looking for a USA DID, Bueno is one great option. Bueno offers some great features like photos & video sharing, audio sharing & playing, and chat. For conciseness, I will focus this review on the VoIP elements: free unlimited calling, USA DID, and fully featured voicemail.

FREE USA Incoming number (DID): Bueno offers a free incoming USA number when you register. At the time of registration, you have an option to select the area code. You can choose area codes from almost all over USA.  If the number is not available or not activated immediately after registration, just wait for some time or write to the help desk. It took a while before my number was activated.

Free Unlimited International Calling: This is probably the most interesting part. Bueno has a phone dialer that you can use to make calls to any USA number. The calls, however, are restricted to one minute duration and you cannot call the same number more than twice within an hour. So how is this unlimited free calling?

1. The system works best if at least one of the party is within the US or has a US number, otherwise the system is like using voice chat on any instant messaging platform.
2. If you have friends within the USA (and you are outside the US) then you can call their number directly and use the one minute call to tell them to call you back on your number (they will see the number on their caller id). There is no limitation on the duration of incoming calls to your numbers.
3. If you are within the US but your friends are outside the United States, you can invite them to Bueno so that even they can have a USA number. Then you can call your friend/family for free on their local number or they can use the step 2, to call you for free.

If both the parties are outside the US, I would recommend using ATA or IP Phones to use VoIP. You can configure a US number on your ATA or IP phones and then use it on Bueno.

Fully Featured VoiceMail: This is another great option made available by Bueno. You also get a fully loaded voicemail box when you sign up that you can customize according to your requirements.

Bueno does not provide SIP support so you cannot use the number using a VoIP hardware. Also, currently it allows you to make calls only within the USA.

What more do you want for FREE? This is a great VoIP deal to make unlimited free international calls across several countries. I would strongly encourage you to give Bueno a try and share your experiences.

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