Up until now, no calls on the iPhone were free. You had to use your anytime or weekend minutes to make them. And international calls ran up additional charges for airtime.

Now a new and free program, Fring, lets you use programs like Skype on your iPhone.

Skype has been available for PC and Mac users for several years. It uses a technique called VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). With it you can make make calls to anyone using the bandwidth of the internet. All you need to do on your computer is download Skype and then if your friends also have Skype, you can call them.

If they don't have Skype, you use Skype-out and dial their home, work, or cell numbers. Skype-out costs a few pennies a minute.

Call quality is good - like a cell phone call - but not quite as good as using Skype on your computer. I've tested the program with calls to South Africa and England.

Fring - which has been available for jailbroken iPhones (those that have been hacked to run unofficial software) for a while - allows programs, like Skype, MSN Messenger, and ICQ - to work on the iPhone. It works on 1st and 2nd generation iPhones, without having to fool around with their software.

After downloading the Fring from the iTunes application store, just type in your user ID and password from the VOIP program and you're ready to make those calls.

Fring works on the Wi-Fi system, not the 3G or Enterprise connection, so calls don't count against your minutes.

So download Fring and give it a try. Let us know how it works for you.