Phone New Update: November 2009

Free International calls from New Zealand to India and other countries

Voip is really growing. Now a lot of people have started using Voip, making free international calls. Calls to India are very cheap now with many voip providers even offering free calls to India.

Freedomcall.com.au is a very famous voip provider offering free calls to India and other 70 destinations from Australia. It is widely used by many in Australia to make free international calls. How about a similar service from New Zealand.

Yes the owners of Freedomcalls have launched their voip service in New Zealand. Freedomcalls.co.nz is new service launched in New Zealand. It is access number based service using which you can make free calls to India and other destinations frm New Zealand.

The calling procedure (lets assume you want to make free calls to India):
1. Call access number : Any of :
028 3000 011
028 3000 022
028 3000 033

2. Follow the prompt and then dial destination number.
Format– Prefix 00 + Country code + Destination No. + # e.g. to call India free dial - 00 +91+ 98123XXXXX

Please note that you will be charged for the local leg of the call (mobile call charge), but if your local calls in New zealand are free then your total call cost to India will be effectively free.

Other countries where you can make free calls :
Argentina + mobile Hong Kong + mobile Puerto Rico Australia Hungary Paraguay-Asuncion Albania Iceland Romania Andorra India + mobile Russia Austria-Vienna Ireland San Marino + mobile Azores Israel Singapore + mobile Bahamas Italy South Africa Bangladesh + mobile Indonesia-Jakarta Spain Belgium Iraq-Baghdad Sweden Brazil Japan Switzerland Bulgaria Jordan Satellite 1-Ellipso
Brunei Kazakhstan-Almaty Slovakia Canada + mobile Kenya-Nairobi Slovenia
Chile Korea South-Seoul Trinidad & Tobago China + mobile Latvia Taiwan
Colombia Luxembourg Thailand + mobile Costa Rica Macau + mobile Turkey Croatia Malaysia + mobile United Kingdom Cyprus + mobile Mariana + mobile U.S.A. + mobile
Czech Rep Mexico US Virgin Islands Denmark Macedonia-Cosmofon Venezuela Dominican Rep. Malta Vietnam (Ho Chi Min City only)Estonia Martinique France Monaco
French Antilles Netherlands Georgia New Zealand Germany Norway Gibraltar Northern Marianas Greece Peru Guam Poland Guadeloupe Portugal.

So try this free service, make free internationl calls from New Zealand, and give your feedback.

AirtelCallhome launches Pay per Second Plan

It all started with Indian telecom industry, Pay per second plans. Now every other telecom provider, be it Airtel, Idea, Vodafone, Aircel, Reliance or any other is offering their pay per second plans.

Now the same trend has started in the voip industry. AirtelCallhome is planning to cash on offering cheap calls to India with their Pay per second plan to Call India. AirtelCallhome has launched this plan two three days back, and already many have taken the offer.

AirtelCallhome has a good customer base in USA, with many using Airtel's one cent offer to call India. With this offer, Airtel is sure to receive more customers. Pay per second plan is actually good for all and the plan can be more judged on using it as we always end the call in between. I mean we are certain to loose money for 1-59 seconds. So you can save this money. In my opinion the offer is good for those who make lots of call of short duration.

Lets now look at the Pay per second plan by Airtelcallhome to call India.

Pay just 0.03 ¢/second for your India calls .

Unlike other long distance plans that follow per minute pulse, AirtelCallHome gives you the freedom to pay for your calls per second. Now pay only for the duration that you talk!

The $6.99 plan has an administration fee of $0.49, on the balance $6.50 you get the rate of 0.03 ¢/second to call mobile and landline in India on local access.
Validity of 30 days.
Call rate to mobile and landline in India using toll free is 0.06 ¢/second.

This means by paying $6.99 you will get 21666 seconds of talktime (approx 360 mins -- 6 hrs) talktime. (If you calculate this per min comes out to be 1.8 cent/min). But to remind you that this is per second plan, so you will definitely save money than the same per min plan.

What I suggest you to try this plan for a month or so, and if you like it than you can continue with AirtelCallhome pay per second voip plan (yups very cheap calls to India).

Cheapest calls to India by Softcall.me

I was going through my previous blogpost searching for the cheapest voip provider to call India. It was also a concern that voip provider should be reliable and call quality should also be good.

At present a very few voip providers are offering free calls to India. Some are offering free trial credit which can be used to call India free. Among the cheap options to call India were betemax providers. Rynga voip, actionvoip, smartvoip offer cheap calls to India, but these are not the cheapest voip providers. Also people have been complaining about betamax providers, that is about fluctuation in call rates, etc...etc !

Nymgo, Mediaringtalk are also good option to call India if you are looking for a Pc to Phone calling. LocalPhone is rated best by many in terms of calling India from phone to phone. LocalPhone is access based calling service.

Softcall.me offers very cheap calls to India. Softcall.me is offering just 1.3 cents per minute to call India. The best part is that you can setup softcall on your mobile phone, thus eliminating use of PC. Softcall.me can aso be setup on a SIP device. And if you prefer PC to phone calling then Softcall also has a PC voip application (softphone). The call quality of softcall is also good.

Softcall.me offers Pay as you go plans as well as monthly calling plans. I guess the flexibilty with softcall is great, and so is softcall worth trying. Please give your feedback about softcall voip service to make calls to India.

Talk for India hour today from 8.36 PM

Just to remind all of you that talk for India hour is today itself. It will start from 8.36 PM to 9.36 PM. This is a promotion by Idea, in which it will donate all the money generated from the phone calls made during that hour.

We have earlier too covered a post on Talk for India campaign. So, all Idea users can schedule their phone calls during that hour to help Policemen.

Localphone : Free Calls to the USA for Thanksgiving

Wishing you all a very happy Thanksgiving. This Thanksgiving, you wont have to pay a penny to wish others, all thanks to Voip. First Truphone announced Free calls to USA on thanksgiving day.

Now Localphone has followed it and best of all, LocalPhone is offering free calls to USA landlines and mobile for five days. Specially on the ocassion of Thanksgiving, localphone has announed this new offer. I received a mail from localphone stating "As of midnight this morning Eastern Time (5am GMT) all calls to United States landlines and mobiles are completely free for five days, for all Localphone users new and old. ".

You can talk for as long as you like, talk to as many as you like. You can make calls from your landline or mobile with Direct Dial or Calling Card, or from your PC, iPhone, or other VoIP-enabled mobile with Localphone VoIP.

The offer even applies to localphone Incoming Numbers service. Buy a number in any of 46 Incoming Number countries and forward calls to a landline or mobile in the US for free for five days.

If you still have not tried Localphone then let me tell you, LocalPhone is worth trying.

Update : Localphone is running a promotional offer. When you sigh up with $1 credit, you will get $2.5 credit. That's additional $1.5 credit as bonus.
$1.5 credit is worth 100 minutes to India. This makes cheapest voip provider to India with effective rate of just 0.6 cents per minute. This offer can be used to call other countries as well. What are you waiting for. Just try Localphone.
(No expiry of credit, good voice quality, and sign up with as low as $1).

Free calls on thanksgiving by Truphone

Its now holiday season in US. Thanksgiving is around and so is everyone shooping. Truphone has something for you in store this season.

Truphone is now offering free calls this thanksgiving so that you can stay in touch wit your friends and family.

During 12 hours on Thanksgiving, all calls made to US landlines or mobiles, using Truphone, will be completely free!

• Call anyone :
You can call any US landline or mobile/cell phone.

• Call everyone :
Make one call, make several calls. You can make as many free calls as you want, within those 12 hours.

• Open to all :
Whether you're new to Truphone or already using it, you can make free calls, no matter where you are.

• No changes
You don't need to buy anything or change your settings, to make free calls on the day.

The Free Thanksgiving Calls promotion by Truphone will be running on Thursday, November 26th 2009, between midday and midnight GMT. I guess I need to tell you about Truphone, one of the widely used mobile voip appliction.

Listen to Bollywood radio in USA using your phone

With technology advancing so fast, everything seems possible. New featured are added and companies are coming with innovative ways to earn money.

Well if you live in USA, you are a bollywood fan and want to listen to boolywood radio, then IndiaLd (voip service) has something for you. Apart from offering very cheap calls to India, Indiald offers Desi Radio.

India LD is now streaming Bollywood and Hindi radio to your phone. While you are office or you are commuting, you can listen to bollywood numbers. How this works.

You have to dial a local USA phone number and you will hear Desi Radio. Just dial into one of the below numbers and listen to the hottest Bollywood hits and classic movie songs. Best of all, its free to listen to.

Access Numbers:
Radio Teentaal: (619) 345-8801
Desi Radio: (619) 345-8802
Frequency India: (619) 345-8803

You must mute your phone while listening to get better quality. These access numbers are located in southern California, and if you have free unlimited US calling on your phone, this should not be a problem. If you pay per minute for long distance calls, check with your provider for costs first.

How to make cheap calls to Pakistan using Localphone

LocalPhone is quite a known name on this blog, used by many of my blog readers. Many are aware of LocalPhone incoming numbers, but have you been using LocalPhone incoming number facility to connect to your friends and family in Pakistan.

The calling rates to Pakistan aint any cheap, but we are here to help you up making cheap calls to Pakistan. LocalPhone provides you incoming number in Pakistan (Islamabad), so lets see how can you make cheap calls to Pakistan using LocalPhone.

First let me tell you more about Incoming numbers. Suppose you belong to India or say Pakistan but have went to US, or any other country for studies or work. Now you can get an incoming number (yes Pakistan phone number) in USA. You can forward all your calls to your USA number. It simply means that whenever anyone calls that Pakistan number, your USA mobile will ring and you can talk as long you like.

1. If you belong to Pakistan then you can get Pakistan Local incoming number at the cost of $5 (One time) and $5 (monthly). So you need to pay monthly $5.
2. Forward all incoming calls to PC, or your mobile (you will be charged about 1 cent for forwarding calls to your USA mobile).
3. Now if your parents/friends or any other call you on your Pakistan phone number, then you will get connected and can talk.

So, all you need to do is register with LocalPhone for Pakistan incoming number.

Update : Localphone is running a promotional offer. When you sigh up with $1 credit, you will get $2.5 credit. That's additional $1.5 credit as bonus.
$1.5 credit is worth 100 minutes to India. This makes cheapest voip provider to India with effective rate of just 0.6 cents per minute. This offer can be used to call other countries as well. What are you waiting for. Just try Localphone.
(No expiry of credit, good voice quality, and sign up with as low as $1).

Idea Cellular launches 'Talk for India' campaign

Idea Cellular, one of the biggest telecom provider in India has launched its new campaign. Talk for India. Well this campaign is not about making cheap calls or free calls instead it is for the benefit of the country.

The promotions, offers, campaigns by Idea cellular always come with a difference. And this time too, Idea has launched this new campaign.

You remember, last year on 26th Nov (26/11) India was under an attack (attack on Mumbai). Many policemen lost their lives fighting. Talk for India hour is launched a noble cause to help policemen.

Under this new campaign, Idea cellular will will donate the amount which it gets from all the calls made from Idea cellular mobiles subscribers in India during the campaign period. This money will be donated to Police force.

Talk for India hour : 26th November 2009 from 8.36PM IST to 9.36PM IST. This means that whatever Idea generates from the calls made during this hour, all money will be donated.

So how can you help in this noble cause.
1. If you have an idea connection, then schedule your calls during this hour.
2. Spread the word about this campaign.
3. If your friend has Idea connection then ask him/her to call you up during this time.

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Gizmo5 is under Google Voice now

The news came last week and the news is a big one. Google Voice has acquired Gizmo5 voip service. This means that GOoGle is now focusing more on the voip technology and probably it will integrate its Google Voice service with Gizmo5.

Gizmo5 is one of the best SIP softphones and voip provider. It will be interesting to see if Google switch to Gizmo5 softphone over Gtalk. Also if people give preference to Google Voice over Skype.

Guys share your views over this takeover.

Tpad offers free calls to and from Pakistan.

Tpad is a big name in this voip industry. Tpad is most widely used voip solution for business purposes. For home calling needs, Tpad is a good option. Few months, back Tpad was offering free $2 credit to all readers of Free PC to Phone calls.

Now here is the latest from Tpad. Tpad is now offering Free calls to and from Pakistan. This clearly means that you can connect to your loved ones in Pakistan. It seems that the attention of voip companies has now shifted to other Asian countries specially Pakistan after the lowering calling rates to India. The Asian market has a big potention and now voip companies have started to focus on it.

With so many providers already offering free calls to India and cheap calls to India, we also thought to discuss about making international calls to other destinations.

Tpad Break-In Numbers (sometimes called Local Access Numbers) allow callers to use the Tpad network from a normal landline or mobile phone for just the price of a local call. You can dial this number at the cost of a local call. This Tpad break in number method is very useful if your friend living in Pakistan dont have access to internet.

Lets talk about this method to make free calls to Pakistan. Let me show it to you in simple steps.
Lets suppose you want to talk to your parents living in Pakistan and you live in USA.

1. First you need to register with Tpad. You will get a Tpad number. So basically you can receive calls on his number. You can receive calls on Voip softphone or you can configure your SIP device or you can forward the calls o your mobile or landline phone.

2. Ask your parents to dial Pakistan local access number from their local phone (landline or mobile). You can get this local access number once you register with Tpad. They will be charged local rates for calling this Pakistan phone number.

3. Wait for automated message then they press 1 on the telephone pad.

4. Then they dial YOUR Personal Tpad Number. (e.g. 1125139)

5. The Call will then be connected and you can answer using the Softphone or VoIP Device (ATA / IP Phone / Softphone / WiFi Mobile).

Your parents need not to be a Tpad user neither they require any internet connection. So this way you can call Pakistan for free. Do share your views and let us know if you face any difficulty.

Cheap Calls to Kenya by Zenofon

A lot has been happening with Zenofon. Zenofon offers free trial credit, it offers time to time offers (free voip credit giveaway), it offers very cheap calling rates to various countries.

And today I got a mail from Zenofon that Zenofon has lowered their calling rate to Kenya. At Free Pc to Phone calls, we have people looking for cheap providers to call African countries. So, guys Zenofon is good option if you are looking for providers to make cheap calls to Kenya.

Zenofon is offering a great new rate to Kenya as a promotion. Its a short term rate to generate customers to Kenya. At 5 cents/minute its less than 50% of what other discount telephone companies are charging.

The only bad thing is that the rate is not permanent but for short period of time, still atleast for that period of time Zenofon is worth using for making cheap calls to Kenya.

Zenofon giving away free credit worth $650.

Yes you heard it right, Zenofon is now again on a roll. Last month Zenofon launched their $500 give away and now they have launched their $650 free credit give away.

It seems that their free trial credit giveaway thing is workig very fine for them. I guess most of you know about Zenofon and how to join Zenofon. Zenofon is a simple voip service which works like most calling cards and voip services so we wont be discussing that again. To join Zenofon you need a referal, so you just cant join directly. But dont worry we are here to give you a invite.

Apart from this giveaway, Zenofon also gives all its new users free trial credit to make free calls.
This $650 free credit offer is again based on tell your friend plan. You are entitled to enter this contest when you refer your friend to join zenofon.

There are two parts to the contest this month : The first part of the contest is the same as last time, in which Zenofon is giving money prizes to the people who finish in the top 50 referrers for the month. The more you make, the higher your cash prize is. The new thig this time is that Zenofon is giving away $10 to the tenth place contest finisher, $20 to the person who finishes in 20th place, $30 to the 30th place winner, $40 to the 40th place winner and $50 to the 50th place winner. This new contest seems to be little more interesting just because of the randomness and the fact that the one who is inviting but couldnt reach top 10 or top 5 still holds a good chance to win prize worth $50.

Zenofon is now giving an additional $10 free coupon, to anyone who signs up with our auto-recharge program. Overall Zenofon is a nice voip service and worth trying. Carry on with Zenofon if you like their voip service.

VoipGain : Cheap international calls to Pakistan

Voip has changed the calling ways so much. Now people have started using Voip for making international and national phone calls and saved a lot of money. Specially if you now talk about calling India, then there are so many cheap voip providers.

Here is another new entry in the voip market. Betamax has launched another voip provider names VoipGain. Apart from offering cheap calls to India, VoipGain offers very cheap calls to Pakistan. We discussed about Rebtel offering free calls to Pakistan, and now betamax is offering cheap calls to Pakistan.

VoipGain offers 2.2 cents per minute to call Pakistan landline and 4.5 cents to call Pakistan mobile. VoipGain also offers cheap calls to many other destinations apart from Pakistan. Its a good option for maing cheap international phone calls.

VoipGain allows you to make Pc to Phone calls, SIP calls and phone to phone calls.
Voipgain SIP setting

SIP port : 5060
Registrar : sip.voipgain.com
Proxy server : sip.voipgain.com
Outbound proxy server : leave empty
Account name : your VoipGain username
Password : your VoipGain password
Display name/number : your VoipGain username or voipnumber
Stunserver (option) : stun.voipgain.com

What I suggest to you is buy minimum credit with VoipGain, and try it. Continue with VoipGain service if you like it.

Azabutel offering free international calls from Japan

IndiaLD is expanding, with already offering very good deals for calling India, they have launched a voip service for people of Japan. Named AzabuTel, it allows people from Japan to make free international calls to more than 20 countries.

AzabuTel is a access based number voip service, it means you need to dial this local access number to make international calls. So you pay only for dialing this local number. AzabuTel offers a local Japan number. The best thing is this number is a normal phone number, and not any premium phone number.

In order to make free international calls using AzabuTel :
You need to dial Azabu Tel local access number in 03-4580-0235 (Tokyo) or 03-4580-02362 (Tokyo). Just follow the instructions and when prompted, dial 010 then the international number (including country code) for eg. 010 91 22277737374.

Since the service is free you wont be charged anything, there is no mention of call duration so you will be able to make call of unlimited duration.

If you are not livingin Japan, you can still make free international phone calls. You need to use any free voip service (like webcalldirect.com) to connect to this Japan access number and then dial international number.

Sonos Bundle BU250

The latest Sonos adds a major upgrade the CR200 touch screen remote. If that wasn't good enough and the remote is excellent it can also be controlled by any iPhone or iPod Touch running a free app that's available via the iTunes App Store. The result is a whole house music system that's easier to control than ever before. The catch? The system costs a somewhat pricey $1,000. And while that may seem like a lot, custom installed systems can cost as much as $5,000 per room and they aren't as easy to use nor do they offer the level functionality found in this system.

We were always impressed by Sonos' capability to access your home music collection and a variety of online music options, but the addition of the slick new touch screen remote and the iPhone or iPod Touch integration gives the luxury digital audio system a compelling leg up on the competition. There are three main components of the Sonos Digital Music System two ZonePlayer base stations one ZP120, one ZP90 and one CR250 Controller (the remote control).

Each one is available separately as well additional ZP120s are $500, the ZP90 is $350, and the CR250 goes for $350 so the $1,000 price tag of Sonos Bundle BU250 represents a $200 savings versus buying them a la carte. Take one look at the silver and white color scheme (and that scroll wheel on the remote), and you get the idea that Sonos wants you to think its understated sleek components would fit right into Apple's iPod line and they would. We just wish a black option was available as well especially after seeing a custom painted version.

The ZonePlayer ZP120 houses a fully fledged, 55 watt per channel, Class-D digital amplifier and weighs 5 pounds. It fills out a 3.5 inch high by 7.3 inch wide by 8.15 inch deep footprint about the size of seven DVD cases stacked on top of one another. The ZP120's die cast, matte aluminum enclosure feels far more solid and substantive than most of today's all plastic consumer electronics. It sports two pairs of high quality speaker binding posts, one set of analog stereo inputs (for attaching and playing any external device through the Sonos system), a subwoofer output, and two Ethernet ports (more on those later).

On board buttons are limited to three volume up and down and mute because the main functions are controlled remotely. With its built in amp and speaker terminals, the ZP120 needs only a pair of speakers connected to fill a room with music no other audio equipment is required. (Sonos offers the SP100 speakers, but nearly any set of unpowered speakers will suffice.) But the ZP90 ZonePlayer is intended for those rooms where there's already an audio system in place. Just about anything will do a tabletop radio, a mini system, an iPod speaker system, or a full fledged AV receiver so long as it has an auxiliary line in jack.

Because it lacks the built in amplifier, the ZonePlayer ZP90 is smaller than its big brother it measures just 2.9 by 5.4 inches square and weighs a mere 1.5 pounds. As a result, it can fit in plenty of tight spots that the larger ZonePlayer can't. The front panel offers the same sparse volume controls, but the ZP90's tiny backside is chock full of jacks in addition to analog stereo inputs and outputs, there are also two digital audio outputs (one coaxial, one optical) for single wire all digital connections. Two Ethernet jacks provide network connectivity.

Features
Sonos Digital Music System can stream a wide range of file formats from your personal music collection. With the exception of lossless WMA files, nearly all other file format standards will stream perfectly : MP3, AAC, WMA (nonloss less), Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, Apple Lossless, WAV, and AIFF files are compatible, as are Audible audio books. Since DRM (digital rights management) is, thankfully, largely a thing of the past for music purchases, the wide file compatibility means that Sonos will stream downloaded tracks bought from iTunes, Amazon, Classical.com, eMusic, Napster, WalMart, Live Downloads, and Zune Marketplace.

The only caveat is for iTunes : most of the tracks purchased from the Apple site before 2009 will still be encoded with Fairplay DRM and will not be streamable by the Sonos until and unless you "upgrade" them via the iTunes Store to the DRM free iTunes Plus version (it costs 30 cents per track, or $3 per album). Perhaps more importantly, Sonos also offers a great selection of online music services from both subscription (paid) and free sources, each of which can be accessed from the Sonos Controller without the need to have the PC powered up.

The Rhapsody, Sirius, and Napster premium services each charge a monthly fee. (All of them offer a free 30 day trial through the Sonos, available at the touch of the screen no annoying sign up process or limitations.) Last.fm and Pandora are free streaming music services (with optional step up paid versions). Nearly all of the services offer access to thousands of artists, songs, and albums across a variety of genres, available on demand or via customized "stations." In addition to importing all of your iTunes playlists, Sonos also offers its own playlists. The advantage of the latter is that you can build them from the remote and (what's really cool) mix and match your own music with some of the "rentable" tracks from the likes of Rhapsody and Napster (assuming you're a subscriber).

Pay Per Second calling plans in India

Again a massive revolution in Indian telecom industry is on its way. It was earlier Pay per minute then came Pay per call and now its time for Pay per second.

Yes, most of the telecom providers in India have launched their Pay per second plans which means you pay only for the time you talk. It began with Tata docomo, Aircel with Airtel, Idea and others soon coming in with their plans.

Now by paying a small fess (vary with provider) you will get entitled to this plan. You will be charged 1 paisa per second. So that makes 60 paise per minute. If you talk for 10 seconds you pay only 10 paisa.

I guess this is a very nice move by the telecom providers, and will soon bring another revolution in the industry. I would like others to share their reviews about this new move. Have you started using it now, will you be going for it..?

Rebtel offers free Voip calls to Pakistan

This is big by the voip giant Rebtel. Making calls to Pakistan is not a costly affair now, instead its now free. Yes Rebtel is now offering free calls to Pakistan and 50 more countries. Rebtel is now offering free calls to Pakistan and free calls from Pakistan to 50 more free countries included in their list.

Rebtel is offering local access numbers (two numbers), one in Karachi and one in lahore. When you make calls to these numbers, you pay only for your local calls. The international part is made free by Rebtel. The free calling procedure has already been discussed on this blog, but let me explain it again.

If suppose, you live in Pakistan and want to call your friend in USA free. It can be vice versa, you living in USA and calling your family in Pakistan free. Firtly both of you need an activated Rebtel account. Make it first. After that you will be given a local number (say if you in USA then you get a local USA number) for your friend whose living in Pakistan. It means when you call this USA number your call will be connected to Pakistan. Wait still call is not through, now when you call your friend, ask him to dial this local Pakistan number (he will be asked to do that). You are not suppossed to cancel the call in between.

When he also dial this number, the call will get connected. So both of yo pay just the local call rates but actually the call is International. Some of the countries from where you can call Pakistan free are -:

Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech, Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hongkong, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Poland, Puerto Rico, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, USA.

Please share your feedback about this move of Rebtel.

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