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I just wondered if anyone had any experience of Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) Telephony.

I think BT offer something on these lines via their Total Broadband package, but I always find BT's site very hard to follow.

I currently have my landline with BT and have their Together Option 3 for voice calls, but my ISP is Pipex. I will be out of contract with Pipex next month so will then have the option to move to another ISP - if I choose - penalty-free.

Ideally I would like to stay with Pipex, (and BT for that matter) but just wondered how I would go about organising a VOIP system. Just lately I have needed to make several international calls, but have 'pushed my luck' and used the company phone. Aside from that, I have a cousin in Sydney, Australia, and an Aunt who is going out to Oz tomorrow for 4 months to visit her daughter (my cousin).

It would just be nice to be able to speak to my Aunt & cousin on the phone without taking out a second mortgage to cover the phone bill!

We've been using Skype to talk to the people in our Italian office.  Provided Skype is installed on the PC's at both ends it works well and is free. You do need a microphone or a headset, but if you call Oz regularly I think before long you'd make the money back in saved call costs.

You don't mention what sort of internet connection you  have. We do have broadband and I haven't tried it over dial up.

Hi Barnowl,

I have 2Mb broadband at home, but don't currently have a microphone. What I was thinking of rather than Skype is these phones that plug into the linebox on the wall (via the ADSL Filter) rather than something that plugs into the PC via a USB connection. I think BT say that you can have an extra number for these phones. (Does this make any sense?)

I don't regularly call Oz either...Tooo expensive.! Would be nice though.

I know the sort of thing you're talking about but I'm afraid don't have any experience of them.

No problem Barnowl but thanks for your interest. :)

Being cheeky I bought one of the tesco internet phones but didn't use their software. Windows XP automatically installs the software and Skype, which people have said is free, uses it fine. Tesco must be subsidising the phone since I have seen the same phone elsewhere on the web for £17 instead of the £10 they are charging...
Phones that plug straigh into your broadband are still quite a new invention (= expensive) and so if you want to save costs I would go with a USB one or if you have a sound card with mic in get a small headset (Tescos do them as well for even less than £10!!) and use that.
Best wishes,
woppa

I use Skype a lot as my sister lives in Spain and I also have to call Italy regularly. Have also used it to the States. If the person the other end also has Skype it is free Skype - Skype, but if you are dialling to a landline you just buy Skype credit and the calls cost about 1p per minute, cheaper than any other option I've found.
You can also have "virtual numbers" so people can call you, messages etc. but that all costs more so haven't tried it.
Skype also has a webcam option - free. I call my friend who also has a webcam and its brilliant, almost like having a conversation with the person there as the picture is great and almost synchronised. Many digital cameras can be used as webcams using a USB lead so no need for any extra expense if you already have a camera.
I'm a big fan as you can tell, but why pay money to people like BT when you can get for free?

If it is free international calls that is your main concern then I'm pretty sure "Telewest" and "Talk Talk" offer this service, that is apart from the free broadband etc: ;)

You might find this article interesting

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2035847,00.asp

Thanks for the further info.

The thing is with BT, that in August I went on to their Together Option 3 for I think 18 months tie up. That seemed a good deal at the time.

Since then, a new venture/hobby I have become involved with has recently entailed making several phone calls to someone in Germany. The cheapest BT call option - for an additional monthly fee of £1 - comes out at 3 pence/minute. Not a huge amount I know but when the calls last over an hour, it soon adds up. Conversely, the other party in German can call me for a rate of 0.90 Eurocents/minute (around 0.60 pence) so 20% of the BT cost. Absurdly it would still be 3 pence/minute if I called my cousin in Australia.

Obviously to benefit from Skype, both parties have to use the equipment. As the Germany to UK calls are so cheap anyway, there is no incentive.

Telewest? Isn't that cable only? We don't have cable around here worse luck.

I'm not too keen on Talk Talk due to the Carphone Warehouse connection. I won't dish the dirt here, but let's just say I don't want to get tied up with them.

Whilst it would be nice, free isn't necessarily the objective. Everything has a cost attached. What I would be happy with would be something like 1 pence/minute max.

I suppose I will have to put my 'thinking head' on and try to make sense of BT's overly complicated website!

BTW, thanks for the link Barnowl, I will have a look at that shortly.

I use Skype to call people in Germany, Spain and the US.

It is very easy to use, call quality is normally very good, sometmes better than my land line, nearly always better than my mobile.

If the person I'm calling has skype (very rare) the call is free, otherwise it is less than 1p per minute to call a land line phone in the country I'm calling.

Only downside is you need to have a computer running to use skype (unless you have one of the very expensive wifi skype phones).

Hope that helps.

Dan

I did a project for my degree on VoIP.

We have VoIP phones and normal phones at work. We intend to send phones and software to some of our remote customers where international calls are expensive.

Skype have a deal on at the moment where if you buy any credit points (credit is required to make skype to landline/mobile national/international calls) then you can use the systemfree for 6 months (conditions apply etc)

VoIP will be a big thing soon when it goes mobile when WiMAX takes over the world !!!!! (insert evil laugh smiley here)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WiMAX

VoIP phones can be bought for as little as £7 with quite a bit of functionality. Mobile VoIP phones are available but a touch expensive at the moment £150 they link to a wifi router/access point.

Often overlooked these can be used on MSN/Yahoo messenger etc if you already have an account

Just as a coincidence - whilst installing Firefox2 - found this www.jajah.com. (Ok in IE as well). Use your own phone and call free - perfect answer! I tried the demo and it definitely works.

Glow 777, yes I had a quick look on Wikipedia, my usual port of call if I don't understand something. Perhaps I should read it properly.

Periwinkle, that jajah site sounds very similar to the sort of option my friend in Germany has access too. She says she can go online and find the cheapest provider, and then just has to quote their prefix on a call by call basis - no commitment.

Thanks for taking the time out too Dan. I think you may have hit the nail on the head there. I honestly didn't realise that there was no requirement for the called party to have Skype set up.

Indeed thanks for everyone's suggestions so far, this is all very useful info.

Hello,
I heard about skype about a year ago, but only downloaded it last week and tried it for the first time this week with Yuet Lee- from on here -on Tuesday. It was brilliant. I couldn't believe it. She uses it a lot to talk to people in Hong Kong. I asked my OH to get her parents to install it and hopefully it will be all systems go very soon. My FIL is away apparently, but my MIL has asked my BIL to do the installing. Hopefully it'll work.

Only drawback, OH considers any of my ideas to be harebrained.  When I recommended shopping in Aldi and Lidl recently, she used to refer to the shops as....'that cheap shop you go to' till a contemporary of hers also recommended them and then she began to soften her approach to the discount retailers!

sayonara

I used Skype and Skypeout last year. It's funny that a fairly local call had less than perfect transmission with Skype, whereas a call from Morocco was as clear as could be.

I had a 29 minute chat with my cousin in Camino Island, Washington state for about 40p with Skypeout. At present I am using call18866 for most of my landline calls. My default service is Tiscali and I am thinking of having "anytime" added to my 2Mb broadband account, that will give me all UK geographical numbers with unlimited duration for £5 a month.

"When I recommended shopping in Aldi and Lidl recently, she used to refer to the shops as....'that cheap shop you go to' till a contemporary of hers also recommended them and then she began to soften her approach to the discount retailers!"

Aldi and Lidl are NOT discount retailers. They have a certain way of business which keeps down costs, they do not accept cheques or credit cards as these are charged for when they pay into their bank. Their stores are not all glitzi and chrome. And something I was told by a farmers wife, they pay up for the goods in the shortest time, whereas the usual supermarkets beat down their suppliers AND delay payment.
Aldi goods are good quality, we've used them for years (first started with them in Germany in the 1980's)

I see, I stand corrected.

Used skype to Japan at the weekend. Worked okay.

I have to bar myself from going to Aldi, or else I'd buy ALL their viennese whirl cakes. They are GORGEOUS.

I started this thread on 7th November to enquire about the possibilities of VoIP and Skype, so having now experienced Skype for the first time I feel that it is only reasonable to provide some feedback.

I have just spent over an hour chatting to someone in NW Germany on the FREE Skype service, and to be honest the person sounded as though she  was in the other room. The sound was so clear I could even hear her landline phone ringing in the background. I have decided to go the whole hog and have a webcam too so the call was actually a video call, with quite a good image as well thanks to additional lighting from the table lamps used by both parties.

All in all, I am very pleased with Skype. The total cost of the headset and webcam amounted to little more than £30, and for that I can make unlimited worldwide calls at zero cost, provided of course that the called party also has Skype.

I can certainly recommend it. ;)

The next challenge is to master GoogleTalk!  ??? :)

Having checked the last 12 months bills from call18866, I find that it is cheaper for me than the Tiscali anytime service. I found that I was paying an average of £5 for two months as against £5 for one month with Tiscali. So I've decided against the anytime option. The only disadvantage is having to dial 18866 before the called number, but I've set up my regular numbers on the memory dial of my phones.

Their website is http://www.call18866.co.uk