VoIP services in the UK? Just go with skype?

[Paul the 6th]

Just wondering if anyone uses skype VoIP calling in the place of a conventional landline? I rarely use my existing conventional landline so can't justify £14.99 a month as part of my virgin media package - but I do want to retain a proper geographical number so people can get hold of me in emergencies/if I have trouble with my mobile etc.

Looking at skype it's gonna be about £2.98 per month for 60 minutes worth of landline and mobile calling time, which is enough for me to phone for taxi's or phone my mobile when I've misplaced it somewhere in the house again. (N.B. £6.31 for 120 minutes worth if I really, really need the extra calling time.)

On top of this I have to purchase the actual geographical number which for 12 months is £40.25, but you get a 50% discount for having the above 60 or 120 minute calling package with Skype already, so for 12 months with a VoIP phone and geographical number it works out at £55.89 all-in. Compared with £180 for the year on the conventional landline with virgin.

30% of the current cost.

This is where I'm thinking it's too good to be true, surely? Are VoIP phones and VoIP providers not all they're cracked up to be? What's the service like? I know skype's free service is susceptible to dropped video/voice calls, but with a premium service I'd hope the comms are a little more reliable. Also, there is the cost of buying a VoIP phone unit which looks to be about £60 for a cordless jobbie... but that's a one off cost, and I'll have still paid £60 less over the next 12 months.

Anyone got any experience with this stuff? Will I need anything other than the VoIP phone or does it just plug straight into my netgear router?

Thanks in advance, Pt6

[Bibio]

http://www.vonage.co.uk/

i have been using them for about 10 years and only had a problem a handfull of times and mostly it was cables (virgin) fault.

free calls to landlines and cheep as chips to mobiles. i have 2 lines one at home and one at my mums and the bills are never over £20 a month.

i keep telling people about them but i get the feeling i'm talking to a brick wall.

[Paul the 6th]

cheers Bib, star vonage says "Just plug in the power supply, plug in your phone, and connect it to your Cable or DSL modem" for the vonage phone adapter - can I just plus it into my existing netgear router on one of the spare ports? Or does it have to be directly into the modem to avoid confusing it?

[Bibio]

they normally send out a router and if you phone i guess they have different options as in wireless or wired routers.

mine goes like cable modem>vonage router>remote wireless access point.

you plug your phone into the port on the router and off you go. they have a whole host of services for free like voicemail straight to your email in box.

if your going to go with vonage gives a shout as i get 3 months free for inviting you

[Paul the 6th]

outstanding, cheers dude - I'll be sure to let you know if I do, still doing the number crunching, vonage looks a bit like virgin media in terms of their monthly payment covers everything and if you decide to cancel then they want their vonage box back etc.. where as skype it's up to you to get your own phone and get it all working but if you cancel then there's no cancellation fee's..

I'll do some more maths and get back to you, but will definitely do the referral thing with you if I go with vonage.

[Bibio]

one more thing that Vonage has over skype is that you can make emergency calls as it for all intents and purposes is a landline. they also take your personal data seriously.

i have had about 3 cold calls in the past 10 years of having Vonage and each time they phone i ask one simple question 'where did you get my number' and if they say the phone book you know they are lying and when you tell them so you usually get the disconnection tone.. lol

With regards to Skype the call quality's pretty crappy.

Wouldn't use it for business but it might be okay for occasional residential use.

[Paul the 6th]

cheer adam, is that from personal experience or just common knowledge. I've used skype for voice only calls on my smartphone recently and always thought the call quality to be better than a conventional phone call.. actually sounds like the person is right there with you almost

[pookie]

I use sipgate and have a voip /bt gigaset telephone

http://www.live.sipgate.co.uk/?gclid...FefKtAodX1gAqw

and http://www.internetvoipphone.co.uk/gigaset-n300ip.html with a gigaset handset

sip is standard voip protocol and there are many clients for android and probably iphone too.

There were giving away free geographical numbers at one point too.

Haven't used it on the VoIP end for ages but it always used to clip words, because the compression removes dead air (also why it can sound clearer, it takes out those little background noises) it can cut off the beginning and end of words and make them difficult to hear sometimes.

At work a few of the helpdesks are on VoIP and it also seems to be bad for areas with loud background noise (for instance, everywhere we call them from).