Skype or some other VOIP?

[Dennis Leahy]

I made a couple of calls using Skype about a year and a half ago. From the USA to Scotland. Completely free software, completely free call. And, the voice quality was better than my land-line telephone. (I understand that VIOP is not always perfect, but when you get a great connection, more of the audio spectrum is supported than by telephone lines, and so the quality allows more natural sounding voices.)

Other VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) options, besides Skype? I know Kim used something else, and mentioned a very small charge.

If Skype works so well, and is totally free, why would you pay for VOIP? I realize that there is a charge if you want to call a regular telephone "line", or accept calls from a regular telephone "line", but calls from computer-to-computer (with both users wearing headsets, or at least a mic and speakers connected) are free.

So, those using VOIP - what are you using and why?

I have a couple of family members now getting interested, and they have webcams and Skype installed, so I'll re-download and install Skype. But, if I need to use something else to hear Kim or Bob pronounce "crikey" for me, I might need to download and install something else, right?

Dennis

[Bob Connor]

Dennis

The option that Kim and I (and Tim S, I believe) are using is signing up with a VOIP provider so that our house phones can be used as VOIP phones.

I did have the VOIP service as our only phone communication for a few weeks but the quality wasn't consistently good enough to keep the women of the house happy. (I am the only bloke in our residence)

So I now have the Batphone in my office and the ladies of the household use the POTS (plain old telephone) system. This is great because the harangueing has ceased. And for $20 a month I can make free untimed national calls and free international calls to 8 countries.

The VOIP system won't get to a reasonable and consistent level of service until all ISP's globally agree to a consistent QOS (quality of service) policy which guarantees the voice packets are given priority over other internet traffic.(like web pages, email, torrents etc) The internet routers are primarily from Cisco Systems or Juniper Networks and both are capable of several different queuing systems and we are seeing new features being introduced into their operating systems which are specifically designed to enhance VOIP quality.

In reality it works in the reverse and the internet traffic which is not dependant on timely delivery (like HTTP, FTP, SMTP,POP3) is dropped first when a link on an internet router becomes congested so that the voice packets are forwarded with no delay.

Unfortunately in Australia our national carrier Telstra has it's profit base in POTS services so they will not prioritise voice traffic until such time as the profitability of the POTS system diminishes to the point that they decide to switch totally to a VOIP system.

They are moving towards this but it won't happen soon. The telephone exchanges here have been changed so the telephone trunks around the country are being switched through routers generally using Primary Rate ISDN TDM links but the infrastructure is there to switch it through the ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) networks that our broadband internet links run on.

I would imagine that many other countries would be in a similar situation.

VOIP is inevitable as the pervading method of telephony but it ain't quite ready yet.

Younger people will early adopters of this technology as they have grown up accepting the reduced quality of moble phones as the norm. Older users used to the guaranteed quality of the POTS system won't accept the lesser quality particularly when their business is dependant on it.

I will differentiate here between VOIP and Internet Telephony.

Solutions like Skype or Freshtel are considered to be Internet Telephony wheras the system that Kim and I have set up through Engin or Pennytel et al is considered VOIP.

Have a look at Freshtel Dennis. They are a Melbourne based company that have a similar service to Skype. I've used it before thought it was fine. They have recently done a deal through Tesco in the UK to sell their services in the supermarkets which is huge for Freshtel.

One thing I would suggest is to get a USB phone if you want to use Skype type services. Much easier and the quality is better than a cheap microphone and PC speakers.

The reason I pay for it is the transparency in allowing me to phone any regular phone number globally, without relying on the person at the other end having a particular piece of software installed.

I really don't use my Batphone enough so if anyone fancies a chat PM me through your phone number.

Bob

[Kim]

I have VOIP as opposed to Skype because it allows me to make all my calls cheaply to anyone, anywhere. eg: My Wife's Sister lives in China, my Wife calls her Sister's mobile phone and they chat for 45 min, the cost is cheap, cant be bothered looking right now, but under a buck total per call.

As for quality, I think that has a lot to do with your bandwidth. With ADSL 2, I do get some occasional echo, not dramatic mind, but it is there. However on those call where I do experience echo, it will normally dissipate in under 1 min and then the call quality is as good, if not better than a standard POTS call.

For VOIP I have a pre-paid, no access fee, no flag-fall, Timed account with Pennytel and a pre-paid, no access fee, no flag-fall Untimed account with World Dial Point, both are set to auto top-up from my credit card by $10.00 each time the balance drops to $5.00 . For POTS, or standard calls, I am with iiNet who is also my ISP and they wholesale from Telstra. I have no cable so I do need to pay line rental to get Internet otherwise I would ditch my land line completely. The line rental arrangement with iiNet does however allow me to bundle and therefore attract a discount for my ADSL2 connection. All up, I have no complaints.

As mentioned, my setup runs through an ADSL 2 connection with iiNet and this hooks into a Billion 7404VGP-M VOIP Modem Router. That model router has built in ATA's and will allow me to plug 2 x standard cordless handsets into it if I wish. At this stage I have not found the need for anymore than one handset but having said that, I do have two daughters, the eldest of which is about to be a teen so that could change soon. This modem router also allows me to program "dial plans" into the management software for each of the VOIP lines.

This is a handy feature because it allows me to setup my modem so that it will automatically use the cheapest server for each call type. IE most mobile phones in AU have a prefix of 04. Therefore I just find myself a prepaid, no access fee, server who offers the cheapest rate for calls to mobiles and then I configure the modem so that when someone dials 04, that call will automatically be placed with that cheaper server.

Another example; I mentioned that I have both timed, and untimed prepaid accounts. My wifes parents live in QLD and we live in WA which is on the other side of AU. I have setup the dial plan in the modem so that any calls made to prefix 07 (QLD), will be made through the untimed 10c flatrate server as I know my wife can then talk for 2 hours if she wishes for only that amount.

Most of our other calls are of a shorter duration so I set the modem so that all local, other STD and any International calls are placed through the incredibly cheap "Timed" rates which Pennytel offers. Finally, for national 13 numbers, like when you dial a pizza and the phone service directs your call to the nearest store to take your order, I have set the dial plan so that those calls avoid VOIP and are placed through my ISP using standard POTS so I get charged local call cost from them.

All this may sound confusing at first however, once you have set the dial plan into the modem, it all just runs itself and, other than a 4 second delay when first placing a call whilst the modem directs the call to the appropriate server, you just would not know the difference between dialing VOIP and using your normal POTS line... that is of course other than the fact that no one is sending you bills to pay anymore.

All in all, my call cost pre VOIP, after line rental, used to be around $150 to $180 a month, now they are under $20 and generally under $15 a month total. It should also be considered that we do make a LOT more calls now to places we would not consider before and we also tend to have a good chat as it is soo cheap eg, those 45 min calls to a mobile in China just would not have happened pre-VOIP.

Cheers all.

Kim

[Dennis Leahy]

Thanks, Bob and Kim, for the detailed responses. I will check out the options that you have outlined.

Dennis