Brian A wrote:
> On Wed, 20 Jun 2007 07:56:54 GMT, Lobster
> <davidlobsterpot601@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I'm going to the USA for a period soon and will be staying in
>> wi-fi-enabled (ie, free) homes. Will be taking a laptop with me.

Thanks everyone for the advice - much appreciated.

> In my opinion it is not a good plan to limit yourself to Skype. If you
> go for Skype you will be commiting yourself to a single provider. If
> you go for SIP voip you will have the choice of hundreds of providers.

Got it. Have signed up at sipgate.co.uk for now, and will see how I get
on (if ever they get round to emailing the activation link! :-( )

> If you are tied to wifi, as opposed to a wired link to the Net, then
> you will not be able to easily use a wifi adapter. This means the use
> of a wifi phone. I'll leave it to others to suggest what phone would
> be best.
> Alternatively, you could use a softphone on a laptop, if you have
> one, that would cost you nothing but you would be tied to your laptop.

For now I have a earpiece/mic combo I can use to test it all out, but I
thought you could buy a voipy-type phone with a USB plug on the end
which connected to the computer... is that not the case (at least with
wifi?) What's the difference with a wifi and hard-wired connection?

> Such software could be x-lite. I would recommend a voxalot set up for
> that as it would permit numerous incoming and outgoing providers.

> Also, check out the services of
> http://www.voxalot.com

Seems to be n/a - is that temporary or is it defunct? Have downloaded
x-lite from Sipgate.

So... given that shortly I will be able to call a UK number from my
laptop here in the UK, at 1.2p/min, or a US number at a whopping
1.5p/min - am I right in thinking that when I go to the US and use the
laptop there, the tariffs will be identical when calling those countries?

Thanks
David