In article <4319a107$0$25428$db0fefd9@news.zen.co.uk>,
abuse@dopiaza.cabal.org.uk says...
>
> Iridium is a propietary mobile phone system, not a broadband system.
> Similar technology *could* be used to provide broadband, but Iridium
> concentrate more on voice.

I never heard of it, but that means nothing :-)


> [...]
> > My computer is on 24/7 and it don't cost me £60 a year, in fact I
> > got 2 computers on 24/7 and it don't cost me £60 a year.
>
> Are you sure of that?

Oh yes.

>
> I've put a power meter on various of my machines. The power
> consumption varies on all sorts of factors, but the readings varied
> between 90-180W at idle. The newer the machine, the more power it
> tends to draw.
>
> Let's take 120W as a reasonable average. So over an hour, it will
> consume 0.12kWh of energy. Multiply by 24 and 365.25 and you discover
> that it will consume 1052kWh over a year.
>
> The cost per kWh varies depending on your supplier and tariff, but it
> averages around 6p/kWh. 1052kWh * 0.05p/kWh = 6312p, or slightly over
> 60 quid.


Since my electric bill is only £180-£200 a year, I doubt £60 of that is
for the computers. Until the last few months, my cooking was by electric
as well. My electric bill should way down now.
a computer will only use what it needs, if it is idle, then it uses less
electric, the monitors are switched off most of the time and this
computer which is my main one have a LCd monitor anyway.


>
> [...]
> > But not everyone wants to go to that trouble just to have cheaper
> > calls to other countries, which is what people will use Skype for
> > most of the time.
>
> Strange. I took one look at X-Lite and found it lacking, and a pain to
> use. The Sipura mostly just works.

What is X-lite?


> Well, yes, you don't actually save any money on the VoIP services
> offered to consumers. That end of the market seems to be mostly
> chancers preying on customers who have heard that "VoIP is cheap" and
> don't look too closely at the prices.

so I will go back to my very first post on this newsgroup. What is the
point of it all?
>
> Check out Gradwell's price list for a WTF? moment. Remember that you
> need to add VAT on top. (Quoting ex-VAT prices to consumers? Naughty,
> naughty...)
>


Whose price list? My ISP had their prices excluding V.a.t on the front
page, they have changed it now mind you.