This VOIP thing seems to be a waste of time and effort.
I have read a lot of messages on here and have noticed people having so
many problems, I have looked at web site and prices and to be honest,
the prices are no better than what I can get on my normal home phone
line. Yet most VOPI suppliers will charge £9 a month.
I already get charged £9 a month on phone rental, my calls in the UK are
next to nothing in the day time and cost me 5p for 80 minutes in the
evenings and weekends. People who uses the same phone company as myself,
I can call them free anytime. International calls are also very cheap.
I do use MSN to talk to a couple of people in the U.S because it is
free, but is about as close to VOIP I will ever get. Yes I know BT is
changing it's system to VOIP, but I will make no difference to me, I
just hope it is reliable.
"Ad C" <graphi47uk@y.a.h.o.o.co.uk> wrote in message
news:MPG.1d5d33d51ca8b04898978c@news.metronet.co.u k...
This VOIP thing seems to be a waste of time and effort.
I have read a lot of messages on here and have noticed people having so
many problems, I have looked at web site and prices and to be honest,
the prices are no better than what I can get on my normal home phone
line. Yet most VOPI suppliers will charge £9 a month.
I already get charged £9 a month on phone rental, my calls in the UK are
next to nothing in the day time and cost me 5p for 80 minutes in the
evenings and weekends. People who uses the same phone company as myself,
I can call them free anytime. International calls are also very cheap.
I do use MSN to talk to a couple of people in the U.S because it is
free, but is about as close to VOIP I will ever get. Yes I know BT is
changing it's system to VOIP, but I will make no difference to me, I
just hope it is reliable.
If you are a home user then yes there isn't a lot of attraction yet as most
of the people you call will not have a VoIP account etc. Indeed the
technology is new and so there will be a lot of 'technical' problems until
it is as smooth as using the standard PSTN.
But there are many applications of VoIP - particularly for a business which
make it very attractive.
I am interested personally because I provide phone systems to businesses and
I am in the process of building a solution using VoIP based on the Asterisk.
But probably most of the systems I build in the short term will be VoIP
gateways so a company can use IP phones internally but external calls will
go out over traditional PSTN.
Angus
"Ad C" <graphi47uk@y.a.h.o.o.co.uk> wrote in message
news:MPG.1d5d33d51ca8b04898978c@news.metronet.co.u k...
This VOIP thing seems to be a waste of time and effort.
I have read a lot of messages on here and have noticed people having so
many problems, I have looked at web site and prices and to be honest,
the prices are no better than what I can get on my normal home phone
line. Yet most VOPI suppliers will charge £9 a month.
I already get charged £9 a month on phone rental, my calls in the UK are
next to nothing in the day time and cost me 5p for 80 minutes in the
evenings and weekends. People who uses the same phone company as myself,
I can call them free anytime. International calls are also very cheap.
I do use MSN to talk to a couple of people in the U.S because it is
free, but is about as close to VOIP I will ever get. Yes I know BT is
changing it's system to VOIP, but I will make no difference to me, I
just hope it is reliable.
The main reason i like it ,is because it give additional lines at a
cheap price. So everyone in the house can be on the phone at the same
time, no arguements!
Ad C wrote:
> This VOIP thing seems to be a waste of time and effort.
>
> I have read a lot of messages on here and have noticed people having so
> many problems, I have looked at web site and prices and to be honest,
> the prices are no better than what I can get on my normal home phone
> line. Yet most VOPI suppliers will charge £9 a month.
>
> I already get charged £9 a month on phone rental, my calls in the UK are
> next to nothing in the day time and cost me 5p for 80 minutes in the
> evenings and weekends. People who uses the same phone company as myself,
> I can call them free anytime. International calls are also very cheap.
>
> I do use MSN to talk to a couple of people in the U.S because it is
> free, but is about as close to VOIP I will ever get. Yes I know BT is
> changing it's system to VOIP, but I will make no difference to me, I
> just hope it is reliable.
>
For most domestic users I think you're right. Where it *really* comes
into its own is for businesses who make large numbers of short calls,
and who can replace multiple ISDN30 trunks with 2Mbps SDSL connections.
Oh, and for geographic presence, of course.
jd
--
John Daragon john@argv.co.uk
argv[0] limited (Asterisk implementation & consultancy)
Lambs Lawn Cottage, Staple Fitzpaine, Taunton, TA3 5SL, UK
v +44 (0) 1460 234068 f +44 (0) 1460 234069 m +44 (0) 7836 576127
"Ad C" <graphi47uk@y.a.h.o.o.co.uk> wrote in message
news:MPG.1d5d33d51ca8b04898978c@news.metronet.co.u k...
This VOIP thing seems to be a waste of time and effort.
can call them free anytime. International calls are also very cheap.
I do use MSN to talk to a couple of people in the U.S because it is
free, but is about as close to VOIP I will ever get. Yes I know BT is
changing it's system to VOIP, but I will make no difference to me, I
just hope it is reliable.
===
I sell VOIP ethernet phones and have spoken to people at computer fairs etc
I have to agree with a lot of what you say, for the every day person in the
street VOIP as it is now is a toy, in that it is nice to have but is not
needed, call charges with people like sipgate, voipfone etc are not lower
than 18866.com
and with deals lile that offerered by NTL its hard to recoup back any money.
However how I see benefit of VOIP is to offering services which you would
not normally think of doing with BT
For example if you have a busy house with lots of teenagers who want to use
the phone, its very cheap to have a couple of sipgate lines running
so there is always a free phone in the house.
If you work from differeent sites and want to keep the same local phone
number without have a redirection to the other sites or your mobile its easy
to do.
Living/working in spain and don't want people to call international to speak
to you, get a UK SIP account...free
Starting your own business and want a high power PBX system but don't want
to pay a fortune for kit which is out of date as soon as it is installed
use a virtual PBX or Asterisks.
There is lots of things that can be done other than just trying to save
money on call costs
"RH" <rh@nospicedhamexelsys.com> wrote in message
news:dcvqgt$l99$1$8302bc10@news.demon.co.uk...
>
> "Ad C" <graphi47uk@y.a.h.o.o.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:MPG.1d5d33d51ca8b04898978c@news.metronet.co.u k...
> This VOIP thing seems to be a waste of time and effort.
>
> can call them free anytime. International calls are also very cheap.
>
> I do use MSN to talk to a couple of people in the U.S because it is
> free, but is about as close to VOIP I will ever get. Yes I know BT is
> changing it's system to VOIP, but I will make no difference to me, I
> just hope it is reliable.
> ===
>
> I sell VOIP ethernet phones and have spoken to people at computer fairs
> etc I have to agree with a lot of what you say, for the every day person
> in the street VOIP as it is now is a toy, in that it is nice to have but
> is not needed, call charges with people like sipgate, voipfone etc are not
> lower than 18866.com
> and with deals lile that offerered by NTL its hard to recoup back any
> money.
>
> However how I see benefit of VOIP is to offering services which you would
> not normally think of doing with BT
> For example if you have a busy house with lots of teenagers who want to
> use the phone, its very cheap to have a couple of sipgate lines running
> so there is always a free phone in the house.
>
> If you work from differeent sites and want to keep the same local phone
> number without have a redirection to the other sites or your mobile its
> easy to do.
>
> Living/working in spain and don't want people to call international to
> speak to you, get a UK SIP account...free
>
> Starting your own business and want a high power PBX system but don't want
> to pay a fortune for kit which is out of date as soon as it is installed
> use a virtual PBX or Asterisks.
>
> There is lots of things that can be done other than just trying to save
> money on call costs
>
It does have some features which are useful but on the whole it is not worth
bothering with if your only use is domestic telephony. Get a cheap deal from
your provider.
On Fri, 5 Aug 2005 14:44:57 +0100, "RH" <rh@nospicedhamexelsys.com>
wrote:
>Living/working in spain and don't want people to call international to speak
>to you, get a UK SIP account...free
This may not apply to Spain, but from many countries, particularly
those outside Europe, international calls are still quite expensive.
Being able to call the UK for 1p a minute from where I am in Asia
saves me a lot of money.
Thus spaketh Chris Blunt:
> On Fri, 5 Aug 2005 14:44:57 +0100, "RH" <rh@nospicedhamexelsys.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Living/working in spain and don't want people to call international
>> to speak to you, get a UK SIP account...free
>
> This may not apply to Spain, but from many countries, particularly
> those outside Europe, international calls are still quite expensive.
> Being able to call the UK for 1p a minute from where I am in Asia
> saves me a lot of money.
>
> Chris
Why not use VoIP Buster or VoIP Cheap and pay nothing instead!
--
For South East Brum: http://www.south-east-birmingham.tk
For Free £10 credit when you get referred to TalkTalk or £5 when referred to
easyMobile contact me via above site.
"Ad C" <graphi47uk@y.a.h.o.o.co.uk> wrote in message
news:MPG.1d5d33d51ca8b04898978c@news.metronet.co.u k...
This VOIP thing seems to be a waste of time and effort.
Depends on your situation. I spend most of my year in a shared house where
there is no phone line (6 people in the house, would be a nightmare to work
out the bill and there would be many an argument about freeing up the line
so someones other half could talk to them etc), and to get a good mobile
signal you have to goto the top floor, lie on your side and stay still! We
do however have ntl cable. I splashed out on an ATA and now people can call
me on a geographic number, and I can call landlines cheaply peak rate. Its
the ideal solution for me as it costs me nothing, except my 1.19p/min
outgoing calls, and solves my problem of poor mobile signal, expensive
mobile peak rate calls, and people only being able to call me on a mobile
number. Plus the small other number of people I know on VOIP I can call for
free.
If however you live alone, and have BT based ADSL where you have to have a
phone line anyway, then there would be no real point in VOIP.
I think at the moment its more of a 'useful toy', and in some ways a proper
solution to peoples needs, but no, it isnt yet a good replacement for joe
smith to have as their primary line.
> It does have some features which are useful but on the whole it is
> not worth bothering with if your only use is domestic telephony.
> Get a cheap deal from your provider.
It is extremely useful if you want additional numbers. These do not have
to be in the same area code as your main fixed line, either - I have a
Birmingham 0121 number and two London 020 numbers which are very useful.
It is also extemely useful when I am on holiday - the friends in the USA
that I stay with have ADSL so I can plug an ATA into their router and have
my UK phone numbers available just as if I were at home.
> If however you live alone, and have BT based ADSL where you have to
> have a phone line anyway, then there would be no real point in VOIP.
> I think at the moment its more of a 'useful toy', and in some ways
> a proper solution to peoples needs, but no, it isnt yet a good
> replacement for joe smith to have as their primary line.
It is very useful if you want additional numbers. I keep the BT line as a
fax line (fax over VoIP is still rather problematic) but all my voice
calls go over the Sipgate lines.
I use 18866 VoIP softphone. Perfect transmission every time. Costs 0ppm for
UK and 1p connection. Headset cost me a £1 from the pound shop.
"Ad C" <graphi47uk@y.a.h.o.o.co.uk> wrote in message
news:MPG.1d5d33d51ca8b04898978c@news.metronet.co.u k...
This VOIP thing seems to be a waste of time and effort.
I have read a lot of messages on here and have noticed people having so
many problems, I have looked at web site and prices and to be honest,
the prices are no better than what I can get on my normal home phone
line. Yet most VOPI suppliers will charge £9 a month.
I already get charged £9 a month on phone rental, my calls in the UK are
next to nothing in the day time and cost me 5p for 80 minutes in the
evenings and weekends. People who uses the same phone company as myself,
I can call them free anytime. International calls are also very cheap.
I do use MSN to talk to a couple of people in the U.S because it is
free, but is about as close to VOIP I will ever get. Yes I know BT is
changing it's system to VOIP, but I will make no difference to me, I
just hope it is reliable.
Ivor Jones wrote:
> Alex wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
>
>>If however you live alone, and have BT based ADSL where you have to
>>have a phone line anyway, then there would be no real point in VOIP.
>>I think at the moment its more of a 'useful toy', and in some ways
>>a proper solution to peoples needs, but no, it isnt yet a good
>>replacement for joe smith to have as their primary line.
>
>
> It is very useful if you want additional numbers. I keep the BT line as a
> fax line (fax over VoIP is still rather problematic) but all my voice
> calls go over the Sipgate lines.
>
> Ivor
>
>
I've noticed some big delays when using Sipgate........When calling
out... And when calling in. Seems to take a while to start ringing
either way
On Fri, 5 Aug 2005 09:30:15 +0100, Ad C <graphi47uk@y.a.h.o.o.co.uk>
wrote:
>I already get charged £9 a month on phone rental, my calls in the UK are
>next to nothing in the day time and cost me 5p for 80 minutes in the
>evenings and weekends. People who uses the same phone company as myself,
>I can call them free anytime. International calls are also very cheap.
IMHO anyone who tries to sell a VoIP service on the cost of calls is
completely missing the point. The benefits of VoIP include portability
and flexibility of equipment and numbering, for example being able to
have a french number in the UK or have incoming calls ring a phone in
the UK and Australia at the same time.
Since the majority of call costs in the UK are to mobiles I really
can't anyone marketing VoIP here solely on price succeeding, you can
get similar rates as you say from any company without the equipment,
hassle and quality of service issues.
In the US it's a bit different as they don't have the same type of
competition that we have, mobile calls usually cost the callee not the
caller and most broadband is supplied without a phone line.
In article <3lgn10F12kqegU1@individual.net>, nospam@nospam.net says...
>
> >This VOIP thing seems to be a waste of time and effort.
>
> I sort of agree with you except I use VoIP two extra free incoming lines.
I can see that being useful and no doubt cheaper than using BT.
>
> Other than that, I wouldn't bother with it either. Its not as reliable as a
> BT line on the whole.
>
In article <AWFIe.83029$G8.50991@text.news.blueyonder.co.uk >, nobody@blueyonder.invalid says...
> For you it might be a waste of time, but not for everyone
I would say it would be for most of the population of this country.
>
> > I already get charged £9 a month on phone rental
> I don't have a real phone line so dont pay ANY line rental.
>
Then you must have cable, since to use Broadband, you need a phone line
or cable. I suppose you can have satellite broadband, but most of them
still need a phoneline for outgoing.
Things may change one day, when we do not have to pay a rental for a
phone line,, then VOIP may come into it's own, but I think it will be
many years.
> If you are a home user then yes there isn't a lot of attraction yet as most
> of the people you call will not have a VoIP account etc. Indeed the
But you can call people who have land lines?
> technology is new and so there will be a lot of 'technical' problems until
> it is as smooth as using the standard PSTN.
Quality is also the problem as well, If you use the bandwidth for the
internet, then the quality of your phone call will drop.
>
> But there are many applications of VoIP - particularly for a business which
> make it very attractive.
I can undertsand that.
>
> I am interested personally because I provide phone systems to businesses and
> I am in the process of building a solution using VoIP based on the Asterisk.
> But probably most of the systems I build in the short term will be VoIP
> gateways so a company can use IP phones internally but external calls will
> go out over traditional PSTN.
>
I see.
I do nto like this idea of people being able to use different codes, how
the hell are we going to know where we are dialling to and also where
the call is coming from?
In article <dcvf76$oip$1@news.freedom2surf.net>, seanhardy88NOSPAM@yahoo.co.uk says...
> The main reason i like it ,is because it give additional lines at a
> cheap price. So everyone in the house can be on the phone at the same
> time, no arguements!
>
In article <42f352bc$0$14348$db0fefd9@news.zen.co.uk>, john@argv.co.uk
says...
>
> For most domestic users I think you're right. Where it *really* comes
> into its own is for businesses who make large numbers of short calls,
> and who can replace multiple ISDN30 trunks with 2Mbps SDSL connections.
In article <dcvqgt$l99$1$8302bc10@news.demon.co.uk>, rh@nospicedhamexelsys.com says...
>
> I sell VOIP ethernet phones and have spoken to people at computer fairs etc
> I have to agree with a lot of what you say, for the every day person in the
> street VOIP as it is now is a toy, in that it is nice to have but is not
> needed, call charges with people like sipgate, voipfone etc are not lower
> than 18866.com
> and with deals lile that offerered by NTL its hard to recoup back any money.
My phone provider gives me a decent deal and I have saved so much over
the last 12 months compared to when I was using BT.
>
> However how I see benefit of VOIP is to offering services which you would
> not normally think of doing with BT
> For example if you have a busy house with lots of teenagers who want to use
> the phone, its very cheap to have a couple of sipgate lines running
> so there is always a free phone in the house.
It is only myself here, and I doubt the cat would want to phone
anywhere. But I can see your point.
>
> If you work from differeent sites and want to keep the same local phone
> number without have a redirection to the other sites or your mobile its easy
> to do.
>
> Living/working in spain and don't want people to call international to speak
> to you, get a UK SIP account...free
>
> Starting your own business and want a high power PBX system but don't want
> to pay a fortune for kit which is out of date as soon as it is installed
> use a virtual PBX or Asterisks.
I can also understand that,
> There is lots of things that can be done other than just trying to save
> money on call costs
>
>
Maybe, but I can not see many people bothering with it, apart from peple
who are interested in that sort of thing.
In article <V4udnQYaYKbg7G7fRVnytg@eclipse.net.uk>, brian@siptech.co.uk
says...
>
> It does have some features which are useful but on the whole it is not worth
> bothering with if your only use is domestic telephony. Get a cheap deal from
> your provider.
>
That is my thoughts, I am interested in the way all of this works,
because that is the way I am, but to use it myself, I think it would
works out costing me more.
In article <qdLIe.10868$n97.6759@newsfe1-win.ntli.net>, spamtrap@nospam.com says...
>
>
> Depends on your situation. I spend most of my year in a shared house where
> there is no phone line (6 people in the house, would be a nightmare to work
> out the bill and there would be many an argument about freeing up the line
> so someones other half could talk to them etc), and to get a good mobile
> signal you have to goto the top floor, lie on your side and stay still! We
> do however have ntl cable. I splashed out on an ATA and now people can call
> me on a geographic number, and I can call landlines cheaply peak rate. Its
> the ideal solution for me as it costs me nothing, except my 1.19p/min
> outgoing calls, and solves my problem of poor mobile signal, expensive
> mobile peak rate calls, and people only being able to call me on a mobile
> number. Plus the small other number of people I know on VOIP I can call for
> free.
Ok, I can see your point and that it is useful to you and maybe other
people in your situation. It may even be useful to my nephew, when he is
at uni.
> If however you live alone, and have BT based ADSL where you have to have a
> phone line anyway, then there would be no real point in VOIP.
> I think at the moment its more of a 'useful toy', and in some ways a proper
> solution to peoples needs, but no, it isnt yet a good replacement for joe
> smith to have as their primary line.
>
I agree here. I think it will be a long time before a single person or
even two people in the house would find it useful.
In article <3lhnniF12kessU1@individual.net>, ivor@despammed.invalid
says...
>>
> It is very useful if you want additional numbers. I keep the BT line as a
> fax line (fax over VoIP is still rather problematic) but all my voice
> calls go over the Sipgate lines.
>
My fax is on the same line as my voice, but then I do not bother with
fax that often.
In article <42f3ad4e$0$57688$892e7fe2@authen.white.readfreene ws.net>,
Stickems.@last.invalid says...
> I use 18866 VoIP softphone. Perfect transmission every time. Costs 0ppm for
> UK and 1p connection. Headset cost me a £1 from the pound shop.
>
But you got to be by the computer for that, so I may as well keep with
MSN messenger for talking to the people I talk to in the states and my
normal phone for normal use.
I know I got to be by the computer to take using MSN, but it is with the
computer, nothing else to pay.
In article <0kn7f11777a35f62cqra906ghueeo4sla2@4ax.com>, nospam@nospam.comm says...
>>
> IMHO anyone who tries to sell a VoIP service on the cost of calls is
> completely missing the point. The benefits of VoIP include portability
> and flexibility of equipment and numbering, for example being able to
> have a french number in the UK or have incoming calls ring a phone in
> the UK and Australia at the same time.
So if our caller Id system comes up with some number in the U.K, it
could be someone in spain? It is worng, at the end of the day, caller
I.d is suppose to give us some idea, wherte the call is from and who it
is.
> Since the majority of call costs in the UK are to mobiles I really
> can't anyone marketing VoIP here solely on price succeeding, you can
> get similar rates as you say from any company without the equipment,
> hassle and quality of service issues.
Most of my calls are to land lines, I will not call a mobile, unless it
is very important, I do not even use my own mobile that often.
>
> In the US it's a bit different as they don't have the same type of
> competition that we have, mobile calls usually cost the callee not the
> caller and most broadband is supplied without a phone line.
>
When/if that happens here, then things may change.
In message of Sat, 6 Aug 2005, Ad C writes
>In article <0kn7f11777a35f62cqra906ghueeo4sla2@4ax.com>,
>nospam@nospam.comm says...
>>>
>> IMHO anyone who tries to sell a VoIP service on the cost of calls is
>> completely missing the point. The benefits of VoIP include portability
>> and flexibility of equipment and numbering, for example being able to
>> have a french number in the UK or have incoming calls ring a phone in
>> the UK and Australia at the same time.
>
>So if our caller Id system comes up with some number in the U.K, it
>could be someone in spain? It is worng, at the end of the day, caller
>I.d is suppose to give us some idea, wherte the call is from and who it
>is.
>
Not at all. If your mate Fred's number is 01234 567890 (I don't think
Bedford has issued that number, btw) and you receive a call from
01234567890 you know it's Fred. What you don't know is exactly where
he's calling from in the world. But does that matter? If he called you
from his mobile, you still wouldn't know where he was calling from. What
you do know is that it is Fred and that you can call him back on that
number where-ever he is. I don't see the problem.
Ad C wrote:
> This VOIP thing seems to be a waste of time and effort.
>
> I have read a lot of messages on here and have noticed people having so
> many problems, I have looked at web site and prices and to be honest,
> the prices are no better than what I can get on my normal home phone
> line. Yet most VOPI suppliers will charge £9 a month.
>
> I already get charged £9 a month on phone rental, my calls in the UK are
> next to nothing in the day time and cost me 5p for 80 minutes in the
> evenings and weekends. People who uses the same phone company as myself,
> I can call them free anytime. International calls are also very cheap.
>
> I do use MSN to talk to a couple of people in the U.S because it is
> free, but is about as close to VOIP I will ever get. Yes I know BT is
> changing it's system to VOIP, but I will make no difference to me, I
> just hope it is reliable.
>
I think you're right in that voip for free calls is a waste of time.
Ultimately, voip providers are paying the same rates for their calls as
others, so they're just margin cutting.
The benefits of voip come from the greater array of features, uses and
flexibility you get from your telephone system, with a much lower
capital cost.
VOIP seems a waste of time 
Linear Mode
