We use VOIP (voice over internet protocol) extensively in our office. For those of you not in the know this basically means using the internet for your phone calls rather than traditional phone lines and at a considerable saving on the "normal cost" of traditional phonecalls.
You can use VOIP in a number of ways:
- Using a VoIP telephone
- Using a "normal" telephone with a VoIP adapter
- Using a computer with speakers and a microphone
Here in the office our experience with VOIP has been largely positive. It is vastly cheaper than using normal phone lines especially for long distance calls. Indeed with many of the providers a number of long distance locations are actually free.
Quality of the line can be variable and because of that we use three different providers: Skype, VOIPbuster and Blueface. We have found that when sound quality on one provider is poor on a particular day we just switch to one of the other providers. Skype in our experience is the most expensive of these three providers. We use these on a "pay as you go basis" and each charges a per minute fee to various destinations. As I mentioned they provide free calls to some locations. If you were very clever you could only use each provider for locations to which their calls are free.
The bottom line is that we use VOIP extensively for our Hotel Bookings to overseas locations and our normal phone lines for local calls and to speak with clients.
I came across a company Vonage in the UK the other day. I had not heard of them before (perhaps I have been living in a cave!). The reason they stood out to me is that they offer a number of set price packages i.e. all calls to certain locations are "free" for a set monthly rate. So you can spend hours on the phone and know that at the end of the month your charge is the same.
Their packages start at £5.99 per month (it rises to £7.99 after 6 months - they'll get you eventually!) for unlimited calls to the UK and Ireland. Their top plan costs £18.99 per month for unlimited free calls to 45 countries worldwide. You need some equipment (a box between your computer and your phone) and these cost from Free to £9.99. These are their home user rates and they offer business packages as well. What caught my attention was the low monthly cost. As with all these things of course there is a catch - a 12 month contract and you don't know how well it's going to work on your broadband connection until you try it (Hobsons choice!).
As I hadn't heard of them before I had a quick scoot around the internet and found plenty of positive words e.g. Review Centre, Mybroadband. There are some negative as well e.g. SMStextnews. Mainly positive reviews from what I see.
With any of these VOIP services the quality of your calls - sound quality, interference, delay etc. is definitely related to the quality of your broadband connection. So if your still on dial up or your broadband is slow VOIP is definitely not for you.
However, if you need to make extensive long distance phone calls VOIP is certainly worth considering. Untill the quality is consistently perfect (which in my experience it isn't) I am inclined to hold on to my landlines as well. As we say in Ireland "just to be sure to be sure"
Related (vaguely related only) articles:
Maxroam further improves - now you can roam for free
Maxroam reduces your roaming charges when travelling
Here at Hotel Express we are all about saving our clients money on their Hotel Expenses. Why not have a look at our website and see how we work. If you are interested in reducing the money you spend on Hotels for your business travel and want to save the time you waste booking them why not e mail us.
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