IP Telephony

I can hear most readers yawning now - but in a bid to use the new superfast broadband to excess, This week in my spare moments I've mostly been messing around with making telephone calls over the internet. It's not a new idea by any stretch of the imagination - I've been doing similar things at work for at least 3 years.

So on Monday last week I set up a softphone - X-Lite from XTen and managed to register it with SIPGate to get a regular telephone number diallable just like any other, from a choice of almost all UK dialling codes, tried some inbound calls from the mobile and the quality was perfectly acceptable. Not too painful to set up - but definitely not one for the total novice.

On Wednesday, I tried my first hardware IP phone - the Rolls-Royce of IP Telephony - a Cisco 7960. It needed a firmware update, a mode change and configuring - and all that needs a TFTP server - after a good (good in the sense "at least", not in the sense of "enjoyable") three hours of messing around, I had it where I wanted it and it was attaching to SIPGate's service. Test calls made - quality excellent. Even less appealing for the novice this one.

On Thursday during my lunchbreak I was experimenting with the inbound number I use for work (I work from home most days - rather than publishing my home number to all and sundry or using the mobile for calls I set this alternative up) and I spotted an option to deliver the calls to a SIP (ie. IP Telephony) destination - configured and tested it (worked perfectly and I was the first to use the facility outside the development desk at the number provider company) and resumed working. Soon after I unexpectedly got a call on the IP phone - my boss calling from the US - on the call for 40 minutes and there was no telling that it was an IP phone.

On Thursday evening, I set up a second provider, SIPDiscount, on the phone (it can have up to 6 lines programmed) - this one offers free 1 minute calls to landlines in 28 countries - handy in itself, but if you credit €10+MWSt (ie. a bit less than £7 and German VAT at 16%) to your account they give you an inbound number (another one) and give you the same free calls to landlines in 28 countries and some stonkingly good prices on other calls for 120 days.

The "downer" with this second service is that you have to make every call as an international call so it's the finger-wearing 00441914980000 to call a UK landline for example (that number is one that OFCOM reserve for 'dramatic purposes' - it always used to terminate on a message that said so as well - for all those people that call the numbers they see in programmes on the TV). The inbound number supplied is a Nottingham number - not that it matters particularly of course - even BT don't charge extra for longer distance inland calls any more.

So today - after erecting a birdbox (with a camera in) for the Papergirl, I started messing around with the functions on the IP phone - so that it acts more like a regular telephone. After much messing around (even having read the turgid 174 page blurb on managing the phone) I finally managed to get it to act almost like a regular telephone - still have to call the full national number for a local call - but don't have to make it international any more.....

So I can now call 01914980000 and it routes the right way - for free, no more 5.5p BT minimum call charge for me. Ah, but wait a minute - the last time I got interested in cutting phone costs I signed up with another provider (Call1899.com) that charges 3p for landline calls regardless of duration. So no more 3p minimum call charges for me then!

Is there any point to any of this ? Well we make so many phone calls that it's totally worthwhile to be able to make at least some of them for free - oh no! hang on. In the last year we've spent a whole £4 on calls - including a period of moving house when we made a lot of calls (for us). Oh well - it's excited my inner geek for a little while at least.

If anyone does make significant numbers of calls internationally to landlines though, it's possibly worth exploring this a little further - because compared to BT/Telewest/NTL the prices are rock bottom, those of a less technical disposition may be happier with a low cost telephone call provider like Call1899.