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.

Superfast Broadband Update

Around 12.30am this morning, the speed of the broadband did begin to pick up as predicted by the boffins responsible for BT's BRAS service - although it's not sustaining the superfast speeds all the time, it is now generally faster than it was before - I suspect this level is beginning to show cracks in the ISP networks and with the target websites etc. themselves. Time will tell.

Berwickshire News, April 13th

It's a bumper week for the Berwickshire this week, not only the 32-page wonder that is the "Quality weekly Newspaper of the Eastern Borders" but a 12-page monster pull-out "The Farming Scene" too.

Front page news this week is the Lottery funding boost for the restoration of Gunsgreen House in Eyemouth - the team behind the restoration project are now confident of raising the £2.2 million required to complete the project. (More info on Gunsgreen House here courtesy of the BBC - picture courtesy of the BBC Website).

The bird flu that reached Fife late last week has made itself felt in Berwickshire as the 20000 hens at Oxenrigg (ed:they mean Oxenrig if the eggboxes are to be believed) Farm have had to be moved indoors while investigations into the source of the disease in Fife continue. The Berwick Swan & Wildlife Trust are naturally cautious about the swans in their care, but remain philosophical - unless there's a pattern to the outbreak they're not certain what to do and "One dead swan is not the end of the world, it [bird flu] will maybe just peter out although we have to prepare for the worst".

Latest figures reveal that more people died on Borders roads last year than ever before - a total of 15 - SBC & Amey highways are looking to see if there are road engineering solutions to the problem, they're considering lowering speed limits at blackspots and the police are considering stepping up their speed camera presence. The key causes cited for the accidents are speed/speeding, drink, drugs, driver fatigue and driver distraction.

The fight to save (or reprieve) Coldstream Cottage Hospital is refusing to turn over and die - A date is being set for a delegation from the town to meet with the health minister to put forward their views before he makes the final decision on the closure proposal by NHS Borders. A petition is circulating in Coldstream and on page 6 of this week's Berwickshire.

Five TA soldiers from Berrwickshire were recently on a battlefield tour of Arnhem in the Netherlands, site of the famous battle for the bridge in 1944, made even more famous in the film "A Bridge too far". (Much more information is available at www.marketgarden.com - a digital monument to the battle for Arnhem).

(More to come as I get the chance)

Superfast Broadband... sort of

Yesterday, my upgrade to superfast broadband was enabled. Great! The modem now connects at 8128k (a smidge under 4 times faster than it was) but it doesn't download any faster than it did before. A lot of searching around and it appears that the line from the Paper Shop to the exchange is "too good" for the BTWholesale (aka OpenReach) automatic speeder-upper-service (they call it "BRAS uplift") to kick in - so I have to wait 3 days for that. Oh well.

Bloody Henry!

An SBC crew (of 2) turned up today to replace the green-lidded bin delivered in error with a composter bin, which they last did on March 16th..... This time the gadgies (neither of whom were the original gadgy) went away muttering about "Bloody Henry" - presumably the wildly efficient original gadgy that arrived on March 16th. I can only assume "Bloody Henry" didn't update some jobsheet somewhere in the depot - too busy doing the job I suppose.

Berwickshire News, April 6th

DEATH KNELL SOUNDS FOR HOSPITALS thunders the front page of the Berwickshire this week. Confirming the worst fears of all involved in the campaign to keep open the Cottage Hospitals in Jedburgh & Coldstream. The only hope left is that the Scottish Parliament will decine ratifying and throw out the planned closures.

A new meals at home provider is being used as of this week and users are told to expect a difference. A menu of 56 main courses and 54 desserts is on offer as well as a range of tasty soups. Classic dishes including roast beef and haggis are available, and there are menus suitable for those from a "minority ethnic background". They'll even supply a small freezer or microwave if needed.

Borders MSPs are to launch a petition for proper funding of the CAB service as the sessions in Coldstream & Chirnside have been axed and those at Duns and Eyemouth reduced.

There's a threat to one of Berwick's opticians following the introduction of free eye tests in Scotland - despite his business being over half Scottish, he can't compete on a level playing field with an optician just over the Border (if there is one between Berwick & Dunbar of course) and more importantly he's at a disadvantage compared to the 'large chain' opticians elsewhere in Berwick who can afford to absorb the costs of the few hardy souls from Scotland that dare to have their eyes tested in England.



Headline promotion of Sheriff Kevin to Page 3 this week as a Coldstream man is jailed for allowing his house to be used for the purposes of cannabis & heroin distribution for "an acquaintance known to the police". It turns out that the house in question is in fact in Galashiels - and that he'd moved to Coldstream to get away from the bad influence of his previous associates. 2 years in choky will follow, but only because he admitted guilt so early in the process.

The Department of Culture Media and Sport Select Committee has highlighted the serious potential problems in the impending analogue TV shutdown in the Borders (and beyond). More government action is demanded, to help the elderly and other vulnerable groups - but the timetable is set.

Sheriff Kevin's court back to his normal spot on page 5 now for the more routine work of a jobbing lawman in Merse, although with Sheriff McLeod in the chair of justice... A Tweedmouth man returned for sentencing after his previous appearance before Duns Sheriff Court (reported in this blog earlier) to get 100 hours community service, to be served in England as that's where Tweedmouth is. "The punishment will be dealt with in Berwick". A Melrose woman in her late sixties was charged with careless driving on the Duns-Greenlaw road when she tried to overtake a lorry, it turned out there were two, she hit one and left the road all in poor visibility. £250 & six points. (No Sheriff attributed) A driver from Cockburnspath (aka Co'path) disqualified for driving without a licence, careless driving and leaving the scene of an accident and failing to report an accident. £300 and disqualified from holding a licence for 6 months (ed: didn't seem to affect him before the accident though did it?). A Duns man (Peter Reid - surely not the same one that was manager of Sunderland AFC?) fined £150 and ordered to pay £150 in compensation to his victim after a punch up in a Duns pub. Sentence deferred on a Chirnside man who had an argument with a neighbour - he calling her "baldy" on account of her having "alopetia" (ed: "alopecia" I'm sure) and she wishing he'd died in a car crash (he had been involved in one and it left him with behavioral difficulties).

Picture of Duns Sheriff Court courtesy of the Scottish Courts website

Berwickshire News, March 30th

Front page news is the plight of Coldstream & Jedurgh cottage hospitals - both communities are strongly against the proposed closures and are convinced that NHS Borders has already made up its mind to proceed with the closures and is going through with a sham consultation process.

Also apparently the recycling service got off to a bad start when the powers that be in St. Boswells failed to send out the "all systems go" postcards in time. Apparently a "contigency plan" was put in place to "minimise the impact" - it must have had minimal impact indeed because none was noticed here.

The King's Own Scottish Borderers has been absorbed into the 1st Batallion Royal Regiment of Scotland. All happened without much ceremony on a barrack square in Northern Ireland.

Apparently underage drinking is a problem across Lothian & Borders - so no different to anywhere else really.

Record levels of Salmon catches in the River Tweed are hailed as a success of water quality improvement.

There's a reported mixed reaction to the ban on smoking in enclosed public places in Scotland that came into effect on March 26th. As usual some being deeply for, some deeply against and a lot of people in the middle not really bothered either way, but accepting it probably is a good thing really.

Over to Sheriff Kevin's court - A Berwick bus driver was found guilty of dangerous driving in his school bus carrying pupils from Berwickshire High to Coldstream. According to the trial account there was excessive speed and at least one grounding of the bus due to "nose diving" into the road surface. The guilty party was relieved of £300, the ability to drive for 12 months and required to sit an extended driving test subsequently. A Berwickshire High pupil stole from classmates in revenge after being told she'd have to sit an exam (tsk! don't schools have better things to do than educate youngsters?). Sentencing adjourned for 6 months for subsequent remorse and good behaviour. An Edinburgh man relieved of £200 for carrying a knife with no good purpose in the Eyemouth area. A Hawick man charged with carrying a knife pleaded guilty and was required to appear at Jedburgh Sheriff Court (Sheriff Kevin's other hangout) later in April.

Torness power station exported 704,000,000kWh of electricity to the grid in February - just in case anyone wanted to know.....

A lawnmower was stolen from a garage in Coldingham between March 25th & 27th - obviously a crime hotspot this!

It seems that the ballot papers for the Scottish General Election and Local Council Elections next year will be counted automatically in Edinburgh rather than locally in Galashiels. It follows the "fiasco" of the 2003 count when it took over 20 hours from polls closing to declare the count for the two list MSPs for the Borders.

There's a fear of noise from a marquee used at the Lodge Hotel in Carfraemill - the marquee is 100ft long and apparently music from within can be heard as far away as Oxton (a mile away). Readers of a historical disposition might remember that the owner of the Lodge was prosecuted and acquitted for serving Beef on the Bone during the hysteria of the BSE crisis.

Picture of Duns Sheriff Court courtesy of the Scottish Courts website