Member - Peter R (QLD) replied:

I use Skype (free) and it is brilliant.

Cost was $50 for a headset with mike and sound quality is excellent. Can send files through it and chat if that is preferred.

Having said that it is not my primary phone .

Pedro

Andrew (Bris) replied:

I also use skype - principally for overseas contacts, but not my primary phone system.

martz8 replied:

I also use Skype as my parents are touring the east coast. Free phone calls to each other, but not to land lines.
Some of my extended family live in Canberra, Gawler & Kalgoorlie & I'm in Melbourne so I can save on long distance calls.

Marty

Coopz replied:

Skype is a great way to go but there is also the need to maintain your home phone. To get around the need for a home phoneline and line rental requires a wireless internet connection, which at the moment is insanely expensive.
I use Skype for my business calls overseas with clients but keep the mobile and home phone for calling everyone else.

Member - andrew B (Kununurra) replied:

We have engin. 10c per call (any homephone untimed), $10.00 per month service fee, 3c per min to my wifes friend in the UK. Have found it excellent. Still need a home phone for the broadband hookup, and in our area you cannot get the dial in service on your voip yet, so the std Phone is for the incomeings and the engine is for the outgoings. Only pain is having 2 cordless phones to deal with instead of one.

It has cut our bill in half including financing the internet - wife spends a lot of time on the phone to Perth - now it is virtually unlimited

Cheers Andrew

Member - Peter R (QLD) replied:

Skype link for download

Or for background info click here

Pedro

taize replied:

I use voip for all our phone calls and find its easier than using the free skype. My broadband is with internode so I use nodephone as my voip provider. I've tried a couple of other providers but the quaility is not as good.

Here are some links to show the various plans that are on offer:

Voip choice
OZinternetphones

Kym

Michael ( Moss Vale NSW) replied:

Ok!!! We are using Unwired as the connection and Engin as the phone service. We have excellent and full service as opposed to people who cant get good constant conection with Unwired ( some people have a fading signal). The Engin part is great but it is a bit furry all the time with local calls, long distance and calls to other countries are better. It sounds like a mobile fone, like talking in a tunnel and fades in and out. The reason is because we only have "fast internet", meaning its broadband but only at 256 speed through Unwired, Next billing month we will double the speed to 512, that should fix the problem. The phone bill is just about non existant. 10cents for anywhere in Australia, no time limit and 27 cents a minute to mobile and Voip to voip is FREEEEE!! Saving heaps.. Michael

Fast_Patrol replied:

I use sipme.com.au for all national & local calls (10c untimed) and pennytel.com.au for int'l and mobiles. Still have the telstra line for incoming calls and emergency (000) calls. I have an ata that allows the normal handset to be used, and is programmed to select the best provider for the call.

cheers
Andrew

Groove replied:

A good mate of mine had engin installed and had it removed after a few months. He claimed the service was not reliable. Calls not getting through, delays echos etc. May have been the result of a poor braodband connection but he couldnt be bothered trying to work out the problems and just got rid of it.

geocacher (djcache) replied:

I have been using VoIP for a while now as my primary phone service.

I use myfone.com.au and a Netcomm V300 VoIP box to handle the calls.

The V300 is an interesting bit of gear in that it contains a phone switching circuit.

The normal cordless phone plugs into one socket, the phone line out to the wall via a filter plugs in to a double adapter with the line to the ADSL modem.

Incoming calls to our normal land line number come in and get switched by the v300 to the phone.

Outgoing calls from the phone get routed out via the ADSL (broadband).

If the broadband is down this is detected by the v300 and the call just gets transparently routed out by the v300 to the standard land line (at land line rates via Telstra or whoever your home phone is with.)

Importantly as mentioned above 000 calls also go out by the land line. I too work in Ambulance dispatch and understand the importance of CLI data. With the v300 a 000 call should use your normal phone line and transmit the data it needs. It should also default to the land line in a no power type situation.

You can manually choose the land line too by pressing ## and dialling a number.

The v300 has ports for the computer to plug into and will slow your internet to maintain voice quality if one of the kids is in the study downloading music or movies while you are on the phone.

My estimate based on a couple of months use is that this will save us about $1000 a year. The previous call usage component of our bill was around $90 a month. Now it's about $15. (Made up of 12.5cent untimed local calls to anywhere in the country.) Calls to other myfone users are free so if you get your family all in on this you could reduce it further.

Also if you have kids at uni in a major city and you are paying their phone bill for them to ring you at home, for $10 a month you can nominate a major centre (eg. Melb Geelong Ballarat etc in Vic) and get a number that people in that centre can ring to call you. They only pay for a regular local call and myfone route the call in their system to you where ever you are.

VoIP is one of the single biggest reasons the big Telcos are projecting negative growth - and why I won't buy shares in Telstra.

Get on board - $1000 buys us about 7000km worth of fuel :o). It's great.

Dave

Ray Bates replied:

I tried Skype and a day after installation got a virus in my PC which caused me to have to revamp the whole PC. So I took Skype off.
I now use Iinet phone and am very pleased with it. Sometimes it is a bit dodgy but 99% it is ok. The advantage with the system is that my PC does not have to be turned on to use it, only the router

Rokkitt replied:

Hi,

I use Skype and Exetel for VOIP, Skype is excellent as it seems to work well on older modems and its free.

For the Exetel voip service I needed to purchase a router that supports "QOS" - Quality of service which ensures the voip packets continue to get through even when your email is trying to grab all your connection bandwidth as it downloads all those jokes. Call quality is excellent althought there is a noticeable delay.

Rod

Member - JohnR (Vic)&Moses replied:

Well all the discussion above really tells us all that anyone who isn't in a position to get broadband is way out on a limb for communications in the field. We are 12 kms from the exchange here and the line quality is really poor so the best option is ISDN which isn't fast enough for VOIP I understand.

Telstra are telling us that a wireless broadband over the G3 network will be the solution, being faster than the current 1xEV-DO systems that are really only available in city areas.

Telstra deals us continually a lifeline, that is a slippery slope to drive their profitability. No I don't invest in them............

Shawsie (Bris) replied:

Ok, here's my bit. We DON'T have a land-line, just VOIP as our main line & internet. We have wireless broadband which allowed us to ditch AAPT and go with VOIP. It's not bad for line quality considering its FREE apart from the cost of calls that are DIRT CHEAP. I top-up the account when needed. I got the Engin box from dick smiths on special ($50) and configured it to use OzTell, an internet voip mob and It works great with our existing cordless. Andrew.

geocacher (djcache) replied:

As an aside does anyone know why the EO site won't accept a post with the word land-line without the hyphen???

I've not come across a forbidden word before on any forum. This is a first... other than the obvious bleep words.

Dave