VoIP - How To Save Thousands Off Your Telephone Bill
VoIP - How To Save Thousands Off Your Telephone Bill (Show Notes from this morning's radio show)**** For those who want to listen to my segment on the radio each Wednesday at 11.15 am Australian Eastern Standard Time, please go to www.abc.net.au/goldcoast. You'll see a link to 'Listen to Coast FM' on the side menu bar. ****
(I can't put the show up on this site as an audio file as it is copyright to the ABC - I've asked already.)
Voice Over IP simply means transmitting voice over the Internet rather than the ordinary telephone service. Easy.
Voice Over IP ("IP" means Internet protocol - just think of that as the Internet) can save you hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars each year in telephone costs.
Here's how it works:
1. To get started you need a Broadband connection (a fast Internet connection). You need that because the quality of the sound is way, way better than if you have a slow Internet connection.
Here on the Gold Coast you can get a decent Broadband connection from a company like Onthenet.com.au for about $49 per month. The big players like Bigpond.com.au have the same sort of deal for about $69 per month.
Step 2: A way to talk over the Internet.
I currently use 2 VoIP services (that's because I'm a geek - you only need to pick one of the three below (and I'll recommend which one) and go with that).
1. Sipphone - I purchased a VoIP phone (from http://www.ozvoip.com) about 8 months ago for $141. I then signed up with Sipphone for about $20 US of calls. I also purchased a New York number (about $80 pa) from Sipphone.
The Sipphone is the black phone - the blue cable from the back connectsto our computer network and the black cable is the power.
This phone is used to answer customer queries from US customers for one of our web businesses. The customer calls the New York number and only gets charged for a local call. The cost of the calls is 2 cents per minute to the US.
In the 8 months we've had the phone we haven't used up the $20 worth of calls.
In the 8 months we've had the phone we haven't used up the $20 worth of calls.
2. Skype - the world's most popular way to do VoIP (143 million downloads).
All Skype is is a free bit of software that does the Voice Over IP. Simply download Skype to your computer and (register for free).
You'll be registered with a 'Skype Name'. For about $50 pa ($37 US pa) you can get a telephone number that people can call you on.
The photo above shows the Skype software on my computer screen. All I do is select the contact I want to call, push a button and the computer makes the call. The headset
is on the keyboard - I put that on when I make the call.
is on the keyboard - I put that on when I make the call.
Any person with Skype installed on their computer can call you for free (and you to them).
From a normal phone the call costs the person. But if you make calls to a 'normal' phone the charges are very small: about 3 cents a minute anywhere in the world (you pay by putting some money into your account).
To use Skype I use a $25 headset from Dick Smith on my computer.
Third Option
I've had a friend trialling a recent third option here in Australia and it looks the best option. It's called engin and this is how it works.
1. Buy the engin voice box for $149. (OzVoip sell it for $129 at the moment.)
2. Plug the voicebox into your phone (your 'normal' home phone will do) and computer.
3. Create an account with engin. My friend is signed up for the $29.95 per month deal and for that he gets a phone number and $25 worth of calls to national and local numbers.
And here are the rates he gets charged:
- Local and national – 10 cents untimed calls (Telstra charge me 16 cents for local calls and approximately 40 cents a minute for STD calls)
- Calls to mobiles - 29 c per minute (I get charged about 65 cents a minute by Telstra on my normal phone line)
- International calls – 3.5 c per minute
- To other engin phones - free
I compared my last phone bill here in the office with what I would have paid had I been using engin and the difference was almost $200. That's $200 a month!
engin is the one I would recommend for most people who have Broadband and want a simple and effective solution. The quality is outstanding, you plug in a normal phone and it comes with a heap of features.
- If you have a Broadband connection it is time to review VoIP as a way to slash your phone bill.
- If you have a web site with customers in the US it's time to review VoIP.
For more information.....
For more information check out http://www.ozvoip.com/ (the best and friendliest people who really know VoIP inside-out here in Australia). Their phone number is 02 9016 3844.
Any questions please let us know at admin@tailored.com.au or on 07 5598 4898.
Regards
Brendon
[ comments ]
David
Unfortunately I can't post the segment as an audio file (ABC hold the copyright). The best I can do is point people over to the ABC site - www.abc.net.au/goldcoast - and they can listen from there ()If they don't get it on their radio).
Cheers
Brendon
We should have clocks that give time in GMT as well as local so we can synchronize with events in other time zones easily.
Nice article on emerging telephony.
That's about the best article that I've found on voip. I've sent links to a few friends. A solid piece of information.
If you call on Skype to their 'normal' phone there are charges - you buy credit from Skype.
The calls are very cheap.
It doesn't go on your Internet bill.