PC users have long been able to make free calls through instant messaging services such as MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger, but many were dissuaded by the idea of having to buy and wear a headset and the inconvenience of having to first make sure friends and family were online when they fancied a chin wag.
Well, things have changed since we last wrote about making telephone calls using a broadband connection. A number of services now enable you to use a proper telephone handset to make cheap or free calls by placing an adapter between the broadband modem or router and a standard telephone. This growing industry is known as internet telephony, and it offers consumers substantial savings over traditional phone networks, as well as added features such as voicemail, and a means to get in touch with non-PC-owning acquaintances. You may see it referred to in shops and advertisements as ‘VoIP’, which stands for Voice over Internet Protocol, the technology used to transform an internet connection into a cheaper way of using a standard phone line.
So why is it cheaper to make a phone call using the Internet? After all, the same wire is used to carry the signal. The answer is in the way the line is used. When you dial a number using a normal household phone, the telephone systems set up at lightening speed a direct connection between the two handsets. That specific set of links between the two use the copper line to the exchange, then a small part of the main Ireland-wide telephone network. That link is physically maintained for the duration of the call and can’t be used by other customers.
When making a call via the Internet down the same telephone line, it is first chopped up into tiny elements called packets, each of which contains the data of a tiny part of the sound of your voice. These packets are then sent down the line to the next router on the Internet.
Routers, which are spread throughout the Internet in places such as the headquarters of ISPs, are like the traffic police of the Internet, telling packets of data the best way to get to their destination. Not every packet will take the same route depending on how much traffic there is on a line between routers. The upshot is that the same network cable in the telephone system can be used by thousands of different users at the same time, making it more efficient and cheaper.
If you’re confused about how a broadband service can be accessed without using a computer, here’s how it works. The adapters supplied by the likes of Blueface convert your voice into data in the same way that a PC would if you were using Skype or an instant messaging program. Then it is fed into the broadband router or modem and sent on its way.
With all these new VoIP services, tariffs can be quite confusing, so here’s our guide to the best value internet telephony services and how to choose the one that’s most suitable for your needs.
Handsets and softphones
There are two main types of internet telephony services – those that require software to be installed on a computer, and those that require additional hardware devices to be connected to an existing broadband modem or router (dial-up users can use internet telephony in instant messaging programs, but most of the services we’re going to talk about require a connection of at least 256Kb/s). As we mentioned earlier, while instant messaging software provides free calls, you will need a headset (a pair of headphones with an integrated microphone, which can be bought for about EUR*15). The other person has to be online, and making a call involves clicking on their username to begin a chat session and then instigating a voice call by clicking the green call button.
However, now the software is more sophisticated, and enables callers to dial telephone numbers using a softphone – a graphical ‘handset’ that appears on the PC screen. Tap in the phone number you want to call on the computer’s keyboard and the software just dials straight through. The software will also provide an address book so that you can store your most commonly used phone numbers for one-click dialling.
The most well-known internet telephony software is probably Skype, followed by Yahoo’s Communicator and the lesser known Blueface, Broadtalk, Freespeech and Skytel. Skype started life as an ordinary instant messaging program used to chat with other PC users on the Internet, but it now offers an additional premium option called ‘SkypeOut’ that allows you to make low-cost calls to ordinary phone lines as well.
Call routing
The other way of using internet telephony services is to try what’s known as a digital telephone adapter. This is a small device that can be connected to an existing broadband modem or router. You can then plug an ordinary telephone handset into the digital telephone adapter and make calls using the phone handset rather than the computer.
The advantage of this approach is that it’s very easy to set up and convenient to use. There’s no software to install or configure – just the little phone adapter and a telephone handset. It also means that you can make calls while your computer is turned off, or while someone else is using the computer.
There’s one big potential fly in the ointment, though, which is that these adapters need to be connected to a modem or router that has a network socket – often referred to as Ethernet. Many modems only have a USB port on them, which means that digital telephone adapters can’t be connected.
Irish VoIP providers
Blueface is the leading residential VoIP service in Ireland with an estimated 4,000 subscribers. CEO Fergal Brady says that the majority of these subscribers are cable and wireless broadband users who save on line rental by availing the service. He also claims that the service is marginally less expensive than Skype for calls that last for less than five minutes. Blueface bills by the second in contrast to Skype that approximate to the minute.
Other advantages of Blueface over Skype, argued Brady, includes the ability to use your own phone, as opposed to having to switch on a PC. You also get an Irish phone number and a 076 VoIP number to take calls from any Irish landline at local call rates.
Skype does have one advantage over Blueface and that is ability to bypass through corporate firewalls as it emulates HTTP web proxies.
Blueface offers a couple of bundles which could be extremely attractive to phone users. For EUR*15 per month, you get unlimited calls to Irish and UK landlines and for EUR*25 per month, you get unlimited calls to ‘most of the industrialised world.’
Start-up costs
Another factor to consider is that hardware-based services have higher up-front costs when you first set up an internet telephony account with them. Foe example, with Blueface, you need a serial ATA to connect your to the broadband connection and this can cost as anything from €65 to €135 depending on the model you choose. More advanced users looking for Wi-Fi and router capability will have to pay over €90.
Some people may be put off by these monthly subscriptions and fixed-term contracts. However, you do get a number of extra options in return for the monthly fee. All these services provide services such as voicemail and call waiting as part of the monthly subscription.
One further advantage of paying a monthly subscription is that you also get proper technical support if anything goes wrong. If using the Skype, your only technical support option is to send an e-mail via the company’s website or to hope that one of their online FAQs – lists of ‘frequently asked questions’ – can help you out.
The cost of calls
You may not be too worried about added extras such as voicemail, but the real reason that it’s worth paying a monthly subscription for an internet telephony service is that you also have the potential for greater savings overall.
And that, of course, brings us to the nitty-gritty – deciding which internet telephony service provides the best value. As with mobile phone tariffs, this is very much a personal choice, and largely depends on the sort of calls you’re most likely to make.
Let’s get the bad news out of the way first – which is that none of these services offers anything more than small savings when it comes to making calls to mobile phones. The good news is that you can make huge savings on international calls and calls to Irish landlines.
The situation with international calls is very simple if you are making calls with a duration longer than five minutes then Skype is cheaper. Blueface is cheaper for short calls.
When it comes to local calls, Blueface is only marginally less expensive that Eircom’s standard service – to the tune of 2 cents per minute.
Accessorise Skype
But Skype is still the most popular VoIP app. So much so that around the world, it’s spawned a mini-industry of accessories, with companies such as Logitech producing microphone headsets that are specifically designed for use with Skype (and which also include introductory vouchers for making an hour or more of free calls). You can even buy special telephone handsets with a USB plug so they can be plugged straight into a PC and numbers dialled in a more familiar way. These accessories range in price from about €50 to €100. A good example is the US Robotics 9600 Internet phone available from MB Technology.
Skype also offers one final clever option – though it costs a bit extra. This may sound strange, but both allow you to choose a new internet telephone number with an area code in another country.
Skype’s version of this option is called SkypeIn, and it’s even more versatile. Skype allows you to choose SkypeIn telephone numbers from the UK, US, Hong Kong, Denmark, France and a number of other European countries. There’s an extra subscription fee of EUR*30 per year, and this also includes a voicemail service as an added extra.
Who’s listening?
There’s no need to worry too much about internet hackers listening in on your internet phone calls. When you make a call over the Internet, your voice is converted into a digital data signal that is indistinguishable from all the other data buzzing back and forth along your internet connection – such as web pages, e-mails and music downloads. Any hackers would need to isolate that particular signal from all the rest before they could even start to convert it back into a voice signal they could listen to. It’s probably easier for them to tap your normal phone line than to listen in on internet calls.
Be aware, though, that there are a couple of other potential glitches that do need to be taken into account. Many less expensive internet services impose a limit on how much data can be downloaded through an internet connection. This can be as low as one gigabyte (Gb) worth of data per month.
Experts estimate that it would only take about three or four hours’ worth of internet phone calls each week to hit that 1Gb limit – and don’t forget that you also have to take all your ordinary web browsing, e-mails and downloads into account on top of that.
Self-employed people, or families with kids who hog the phone for hours at a time, could easily go way over that limit, so they may need to upgrade their internet account to provide a higher usage limit.
Talk of the town
The last thing we need to point out is that most internet telephony services don’t allow you to make 999 calls to the emergency services. This highlights the most important aspect of these internet telephony services, which is that none of them can really be used as a complete replacement for your existing home telephone service.
It will happen in time, but it’s going to be at least a decade before digital internet telephony services completely replace the traditional telephone system. In the meantime, though, internet telephony can still save you a bundle – as well as getting the kids off the main phone line for a change.
Contacts:
VoIP providers
Ireland-based
Global
For Skype accessories:
TNS Distribution
MB Technology 01 415 0100
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