The Chicken Coop

So, stuff has an article on VOIP, promo’ed on the homepage, and I guess from the Sunday Star Times. Nice to see a fairly well done, simple (ie, normal people can understand it) article on the topic, as it’s kind of a black art for most. However, as usual with stuff/SST/DomPost, there is a few glairing holes, eg:

So, for example your friends could dial 03 333 3333 and your VOIP setup would recognize this as the internet address of your phone.

eh? they dial 03 333 3333 on their phone, and your VOIP provider (eg Slingshot, WXC) terminates this, and passes it onto you. Nothing to do with internet addresses. Nothing scary for the end user either. If you put it all in a box, you’d never know the difference.

Then there is this paragraph:

Call quality also is probably not as good as a traditional phone line either. When I’m using VOIP on a local call to my dad, he often asks me whether I’m on a mobile.

which is actually, based on what I’ve read on geekzone, explained by this paragraph:

I signed up with VOIP provider Slingshot’s iTalk (www.slingshot.co.nz/italk), which costs me $9.95 per month for as many local calls as I can handle.

Yup, from what I know (and I’ve not tried it, so this is 2nd hand) the quality of Slingshot’s voice isn’t great.But thats not a fault with VOIP – it’s a fault with Slingshot.

Personally, I use WorldXchange’s VFX service, and from London (or the US), it’s clear as a bell – way better than any cell I’ve ever used, even on our totally lousy internet connection here (512k up / 400k down – ment to be 2.5meg/400k).

For £5/month ($11), I get a portable (the device is tiny), local wellington (04) number, so unlimited wellington calls, and 2p/min (5c) for calls to NZ, UK, US etc, it really can’t be beaten. Better yet, it costs my parents – and anyone else in NZ – almost nothing to call us.

Ironicly, this is cheaper than the calling a cell using my UK-based landline – or my UK cellphone. Go figure.

I even get an email when someone calls, with their number, and an email with an attached WAV file if they leave a message – which confuses my mother no end, but she’s getting used to it after 12 months.

If/when we move back to NZ, we’ll be keeping the VFX number – it’s so handy, and Telstra do an internet only package on cable if you ask for it – so I spend $11 + about $60 on voice + data (40GB), which is cheaper than getting the landline + internet package from them (which is about $110 for the same speed).

And, we always have our mobiles.