Although I have heard nothing but psitives about this service, I have not yet got it because I am not too sure whether ot not it will benefit me. We don't call abroad, not all of the people we phone have computers, or VOIP.

Does anyone know if it will be worthwhile for me to get this service?

Thanks.

First off VOIP is great!

There a few miths that need to be dismissed here:
[list][*]You don't have to have a computer to make or recieve VOIP calls - most VOIP providers allow calls to and from 'normal' phones and mobiles.[*]VOIP can provide savings in other ares such as calling mobiles - though the International savings can be quite good[/list]
Many companies such as sipgate (www.sipgate.co.uk) provide users with a 'real' telephone number, in your own geographical area code (or one of your choice) so you can recieve calls from normal lines and mobiles. This saves costs on having an additional line put in (as you don't pay line rental) for business use or a line for your partner or kids to use without cluttering up the main phone.

My advice would be to check the tarrifs available on a few companies and then compare them to the calls that you make and see if you can make any savings. Obviosuly you will have to weigh up the cost of the hardware aganist any savings etc.

Hope this helped!

At present it would not make much sense for you to get voip as companies such as 1899 offer calls 24/7 at 3 pence a call and one can speak for aws long as one wants. Whereas, the cheapest voip calls cost around 1 penny a minute.
The fact that the people you are ringing do not have puters or voip is not pertinent to you yourself using voip to call them.

Thanks both for the info. I think I'll look into it further; it's a service I really would like to try.

take a look at http://www.vonage.com cost about 7 quid a month and thats unlimited calls excludes mobiles cheap rates to abroad and free calls to outher vonage users all you need is broadband and they supply the voip router to plug your home phone into. there is a connection charge witch basicly pays for the router but you can get that back if you cancell before 30 days. i currently use it with no problems. it has all sorts of features you get to controll from a webpage. i dont work for the company so i dont get paid to say this. im just a satisfied customer caller id is free too. correct me if im wrong but telewest phone line is £9.99 talk unlimited is £25 caller id £1
spot the savings

opps its http://www.vonage.co.uk and its £7.99 per month

I'm with www.draytel.org . No monthly charges, and it works!

NO CHARGES opps i think im gonna switch

Depends on how much you use your phone. The vonage charge gives free calls to all Uk landlines. The other one just charges you on a pay as you go basis. The only free calls are to other users. So I suppose you have to work out your costs.
My costs were £10 per month line rental and about £12 in calls. So at £7.99 I'm quids in and I have other things like caller ID, Call waiting, etc etc free.
They all have advantages over BT.
I have just got Vonage and it seems to be working fine...However the other one may work out cheaper for you..

yup i agree vonage is good. im sticking with it. only problem with it is if im downloading the phone quality suffers. but fingers crossed blueyonder are doing there upgrade end of this month in my arear for more speed

it's only true if you call a voip phone. It costs to call a landline.

The main reason I like VoIP, is because it allows lots of calls at the same time! So the whole house can be on the phone, and the landline still be free to people who need to call in

I am with Freetalk which is £6.99/month or £79.99/year if you take the annual plan you get the VOIP adapter free. The price includes calls to UK landlines for free. I was a Vonage customer before but found there was someimes a big delay on the audio because their servers are in the USA. Freetalks servers are in the UK and I suffer no such delay. I would say Freetalk is the better service overall and slightly cheaper.
More info at http://www.freetalk.co.uk

I need VoIP as I got rid of my landline.

So far I've had 11 months of free calls to UK landlines and many other countries, all for the grand sum for €6.

Though now they are starting to implement the 120 day credit terms. Still €10 every 4 months for free calls to the UK, USA, Australia and many other countries isn't bad.

One of the things that puts me off from using VOIP is having to use headsets etc.

Can you get a cheap device to enable you to use your normal phone with it?

I use a LinkSys PAP2, this has two lines each with a REN of 5, so you can attach your usual phones.

I only use my old BT phones with Vonage..Works great..

I use Freetalk www.freetalk.co.uk, costs £6.99 a month and all calls are free to uk landlines. you can also use your normal phone you used before. Only thing is that you have to do the BT things and hang up before 1 hour then redial to keep it free but in the 3 months i have had it i have had no bills at all other than the £6.99

Im with vonage and have no problems. Good thing is call divert which means if you dont answer the phone or are not in you can have it automatically divert to another phone. Really cheap too. Definately recomment.