As the title suggest, I'm confused but all this VOIP and total broadbands, etc. but equally frustrated that I might be missing out on something which a. Is good and b.saves money.

To be honest we dont really make a lot of calls (and definitely not to mobiles.) We are on a standard (option 1 is it?) BT phone line and bills are about 15-16 pounds/month inc. line rental.

I guess my question really is. Is there anything for me to gain with say buying one of these TESCO phones or the likes ?? I'm unlikely to make much more phone calls (just cause I can scenario)

In honesty if you make very few calls, the savings to be had are in you cancelling your landline and using a VOIP router with a phone permanently connected. The calls average a penny a minute to UK landlines and companies like the one I use, Sipgate, have no line rental for an incoming number.

The problem is you say you are on BT, so you are using ADSL in that case - which means you can't cancel your phone line. You can only do this if you have a cable modem.

It's up to you to compare your call usage against your option 1 rates and weigh up if it's worth it (which in honesty since you can't cancel your phone line it doesnt sound like it is), but if you make a lot of daytime calls at a higher rate then you may just save a bit. Not enough to justify the cost of a standalone router from what you describe, but you could probably justify the cost of a Tesco phone since they cost next to nothing.

Thanks Cityslicker think I'll give it a miss. I think it would be just a novelty factor me getting one and it would soon lie at the bottom of a drawer somewhere

The Tesco VoIP service is poor value for money, so no saving there.

Like said above you have ADSL so need a BT line, whereas I have no phone line as I'm cable, so that £11 per month saved by not having a phone line, I then use VoIP, if you made very few calls you could get away with having no monthly fee and paying just for the odd call you make.

As you have to have a BT line, your savings can be made on who your calls go through.

Primus Saver 2 gives you for no monthly fee free evening and weekend calls to 01 and 02 numbers, you could then use 1899 and pay just 3p per call to 01 and 02 numbers.

Primus Saver 2: www.planet-talk.co.uk/saver
1899: www.call1899.co.uk

City slicker is right, if you have a BT line and you don't make many calls it really isn't worth it. Becuase you can't get rid of your BT phone line and still keep broadband.

For me it was becuase I had an NTL phone line. I was able to cancel NTL phone while keeping NTL Broadband. (I actually cancelled NTL TV at same time and went to Freevew).

I now pay Vonage (my VOIP provider) 7.99 per month and that gets me unlimited free landline calls to entire UK and Republic of Ireland. Pretty cheap calls to mobiles (but I use my mobile for those calls anyways) and very cheap International calls (2p a minute to US) ...also calls anywhere in the world to other Vonage customers are also free)

I've gone from paying NTL a good 20 quid a month for my phone line (line rental plus call costs) to 7.99 a month, plus the odd extra few quid for an occasional call overseas.

Vonage is great in my opinion, I have a regular phone number with the service and the line quality is good (can't tell the diff between it and my NTL phone to be honest)

I don't rate the Tesco internet phone at all.

I can't get Cable and have to use a BT line out here in the sticks. I've been investigating companies that give low rates when you call a mobile like 18185 and PhoneCheap and landline calls with 1899.

Perhaps oneday I'll be able to ditch the BT phoneline although I think the competition is making them try a little harder than before.


Can my Netgear DG 834G router be used for VOIP calls ?
Last edited by AubreyStevens : 30-07-2006 at 18:29