Im thinking about getting a Cisco 7960G VOIP phone... Now I have a few qestions...

1. Is it possible to call a landline/mobile from one of these voip phones...

2. Is it also possible to call into a VOIP phone from a landline/cell (ie. is there a place to get a dedicated number for your voip phone)

3. What are the services offered to these VOIP phones, how do you pay for calls made and such? What service do u need to get when you get one to make calls..


Thanks, any help would be appritiated.

- You can call landlines and mobiles, yes - you will need to use the area code when doing so, though.

- People can call your VoIP phone from their landline, yes.

- I'm with a service called SipGate who provided me with a local number (i.e. 01642?????? in my case), calls to landlines are 1.1p per minute, 9p to mobiles and free to certain other VoIP services. This site allows me to pay via PayPal, bank transfer or credit card - I wish it allowed Debit cards, though.

One word of warning, though... depending on what VoIP phone you get, you may need to keep the computer turned on. What I do is have a standalone VoIP phone which is attached to my router so the PC doesn't need to be on to use the phone.

So, does Sipgate have a monthly charge... I was looking at vonage earlier, and they seem to want £7.99 for the basic package (but free calls to landlines in UK anytime), and £3.99 on top of that for a personalised number to call the VOIP phone from a landline/mobile... they also want another £5.99 for the use of a "softfone" - you need this add-on to use any other phone other than the one vonage supplies...

cheaper and no doubt better to buy a VOIP router.

Just use your current phone with it.

No monthly charge on Sipgate.

If you can try your local Staples, they were selling Netgear VoIP adapters which connect to your router and you use your normal phone plugged into it for £10 with 555 minutes to be used within the first two months.

There's also Voip.co.uk with several tariff options - they can also supply ATA's and other hardware which includes the "UK option" free for a year. The no monthly charge tariff has UK calls at 1p per minute.

I will probably switch from vonage when my £5.99 per month promotion ends.

Two of my friends went head to head trying to out-do each other a couple of years back. They had a couple of Cisco IP phones, and found before long they wished they had gone for a proper VOIP router option - there is no quality of service and their downloading badly affected call quality. You only get quality of service options on a dedicated VOIP router, so I'd sooner have one of these and an ordinary telephone (plus makes it a lot more straightforward if you want extensions around the house).

My router has a dialplan set in it. That means if I start to dial any number between 2-9 it automatically recognises I'll be placing a local call and pre-fixes 020 for me, so you'd just need to do the same for 01642 and that way you wouldn't have to dial the local area code each time. My dialplan also translates other codes, like 00 for international, 192 for directories, and 999 I have set up to a police number.

Not so.

I used a sipura ATA / asterisk with my draytek 2600g (no voip, but it has QoS) without too much of a problem.

It also works fine with the 2800vg that I have.

So if you do buy that cisco, make sure your router has decent QoS, then you will be fine.

theres also voipfone.co.uk, which is very good, and im currently on that service.

I've played with a friend's 7940G (same thing except only 2 lines instead of 6) and wouldn't recommend it for domestic use unless you have an Asterisk server (or something similar) at home. It does not support STUN so you're forced to use an outbound proxy. Also, the only codecs it supports are G.711a/u and G.729. Configuring it is also tricky as it does not have a web interface; you have to set-up a TFTP server instead and point it to that for any firmware upgrades or configuration changes.
On the plus side, it has an LCD screen, built-in Ethernet switch, support for a local and 'company' phone directory (the latter needs a server), headset support and good sound quality.
For home use, something like a Grandstream (has iLBC or GSM codec support, hence more compatible with softphones) or Linksys (formerly Sipura) would be more suitable. The Netgear mentioned is also suitable but is quite limited (no dialplan support).
As others have mentioned, get an ATA then you can use your existing phones with it (even DECT). QoS is a function of the router so has nothing to do with the phone.