AROUND the time we made the switch to a cable Internet connection, I began experimenting with VoIP. Given that we had been paying something like 20 euros per month (not counting the cost of any calls) for a Deutsche Telekom landline, it seemed like a far better use of our money to put that basic service charge toward the actual calls instead of using it to pay for the simple privilege of having a phone plugged into a wall. Here are some of my experiences of the past year with VoIP.
First, for the benefit of the novice user, the basics.
Based on this diagram I ganked from a Google Image search and then modified in obvious ways, you can see a rough hardware setup for most VoIP-enabled home networks. Some modems and routers are combined, thereby eliminating one of the devices in this image, and some VoIP phones connect to the USB port of your computer instead of the router. For the most part, however, this is how the device tree would look for a VoIP setup. The modem keeps you connected to your ISP, the router does all the actual networking, the computers and phone perform their respective tasks, and the Internet, as we all know, is just a series of tubes.
VoIP can be as complicated as you like. You can set up your own PBX with call forwarding, extensions, voicemail, dial plans, hold music, and other features, which would be the complicated side of the spectrum, or you can keep things fairly rudimentary and straightforward. My own setup is somewhere between the two.
I use a DrayTek Vigor 2910VG broadband router, which, if you were to browse through some of my previous blog entries, hasn't always been the most reliable device. But the most recent firmware update (v3.2.2) has been nothing if not trouble-free, and I can recommend this router with the up-to-date firmware in good conscience to any home user who's looking to pursue VoIP in earnest. Unfortunately for US residents, DrayTek's foray into the market has been halfhearted at best (just look at their sorry excuse for a company website) and there aren't too many places that carry their products. DSL Warehouse is the only one I know of. This is one instance where Asian, Australian and European residents have it better.
Plugged into that DrayTek—using a standard RJ-11 connector—is your run-of-the-mill DECT (aka digital cordless) phone. Nothing fancy. It's a Siemens, and I think we bought it on sale for about thirty euros.
With the router and phone sorted out, it was time to sign up with different VoIP services. Different providers have different advantages, and this, I should add, is the big advantage of VoIP. Vyke has incredibly cheap rates (something like 3 euro cents per call to select countries) and occasional promotions that will double your credit. Its call quality used to be sketchy at best but is now clearer than most landlines. Sipgate has a ton of features, such as voicemail, SMS, fax receipt and sending, and emergency (911 in the US, 112 in Germany, 999 in the UK, etc.) calling. VoIPuser gives you free 15-minute calls anywhere in the world. Others, like Gizmo, cover everything from PC-to-PC calling to Skype bridging, plus have inexpensive calling to mobile phones. PhonePower, which does charge a monthly service fee, is running a deal that works out to be around $8/month for two years, with unlimited calling in the US and Canada. Until it morphed into something else altogether, Free World Dialup used to offer free calling to US 1-800 numbers; FreeDigits, if it ever returns from the hiatus that began in October 2008, will do the same. And on and on. There's really no limit to the number of services you subscribe to, there's rarely an ongoing charge fee unless you want lots of additional features, and you can always choose the best provider for the call you want to make.
Figuring out what's available just takes a bit of Googling. Sites like MyVoIPProvider.com offer feature and rate comparisons for business and residential users, along with useful reviews, and VoIPProvidersList.com does what it says on the tin. In my experience, you'll have to dig a bit further to find the best pay-as-you-go providers; for me, a combo of Sipgate, Vyke and Gizmo is something no phone company could ever beat.
VoIP's advantages aren't just limited to low-cost outgoing calls and a frequent absence of binding contracts or service fees. Providers in different countries will often give you a free incoming phone number in that country. This enables us to have domestic numbers in Germany, the UK, and America, which means better rates for the people in those countries who are still calling us on ordinary landlines and mobiles.
As a 2910VG, the V being a "voice" designator, my DrayTek router can log into a maximum of six SIP accounts. Initially, I had it signing into as many accounts as it could handle. But what would happen is that the router would get a bit flustered with so many registrations, especially if I was gobbling bandwidth through downloads, and it ended up dropping the connections. If you're not registered with (that is, logged into) your SIP account, it's like leaving your phone unplugged. And an unplugged phone isn't very useful when you want to make or receive calls.
This was solved by moving the heavy lifting to MySIPswitch. With MySIPswitch, I've centralized my accounts, meaning that I only need one login/password to connect to all my VoIP providers. Whether my fictitious friend Zack calls me on my UK number (courtesy of VoIPuser) or my US number (courtesy of Sipgate or IPKall), it comes through to the same phone(s). When I want to call Zack, I can select the account that offers the best rates by using a prefix: dialing "*7" before his number calls with Sipgate; dialing "*1" calls with Vyke. And this works not only with the phone that's connected to my router, but also with the Fring application on my iPod Touch. While traveling abroad, I was able to hop on a WiFi network and use the exact same method to call out and receive calls.
At home, instead of using the traditional telephone, I can also place calls through a softphone like Telephone or X-Lite on my desktop and use a Bluetooth headset to free up my hands for typing or cooking. Just like Fring on my iPod Touch or the cordless phone connected to my router, these softphones log into MySIPswitch too, once again allowing me to receive incoming calls and use the same dialplan (the *7 and *1 example above) for outgoing calls.
If all that sounds a bit confusing, or should the benefits still be unclear, I suppose you could think of it this way: It's not uncommon to have three telephones in your house. One in the kitchen, one upstairs, and maybe another in the den. When someone calls your phone number, all three phones ring. You pick up one, you talk, you hang up. Easy.
With VoIP, it's similar. Only those three phones can be completely different devices, each with its own benefits. One might be a computer, another an iPod, and another a conventional phone. And while the conventional phone stays put, that computer (particularly if it's a laptop) and iPod can be anywhere in the world. So when someone calls you on your "home" number, answering from your kitchen is the same as answering from an Internet café in Outer Mongolia. Without the exorbitant roaming charges of a mobile phone.
To distill it even further, it comes down to cost and flexibility. VoIP in conjunction with a little tech know-how keeps the cost of calling to a minimum while offering us much greater flexibility. The few drawbacks of VoIP, on the other hand, should be self-evident, and are covered on this page in some detail; to my mind, they're still not as bad as mobile charges and the regular fees of traditional phone companies. The best thing about it all? When we move from one country to another, setting up phone service will be as easy as plugging in my router. Everyone will still be able to call us on the numbers they've been using for years.
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