Soon you will be hearing more and more about "VoIP" or "voice over internet". This means if you have broadband at home or in your office you can junk your BT line and get a VoIP phone and makes calls via your broadband connection.

I have done just this!

I pay no line rental and outgoing calls to normal phones are really cheap. But more importantly calls to other VoIP phones or networks are FREE.

Now most large companies are already using VoIP - which means they should be able to provide you with a VoIP number you can call for FREE. This is non-geographic and they can't use any of the excuses they use to make you call 0870 numbers. VoIP numbers are actually just internet IP address and so they can be redirected etc... untill the cows come home and it costs them NOTHING. Rather like emails.

A VoIP number looks like this:

93012345@sip.gossiptel.com
54512345@siphone.com

or even:

customerservices@sip.orange.co.uk
sales@sip.argos.co.uk

Seems like they are email address - but they are VoIP telephone numbers.

I have a VoIP hardphone which has an IP address - this means that I can click on a VoIP telephone number on a website and it dials the number automatically!! And for FREE anywhere in the WORLD.

VoIP is going to be the biggest thing since email.

So in many ways if you have a VoIP phone the whole argument about 0870 numbers etc... will become redundant. Companies should be giving out their VoIP numbers!!!

So when you complain to a company about their 0870 numbers - ask them for their VoIP number!!

The saynoto0870.com database should be extended to list VoIP numbers as well!!!

If you want a VoIP account just Google for: VoIP UK or something like that.

I am not very techy, what I do not understand is how you are able to ditch line rental - doesn't the broadband connection have to run down a phone line? And, why do you need another IP address for the phone when you already have an IP address for the broadband?

I will shortly be a reseller for VoIP (any day now they tell me, once the tracking is sorted). The package I will be offering will offer an 0870 number for incoming calls. From what I can make out, this is how the service is going to fund itself because the software is free and the calls are free. You need a router for a VoIP phone but can run it with a headset connected to PC instead of a phone.

I can see that this is an area that is going to make the controls on a video machine look simple.

As this is internet based it means leaving the pc running, and what happens if service is down, or a power cut without a landline you have no phone, or have I missed something?

  Quote: You dont' need a PC at all if you have a VoIP Hardphone which just plugs straight into your modem/router -                   Is that a fact PeDaSp, I don't have a computor at all, I use NTL's TVinternet service. So I don't have a modem/router. How do I go about using this VoIP system?  robinp.