Internet phone providers are taking on traditional telecoms companies in the
fight for customers' calls, with one web company offering unlimited calls to
UK landlines for only £1.95 a month.
Calls can be made over the internet instead of the phone network by using Voip
technology. Voip, or voice over internet protoccol, is accessed by going to
the website of a provider such as Skype, BT Broadband Talk, Plustalk
Broadband Phone, Vonage or Tesco Internet Phone and downloading a free piece
of software and registering your details.
If you want to receive incoming calls, you will be assigned a virtual phone
number which does not necessarily relate to your location. For example, if
you live in Cornwall but want to give the impression that you live in
Central London, you can ask for an 020 number.
The way that you make calls depends on which provider you choose. Skype
customers make calls directly from their PC, using a special headset and
software that needs to be downloaded. Vonage customers connect a dedicated
Voip box to a broadband modem, connect a standard home phone to that box and
make calls in the conventional way.
Until now the main selling point of Voip has been free PC-to-PC calls between
users with the same Voip software. This means that if you have Skype on your
PC at home, for example, and have friends or relatives overseas who also
have Skype on their computers, you can talk to them free. If you have a
web-cam, you can also use Skype to make video calls.
However, Skype has now introduced a range of inclusive call plans for people
wanting to phone landlines from their computer. Unlimited calls to UK phone
numbers beginning 01 or 02 cost £1.95 a month, calls to landlines in Europe
cost £2.95 a month and calls to 34 other worldwide destinations are £6.95 a
month.
Stefan Oberg, the Skype vice-president, says that offering inclusive call
packages to landlines is the natural next step for the company. “Skype was
founded on the principle of making free voice and video calls available to
people all around the world,” he says. “And now we are making it even easier
for the Skype community to call friends and family who are not yet on Skype.
For example, if you live in London, for only £2.95 a month, you can call
your grandmother in Poland whenever you like, talk for up to six hours at a
time and not worry about how much it is costing. Your grandmother doesn't
need to understand the internet - you simply use your Skype subscription to
make the call and she picks up the phone.”
Deals offering unlimited calls have long been part of the landline market and
providers tend to offer a choice of plans, such as off-peak calls, anytime
calls within the UK and calls to certain international destinations. BT's
Unlimited Evening & Weekend Plan, for example, is free if you commit to
BT for 12 months, or £2.70 a month otherwise. Its Unlimited Anytime Plan,
meanwhile, costs £4.95 a month.
BT's Voip service, Broadband Talk, also has an Anytime Plan for UK calls, at
£4.95 a month. Tesco Internet Phone offers the same service for £5 a month,
while Vonage has a choice of unlimited call plans. However, the Vonage plans
are generally uncompetitive: calls to landlines in the UK cost £5.99 a
month, calls to a set of 15 countries plus mobile phones in some of the
countries costs £7.99 a month, 25 countries is £9.99 a month and 35
countries will set you back £14.99 a month.
If you do not want an all-inclusive package, some Voip companies operate
pay-as-you-go services. These allow you to purchase a certain amount of
credit and make as many calls as your credit allows. Call rates are
generally reasonable. Plusnet Broadband Phone charges 1.5p a minute during
the day and 1p a minute for evenings and weekends to numbers starting with
01 or 02. Skype's pay-as-you-go prices start at 1p a minute within the UK.
Although there are some decent Voip deals on the market, telecoms experts
remain sceptical about whether making calls over the internet can compete
with traditional landline services. Call quality can be affected by internet
traffic levels and is generally not as good as landlines. Furthermore, Voip
phone services will be lost in a power cut and not all services enable calls
to be made to the emergency services - although the rules on this are due to
change in September and Voip services will need to offer access to 999 and
112 (the EU emergency services number).
Michael Phillips, product director at Broadband Choices, the comparison
website, thinks that consumers would be better off staying with a landline
service for their calls for the time being. He says: “The issue with Voip is
that it has competition from companies such as TalkTalk, which are offering
unlimited call packages for people overseas, and it is difficult for Voip to
compete. To use Voip you still need broadband and must pay a monthly line
rental. Customers would be better off with a bundled deal with TalkTalk or
Tiscali. These include international calls without having to suffer the poor
call quality sometimes experienced with Voip.”
Bundles are packages for which customers pay a fixed monthly cost to receive a
number of different services - usually broadband, line rental and telephone
calls.
Steve Weller, of uSwitch.com, another comparison website, says that Skype
fares well against rival Voip providers but he raises doubts about how many
people actually need a calls package with inclusive calls to 30 countries or
more.
He points out: “Most people call only one or two other countries and do not
make calls to 20 or 30 destinations. Compared with landline suppliers and
bundles, Skype does not fare so well.”
Mr Weller cites Orange Home Max as an example of a bundle that will work out
cheaper than using Skype. He says: “For £24 a month you receive telephone
line rental, broadband, a second line, which is Voip, and free calls to UK
landlines, 30 countries and Orange mobile phones. Sky also works out
slightly cheaper than Skype. With Sky Talk you can make unlimited calls to
UK landlines and 20 international destinations for £5 a month.”
New handsets offer internet calls on the move
It is not only home broadband users who can use Voip - those with either a 3
mobile phone or BT Broadband can make use of Voip on the move.
Skype, the Voip provider, has teamed up with 3, the mobile telephone network,
to offer the Skypephone, which enables users to make free internet calls.
The handset, the first to have Skype built in, can also be used to make
calls to non-Skype numbers.
The 3 Skypephone is available on 3 pay-as-you-go and monthly contracts.
Pay-as-you-go customers will have to fork out £39.99 for a handset and top
up their credit with at least £10 every 30 days to obtain free
Skype-to-Skype calls.
The cheapest Skypephonecontract costs £12 a month for up to 4,000 minutes of
Skype-to-Skype calls and instant messaging. This is on top of its normal
call and text allowances. However, the phone can only be used where 3 has a
network. At the moment it has networks in the UK, Australia, Austria,
Denmark, Hong Kong, Irish Republic, Italy and Sweden. In other countries you
will be at the mercy of roaming rates.
Last month BT introduced its Total Broadband Anywhere package, which includes
broadband access at home and an internet-enabled smartphone called the BT
ToGo.
The package costs £23.99 for the first three months and £29.99 thereafter. It
includes an 8MB fixed broadband connection with a 5GB download limit. Away
from the home, when in range of a wi-fi hotspot, the BT ToGo phone connects
to the internet at broadband speeds and provides cheaper calls through
Broadband Talk, which is BT's Voip product.
Case Study: Skype rocks
Mark Kelly, 47, is the keyboard player with the rock band Marillion. The band
had a hit with Kayleigh in the Eighties and is currently making its 15th
album.
While on tour, Mr Kelly uses Skype to call his family in Oxfordshire, who also
have Skype. He has conducted press interviews over Skype and will soon be
holding web chats with fans using Skype. “I use computers a lot in my work,”
he says. “I heard about Skype and thought I would give it a try. I use it
when I'm on the road and want to call home to speak to my girlfriend and
kids. There is also a webcam, which means that the children can see me when
I'm talking to them - they are aged 6, 2 and 8 months, so they like that.”
Mr Kelly can access his account online and has Skype software on his laptop,
which he takes on tour. He adds: “It keeps down the cost of calls - mobile
bills can be horrendous. As well as calling home, I also use it to call
friends and relatives in New Zealand and a friend who travels a lot.”
