You’ve probably heard about VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) recently.
This is a technology where you use your broadband Internet connection to make phone calls, instead of your normal phone system.

VOIP allows you to make long distance calls at a much cheaper rate than normally charged by your phone company. I can make a call to anywhere in Australa and talk as long as I like for 18 cents. (some VOIP providers charge even less - I’ll tell you why I don’t use them below)
Over the past 6 months I estimate that I’ve saved 83% on my phone charges, while enjoying the same call quality as a normal phone call.
International calls are also available for cents per minute. The cost varies depending on the country you are calling.
Here’s some tips:

• Forget VOIP on the low speed 256kB ADSL plans. You need at least 512kb, and preferably 1.5mB speeds for acceptable voice quality.
• The quality of the plug in USB phones using services like Skype, Engin, etc. can be poor at times. Noise, dropouts, and delays on the line made it quite unpleasant to conduct a conversation at times.
• Best voice quality is obtained when you use a VOIP adapter (cost around $150) which connects to your router. Your phone (wired or cordless) can then be plugged into the adapter. If there’s a problem with ADSL, the call switches back to the normal phone line.
• Use of an adapter effectively gives you 2 phone lines. If you are calling out on the VOIP phone, you are still able to receive incoming calls on the normal phone.
• Configuration of VOIP adaptors can be complex, so make sure that support is available if you get one.

I tried several VOIP services, and finally decided on Internode ( www.internode.on.net).

I changed to them late last year for my ADSL services, and don’t experience the problems I had when I was on the Telstra network. They are also cheaper, and can provide amazingly fast ADSL2 coverage in some areas.

Their VOIP system (Nodephone) is superior to other systems I have tried because it runs on its own network. The setup of the adaptor was also easy. Everything is preconfigured, and all I had to do was plug the adaptor into my router, connect the phone, and it just worked.

Some of the services like Engin and Skype are cheaper than Internode. However when I tested these services last year, the call quality was not acceptable to me. People told me that I sounded like I was talking down a long, hollow tube and sometimes there was a delay in the transmission which made it difficult to conduct a conversation.
Please leave a comment if you have any questions about VOIP.