QUOTE (IndustrialEcho @ Mar 13 2005, 11:06 pm)
Is VoiP like Skype YL6?
Skype is a "poor mans" VoIP. Skype is a software solution to let you telephone worldwide over the internet, either with other Skype users (free) or make calls to landlines. The downside of Skype is you need a PC and headset (or "USB Phone" to use it). You also cannot dial in to a Skype user from the outside world (yet - this will be shortly announced as the new "Skype-in"). The upside of Skype is that it uses low bandwidth - you can easilly hold a bearable conversation over a dial-up analogue modem connection.
VoIP is basically the ability to hold a phone conversation using the internet as your carrier.
It is now possible to establish your own
landline number in many countries. UK, Germany and USA are very well served in this respect. I can setup a UK phone number in
any UK area code
for free. I can setup my Internet-connected PC and headset on the internet to be "connected" with that number. Anyone calling this number is essentially calling my PC over the internet. The only charge for the caller is the cost of the call to the landline. For a UK or US person, for example, this could be a local call. It doesn't matter where your PC is connected into the Internet - Germany or Outer Mongolia, the call costs fo the originator are the same. Companies providing the access service also allow you to call out from your PC via the number too. These calls are very cheap, especially if to the same country where your number is based. However, because Germany has artificially deflated international call costs because of the call-by-call market here, they are not much more competitive than those. If you cannot use call-by-call (because you have Alice or Arcor, for example) then VoIP is attractive.
The next stage is real VoIP telephones. These exist (€100 or less) and allow you to connect a phone device directly into your internet connection, usually home router. Once configured, then this phone is just like a real phone, the only difference being that it actually has a phone number, usually in another country - people can make calls to you, and you can make calls anywhere in the world at reduced rates.
VoIP Services in the USA for example, give you a US phone number in the area code of your choice, and calling plans permit up to unlimited calls in the mainland USA for around $25 "flat rate". If you establish the number in the area code your family live in, then ALL their calls to you are free (because in the USA calls to the same area code are free) and you can make unlimited calls across the USA with no additional charges.
I have a VoIP number in Yorkshire (where else?). My family have the advantage that they can call me at local (UK) rates (but even then German call-by-call services to UK are cheaper than the VoIP providers calls to the UK). Right now this means my family get the main advantage... Of course, if I am travelling, and my PC is connected to the internet then they can call me whereever I am, and I can often call them with substantially cheaper rates than mobile roaming or hotel charges
Potentially you can setup multiple numbers in different cities, or in different countries. Wherever you plug in your phone (or PC), to any internet connection any where in the world, you are available on that number.
The next development is the "WiFi" VoIP phone. The Siemens press release is just such a model. Others already exist. These are wireless phones that can log into a WiFi hotspot to do exactly the same thing as the wired VoIP phone described above. The result is that you simply need to be near WiFi access and your IP phone goes "live" and your number becomes available.
A further upcoming developement is to add video services to the carrier. I already know someone in Munich from Hong Kong who has brought such a device from their home. The have a VoIP number in Hong-Kong, as does their sister who lives in New York. A video conversation over the internet with the sister is little more than a local Hong Kong phone call, despite call origination in Munich and destination New York...
The wonders of science... I feel a new thread coming on...
YL6