My phone calls are 1c/min Aust-wide.
- Thread starter Ray Brown
- Start date
One of the big differences between traditional carriers and VOIP providers is the flagfall. Pretty much all VOIP providers don't charge a flagfall and this makes a big difference.
For instance a traditional carrier offering (sayme Homeline complete) will cost you 35c flagfall plus one billing increment only to get someones voicemail
Using a voip provider that provides per/second billing would cost you about 5 cents for the same 10 second call.
In regard to landlines calls the VOIP offerings are REALLY competitive. There are providers like freecall that offer 1c/min nationally and others that offer 10c untimes nationally. (I've read some statistics somewhere where the average call length is around 3.5 mins)
If you have a smart enough ATA you can combine the best bits of all plans.
For instance.
In my situation I use my ISPs offering iinetphone for 10c untimed local and mobile calls at 29.9c /min biller per second.
Then for STD calls I use astratel as they offer 10c untimed nationally.
For international i also use astratel as there rates are really cheap and they also offer 19c untimed to 22 countries including the UK, singapore, USA...
I also set up my father in laws laptop in singapore so he uses a softphone (same as skype as far as he's concerned) but when he 'dials' us. its our home phone that rings, not our computer.
Bare in mind also that everyone on the VOIP bandwagon can also pretty much call each other for NOTHING.
In regard to the cost of the ATA.
Mine payed for itself within 3 months by taking our ~130 bill down to about $60.
Food for though
For instance a traditional carrier offering (sayme Homeline complete) will cost you 35c flagfall plus one billing increment only to get someones voicemail
Using a voip provider that provides per/second billing would cost you about 5 cents for the same 10 second call.
In regard to landlines calls the VOIP offerings are REALLY competitive. There are providers like freecall that offer 1c/min nationally and others that offer 10c untimes nationally. (I've read some statistics somewhere where the average call length is around 3.5 mins)
If you have a smart enough ATA you can combine the best bits of all plans.
For instance.
In my situation I use my ISPs offering iinetphone for 10c untimed local and mobile calls at 29.9c /min biller per second.
Then for STD calls I use astratel as they offer 10c untimed nationally.
For international i also use astratel as there rates are really cheap and they also offer 19c untimed to 22 countries including the UK, singapore, USA...
I also set up my father in laws laptop in singapore so he uses a softphone (same as skype as far as he's concerned) but when he 'dials' us. its our home phone that rings, not our computer.
Bare in mind also that everyone on the VOIP bandwagon can also pretty much call each other for NOTHING.
In regard to the cost of the ATA.
Mine payed for itself within 3 months by taking our ~130 bill down to about $60.
Food for though
Here's a couple. My good docs and articles are at work howeverRay Brown said:
Voice over IP pioneer Vonage is to market a mobile phone handset for around $100, the company announced today. Existing subscribers may be offered the handset, the F1000, for free.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/01/05/vonage_voip_mobile_handset/
Perth's Edith Cowan University (ECU) will seek to use its new mesh wireless network to cut down its fleet of mobile phones by replacing them with wireless handsets enabled for Voice over IP (VoIP).
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/Wi_Fi_VoIP_a_mobile_phone_killer_for_Edith_Cowan/0,2000061791,39240798,00.htm
These are both hotspot solutions - Unwired is looking at one with a much broader reach.
Most recent approach is the dual Wi-Max/mobile network phones - Samsung is making them, Nokia and Ericsson have them coming shortly. They have to be cautious not to annoy the networks too much though - it's all about who doesn't make the money
Cheers,
Aceyducey
Hiya
We have used Engin for about 8 mths and have found it easy and economical. The voice quality has been improving consistently over this time and I feel that within 12 to 24 mths time you wont be able to tell a copper line from a VOIP line, except for the cost
ta
rolf
We have used Engin for about 8 mths and have found it easy and economical. The voice quality has been improving consistently over this time and I feel that within 12 to 24 mths time you wont be able to tell a copper line from a VOIP line, except for the cost
ta
rolf
Acey,Aceyducey said:What is making me hungry atm is the dual wi-fi/mobile handsets....use wireless VOIP in areas with wireless and the mobile network everywhere else. Now that will be saving a lot of money
So, if I had a few lazy dollars laying around, what would be your pick of a nice little spec play that could see some real upside if this new technology plays out as I anticipate it will.
A couple of the VoIP providers perhaps, or is there some newbies that are specialising in this space?
Cheers,
Michael.
PS Of course, I recognise that it is not financial advice you'll be offering up.
Hi Michael,
Right now I like Freshtel They're expanding o/s at a great rate and have some good UK deals in place - of course these may already be factored in the share price...
Engin I reckon is too hardware focused to do well and is playing around the edges.
UnWired may have a good play coming up with mobile VOIP - but this is more speculative and you'd be betting on their survival or a buyout from a larger competitor.
Skype of course is now owned by eBay....which right now is worth being very cautious about - too many fraud scandals arising.
There are now over 60 providers of VOIP services operating in Australia (plus o/s services) and an estimated 200,000-500,000 VOIP users. So it's a tricky business working out which providers will thrive. Much too low barriers to entry IMHO, and none of the existing players has build strong brand loyalty and a deep enough user base at present.
IMHO the most likely to do OK are the large ISPs as they can embed the product within their other offerings. Then it doesn't become a pure VOIP play but a combo of bundled services, which can provide some uniqueness and has sufficient customer base and underlying cashflows to make the VOIP case fly.
BTW - keep an eye on Reeltime's listing. They could go very well - though I see a couple of weaknesses in their financials. Excellent management team however and that counts for a lot - their strategy is workable as well.
Cheers,
Aceyducey
Right now I like Freshtel
They're expanding o/s at a great rate and have some good UK deals in place - of course these may already be factored in the share price...Engin I reckon is too hardware focused to do well and is playing around the edges.
UnWired may have a good play coming up with mobile VOIP - but this is more speculative and you'd be betting on their survival or a buyout from a larger competitor.
Skype of course is now owned by eBay....which right now is worth being very cautious about - too many fraud scandals arising.
There are now over 60 providers of VOIP services operating in Australia (plus o/s services) and an estimated 200,000-500,000 VOIP users. So it's a tricky business working out which providers will thrive. Much too low barriers to entry IMHO, and none of the existing players has build strong brand loyalty and a deep enough user base at present.
IMHO the most likely to do OK are the large ISPs as they can embed the product within their other offerings. Then it doesn't become a pure VOIP play but a combo of bundled services, which can provide some uniqueness and has sufficient customer base and underlying cashflows to make the VOIP case fly.
BTW - keep an eye on Reeltime's listing. They could go very well - though I see a couple of weaknesses in their financials. Excellent management team however and that counts for a lot - their strategy is workable as well.
Cheers,
Aceyducey
Ray Brown said:
Ray,
You may be better off paying the Telstra buget home line rental of $18.50 per month. I believe it is the cheapest on the market, bar a few loss leading small Telcos.
Update: Scrap that, seems you get line rental included with AAPT broadband - didn't know that was possible is it just bundled or ULL ?
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Somethings to bear in mind.
Quality on the cheaper providers is generally bad, most of the time you won't notice, but when they have congestion on their networks you will.
There are very few VOIP providers that run private networks end-to-end - Internode do, iiNet sort of do (although their network piggybacks Telstra and others).
Engin, Astratel, Penny etc all do VoI (voice over internet) this means no decent network, and no guarantee of call quality, if your hardware also doesn't do QoS (quality of service ie prioritising voice packets up/down your connection) the calls can be much worse than standard PSTN.
However even saying all this, why pay up to 10x the call costs from Telstra (and other providers eg Optus).
Just be aware spending $150+ on hardware means you need to make a lot of cheap calls to justify, some people are better off with calling cards or cheaper telco providers (AAPT etc).
To the comment about VOIP to VOIP is free, this is generally only for calls on the same provider network, unless you have a DID number (a number for incoming calls to your VOIP phone - not just outgoing). These are few and far between in Australia so far - mostly only businesses are using.
Quality on the cheaper providers is generally bad, most of the time you won't notice, but when they have congestion on their networks you will.
There are very few VOIP providers that run private networks end-to-end - Internode do, iiNet sort of do (although their network piggybacks Telstra and others).
Engin, Astratel, Penny etc all do VoI (voice over internet) this means no decent network, and no guarantee of call quality, if your hardware also doesn't do QoS (quality of service ie prioritising voice packets up/down your connection) the calls can be much worse than standard PSTN.
However even saying all this, why pay up to 10x the call costs from Telstra (and other providers eg Optus).
Just be aware spending $150+ on hardware means you need to make a lot of cheap calls to justify, some people are better off with calling cards or cheaper telco providers (AAPT etc).
To the comment about VOIP to VOIP is free, this is generally only for calls on the same provider network, unless you have a DID number (a number for incoming calls to your VOIP phone - not just outgoing). These are few and far between in Australia so far - mostly only businesses are using.
AAPT includes line rental. I wont pay telstra anything anymore, ever.
With no contract period as well.
Blows telstra and optus out of the water. There may be questions over the long term viability of AAPT, but hey - who gives a toss. I'm filling my boots with VOIP calls and large amounts of data for stuff all.
I don't know about that, mine is extremely cheap - and always the quality is basically the same as PSTN.
I don't think you can compare being able to just pick up the phone and dial any number, at any time, at 1c/min without a code number to enter, without a ## to enter, without a flagfall. The KISS principal wins here I think.
$150 ? Are you joking, that equates to about 15 longish STD calls. Mine cost 60c/hour.
And incidentally, I used the need to get a voip box as an excuse to get the linksys wireless router. I went also from dial-up to 512/256 DSL, 12GB p/m, no contract. SAME COST.
With no contract period as well.
Blows telstra and optus out of the water. There may be questions over the long term viability of AAPT, but hey - who gives a toss. I'm filling my boots with VOIP calls and large amounts of data for stuff all.
doreilly said:
I don't know about that, mine is extremely cheap - and always the quality is basically the same as PSTN.
doreilly said:
I don't think you can compare being able to just pick up the phone and dial any number, at any time, at 1c/min without a code number to enter, without a ## to enter, without a flagfall. The KISS principal wins here I think.
$150 ? Are you joking, that equates to about 15 longish STD calls.
Mine cost 60c/hour.And incidentally, I used the need to get a voip box as an excuse to get the linksys wireless router. I went also from dial-up to 512/256 DSL, 12GB p/m, no contract. SAME COST.
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Adding to the earlier question about mobile VOIP, I've brought a couple of recent announcement home for any who are interested:
Companies launch Wi-Fi phone
D-Link and TelTel have rolled out a pocket-sized, SIP-enabled Wi-Fi phone that's designed to let users make VoIP calls on the go. The handset comes with TelTel's VoIP service, which offers free Internet calls and $.02-per-minute off-Internet calls.
http://telephonyonline.com/voip/news/TelTel_DLink_WiFi_031406/
And this will be interesting when Vista (Microsoft's next Windows version) arrives:
Microsoft details VoIP and video plans
Microsoft on Thursday unveiled details of plans for VoIP and video products offered through Windows Live services that will include new VoIP phones and a click-to-call feature for address book names.
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/softwa..._and_video_plans/0,2000061733,39246368,00.htm
(the voice recognition integrated into Vista is very good too!)
Cheers,
Aceyducey
Companies launch Wi-Fi phone
D-Link and TelTel have rolled out a pocket-sized, SIP-enabled Wi-Fi phone that's designed to let users make VoIP calls on the go. The handset comes with TelTel's VoIP service, which offers free Internet calls and $.02-per-minute off-Internet calls.
http://telephonyonline.com/voip/news/TelTel_DLink_WiFi_031406/
And this will be interesting when Vista (Microsoft's next Windows version) arrives:
Microsoft details VoIP and video plans
Microsoft on Thursday unveiled details of plans for VoIP and video products offered through Windows Live services that will include new VoIP phones and a click-to-call feature for address book names.
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/softwa..._and_video_plans/0,2000061733,39246368,00.htm
(the voice recognition integrated into Vista is very good too!)
Cheers,
Aceyducey
