caller display charges on home phones

MarkLS12

Jemma-T wrote: »

You missed the bit: ...if you have a PC, a PC with a good quality microphone and headphones, broadband, leave your 300w PC on burning electricty 24hrs a day (how else do you get/make a call?) or buy a special phone, sign up and do all the faffing about that VOIP asks of your PC.

You do not need to leave your PC on or buy a special phone, we use the same phone we used when we had a BT line. We just plugged our phone into an Adapter box which cost less than three months BT line rental then followed the setup instructions and it worked first time.

It is even easier if you have some mobile phones, for example I have a Nokia E71 which I can use for my Sipgate line anywhere where I can get wireless broadband.

Jemma-T wrote: »

Yes, VOIP is great if that's your bag but I'd hardly say their caller display is "free".

Well it is genuinely free with Sipgate, there is no line rental and no charge for a standard (0161 in my case) phone number.

Jemma-T wrote: »

I'm not knocking companies that offer these services but there's a lot of hoops to jump through and therefore it's not "free". I don't pay for my caller display directly as it's part of my BT package. I wouldn't say it's free though as I pay for that service package.

I didn't jump through any hoops. Setting up and configuring our line was much easier than dealing with Virgin Media.
We use it as our only landline as we have cable broadband and it works great.

Jemma-T

MarkLS12 wrote:

I didn't jump through any hoops. Setting up and configuring our line was much easier than dealing with Virgin Media.

Fantastic, please post your email, home phone (leave on the PC please or make sure you're in the exact same room as 'box' -no multiple handsets in your house I assume?), mobile and postal address so we can contact you for installation and aftersales help.

Much obliged

I used to have Net2Phone. Great "free" service but at the end of the day a complete annoyance. Like I said Sipgate and other flavours of VOIP are really good for some people.

MarkLS12

Jemma-T wrote: »

leave on the PC please or make sure you're in the exact same room as 'box' -no multiple handsets in your house I assume?

I have never used Sipgate for VOIP through my PC. The "box" is connected to three handsets around the house, it works the same as a normal phone line.

Jemma-T wrote: »

Like I said Sipgate and other flavours of VOIP are really good for some people.

Actually what you said, which I replied to was:

Jemma-T wrote: »

Nobody offers caller display for "Free". If anyone says different they're an idiot, a fool or a saleperson.

And that is just not true, at least one company does provide free caller display.

Just because you did not like Net2Phone does not mean all VOIP is bad. I had a quick look and Net2Phone looks like a quite different service.
VOIP is becoming more and more popular as a replacement for old fashioned landlines, particularly for businesses, there are many different types and standards of services available.

BexTech

I use Sipgate and other VoIP providers (have done for many years now, and was VoIP only for 3.5 years) and like above don't have my PC on 24/7, I have an ATA with a regular DECT cordless phone attached.

With Virgin Media I get caller display at no additional charge as I said as part of switching to them I wanted to not pay extra for caller display as I wasn't with BT or VoIP.