need a second phone line

chocdrop4767

Hi

Has anyone got any suggestions as to where to shop for a cheap deal on a second phone line into the house. Basically i need a 2nd phone number coming into the house just for my use. Not sure about getting a second line with BT, or using my broadband for PC to landline calls (because callers seem to pay alot for calling that number on my PC).

grateful for your thoughts

regards

Chocdrop

hurrah

Welcome chocdrop4767

BT Call Sign will possibly suit you it gives you an extra geographical 01/02 number with a different ring tone so you can make sure the right person answers the phone.

This call feature costs £1.75 p a month.

BexTech

There are many VoIP providers that offer you a proper (local 01 / 02) phone number, so the cost to call it is the same as it costs to call any 01 or 02 number.

I use only VoIP (don't have a landline) and have an 0121 number, so people don't even know it's not a landline, and are charged the usual cost for calling landlines.

I use an ATA (analogue Telephone Adapter) so use my regular phones and don't need the PC to be on to make and receive calls.

When we had a BT landline we used CallSign so we could distinguish incoming calls.

chocdrop4767

thanks for these suggestions. The Bt option sounded good, but part of the reason i need a separate line and phone unit is that i get business associates calling me sometimes, and i've got two young girls at home who race for the phone...hardly professional having a 4yr old scream down the phone:eek:

I guess the downside of something thru the PC is if the Broadband connection goes down (or drops off) as it can sometimes...but then they could always call my moby.

My wish list would be:

• Having something like VOIP with an adapter to use regular phones
• a local prefix
• comparable costs to BT for clients to call me and FINALLY
• free for me to make calls to UK landlines...

Can anyone recommend a provider offering these requirements (or most of them) as i don't know much about them

BexTech

If you have a look at the residential tariff at: http://www.voip.co.uk/res_products.html

For £20 per year, you can have off-peak calls free for up to 60 mins then 1p/min and daytime calls for 2p per call up to 60 mins then 1p/min.

You could possibly set up a voice mail system, so that if broadband goes down then the caller gets a recorded announcement. I don't use VoIP.co.uk myself, so can't comment on their voicemail, but I know several people via newsgroups and another forum who are happy with the service.

I also use Sipgate for which I have an 0121 number, I only use these for incoming calls and calls to 0800 / 0808 numbers, but with their Voicemail you have the choice whether you want it to kick in after however many seconds you want it to (between 0 - 100 seconds) and/or when your phone is offline (broadband down). I have tested this and it works, however I don't use voicemail, so have it all switched off, on the very very rare occasion (twice in over 3 years) that my broadband has been down (though a couple of times also Sipgate was down) callers hear an engaged tone if the service is down (but would get voicemail if it was enabled).

With VoIP you can have call waiting and voicemail set-up, so if you are on a call you can switch between calls, or let it ring out and go to voicemail after so many seconds.

You could go for a dedicated business VoIP phone, some of these have 4 - 10 'lines' just means you can put 4 - 10 people on hold and switch between calls.

I use a PAP2 ATA this has two lines, I use two different providers on it (with 2 different numbers), but I could set it up to use the same account (number) on both lines.

Though what I will be doing soon is setting up a PABX system, using an old PC running Asterisk (trixbox) on it, this will then let me have as many incoming numbers as I wish (I currently have over 25 numbers, from various areas of the UK, as well as a few USA numbers, a German number, Dutch number, Romanian number and Italian number) and use my PAP2 which would allow me to have to extensions being able to answer a call from any of the incoming numbers, also allows me to have music on hold, and call stacking (though probably wouldn't use that, would rather have the caller either hear a busy tone or ringing tone, not a message "You're call is important and will be answered as soon as possible.....")

chocdrop4767

thanks Bextech

Certainly alot to take in. I'm on sky broadband with a netgear wireless router, so i think i could plug a regular phone into it for use on VOIP as it has an extra phone port

The VOIP.co.uk stuff looks really good. I had heard of sipgate, but need to read up about them a bit more.


no doubt will have a few more Q's to post up
:T
cheers

chocdrop4767

Bextech

Voip.co.uk looks a better bet for me as you get alot more phone useage for your money... as you said 2p for 60 minutes peak etc.

Sipgate (even thought it looks good), doesn't seem to offer that type of call rate, its much more about per minute billing. I was eventually going to use which ever service I chose to knock out 15-20 sales calls per day, so Sipgate would cost me more that VOIP.co.uk.

Genrallywith VOIP, what's the sound quality like?

BexTech

Yeah, I think VoIP.co.uk would be the better bet.

I use VoIPStunt as my main service, I signed up when they offered incoming numbers (which they don't offer at the moment to new sign-ups).

Sipgate I've had since they started up as they were one of (if not the) first to enter the UK VoIP market, I only use Sipgate for an incoming number and for any freephone numbers, most of my calls go out using VoIPStunt.

chocdrop4767

cheers

I'd probably prefer to keep it all with one provider to avoid confusion and any extra hassle. The only thing I haven't found on the Voip.co.uk site is how much it costs for someone to call me (is it BT rates?)

chocdrop4767

thanks again for all the advice, its been really helpful

:T

BexTech

chocdrop4767 wrote:

Genrallywith VOIP, what's the sound quality like?

I've found the call quality to be excellent, clearer than the BT line I had, as many people on BT have ropey lines.

The call quality can only be as good as the weakest link, so if the person you are calling is on a ropey BT line, then they quality will be as good as that, even though your quality up until the end user is excellent. On cable unlike BT it's extremely rare to find a customer with a ropey line, so those will be really clear, like it would cable - cable calls.