VOIP

Sandtree

Mickey666 said:
But in these days of unlimited free calls mobile packages, is VoIP really worth it any more?  I've already given up using my landline for anything except broadband internet and can easily imagine giving that up within the next decade when 5G mobile internet is well established and as cheap and fast as my current FTTC landline.

We don't have a landline at all.

For us VOIP is useful as the Mrs' more elderly close relatives that are overseas can have a VOIP phone set up that looks like a normal phone, acts like a normal phone but is free for my wife to call them (or them to call us). For more distant relatives the Mrs can call them much cheaper (BT is 142.4 whereas voip is 7.5)

When I worked overseas for an extended period people could still call my UK numbers and I didn't pay any overseas fees

Mickey666

littleboo said:

Mickey666 said:

Sandtree said:

J_B said:

Slightly O/T but if I already have a VOIP enabled modem (for our WISP internet) do I need a new phone or can one be adapted?

It depends what you mean by a "VOIP enabled modem"?... every modem can support VOIP, I'd have imagined that the modem has a RJ11 slot for plugging a normal phone in to use as a VOIP phone but it could just be marketing spin.

All sounds a bit 'old tech' really.  Back in the late 90s I used a Draytek router at home, which supported VoIP and had an RJ11 socket into which a standard telephone could be plugged and used.  My work office had a similar Draytek modem and I could make VoIP calls as simply as dialling a 'normal' call.  It worked very well.

But in these days of unlimited free calls mobile packages, is VoIP really worth it any more?  I've already given up using my landline for anything except broadband internet and can easily imagine giving that up within the next decade when 5G mobile internet is well established and as cheap and fast as my current FTTC landline.

There are still plenty of requirements for something that looks and feels like a traditional phone and with the PSTN switch off, that's what VOIP delivers. Also, in business there are a lot us of use cases, contact centres, factory environments, agile workers etc where VOIP is or will be the technology, regardless of what the underlay is.

That's a fair point, given the basic strategy (BT 21CN) is to replace every BT master telephone socket with an Ethernet socket such that VoIP will be the new fixed line telephone standard.
But my wider point was that the fixed line telephone is rapidly being replaced by mobile telephony, so while I'm sure there will be pockets of VoIP telephony required, I don't imagine it will ever be as dominant as 'landlines' used to be.  In that sense, VoIP is not going to be an equivalent replacement for PSTN in terms of scale.  As mobile communications improve there is going to be less and less need for a physical comms communication to the home.  Technology progression will be the enabler but pricing will be the determining factor.

Mickey666

Chino said:

Mickey666 said:

True, but I was talking about over the next decade.  When you consider that the web barely existed 25 years ago yet now we're all pretty much dependent on it for all manner of online services, imagine what might happen over the next 10 years. Technology moves fast.

You overlook the fact that "the web" is still delivered over essentially the same physical infrastructure that was in place 25 years ago. Places to which FTTC can't be delivered today won't have FTTP in 25 years' time. Places that don't have have mobile coverage today won't have mobile coverage in 25 years' time.

It's a brave person who predicts anything technological 25 years hence.  Mobile coverage is ALREADY available anywhere on the planet, but we call it a 'satellite phone' and it's relatively expensive.   You might want to read about the 'Starlink' project that aims to provide global coverage to standard mobile phones and is happening right now.

Besides, you only have to consider the advances and growth in 'ordinary' mobiles phones since 1995 to realise that your statement about mobile coverage is way out.  What makes you think things are going to stand still for the next 25 years?

ann_droid

Hi

Copper load of this:

https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/11/openreach_pulls_copper/
This is relevant I believe...
""Landline connections delivered over fibre will require the use of a router, regardless of whether the user has broadband. Openreach has said telcos will provide these for free. Certain telephone-based alarm systems may also cease to function, and punters may be forced to replace their phone handset with a newer compatible model.

Additionally, as fibre-based telephony products are powered via the mains, rather than via the telephone exchange, there's a potential for a loss of service during power outages. ®""

rarrarrar

Having started to play with sipgate basic , as I will soon have the option for FTTP at £20 pm, I need a basic Android app or softphone . There isnt one built into my version of Android.
Anyone recommend an App ?
My current modem/router (Fritz!box 7530) provides the VOIP interface to my existing corded phone and DECT cordless phones.

Murmansk

Zoiper works well for me

Sandtree

rarrarrar said:

Anyone recommend an App ?

Check with your VOIP provider, we used to use Zoiper and it worked fairly well but our VOIP provider released their own app and its marginally better for internal VOIP to VOIP calls which we use a fair amount when one of us is overseas and therefore dont pay anything for the calls to the Mrs etc

CoastingHatbox

We still have the landline. It sits there with the ringer turned off. The number of vDSL problems we've had where it's been useful to check for the presence of the dial tone or check for crackling on the line, make it useful for that reason alone.

Haven't felt the need to adopt VOIP at home. Mobile network seems to do the job.

Sandtree

CoastingHatbox said:

We still have the landline. It sits there with the ringer turned off. The number of vDSL problems we've had where it's been useful to check for the presence of the dial tone or check for crackling on the line, make it useful for that reason alone.

Haven't felt the need to adopt VOIP at home. Mobile network seems to do the job.

We have FTTP so dont have a landline at all

We initially adopted VOIP because of the price difference in international calls... using BT was about £1.25/minute and O2 £3/minute for Mrs to call home but putting her mum onto VOIP meant it was free and for her other relatives it was £0.05/minute.

Given WhatsApp, Facetime etc its probably less useful than it once was, though I like being able to call from anywhere in the world to anywhere in the world and caller ID as my mobile when actually calling from my laptop with a headset and without international call charges.