You Make the Call

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For people looking to save some money on their home telephone bills, VoIP is more than a four-letter word. “Voice over Internet Protocol” is a way to make and take as many calls as you want, for little (and sometimes no) money at all. There was a time several years ago when most of these services were difficult to use and quality was severely lacking. But that’s not the case anymore. In fact, some of the services we tried out for this review actually provide better sound quality than your local telephone company.

Even better for you, the competition has really heated up. In May, Vonage announced that calls to land lines in France, Italy, Ireland, Spain and the United Kingdom are free for customers signed up for the $24.99 per month Premium Unlimited plan. Skype, which is owned by eBay, followed up by announcing that all calls to land lines and cell phones in the U.S. and Canada are free, even if you’ve never paid a dime to Skype. Of course, all of these services have their advantages and disadvantages, and we’ll go over those. But if you’re paying for a high speed Internet connection (DSL, cable modem, satellite, etc.) and a local and long distance telephone bill, you’re probably ripe to save a few bucks. Here are a few options to help you do that, as well as some hardware you may want to use.

Skype

DETAILS: Free, unlimited PC-to-PC calls anywhere in the world and free PC-to-phone calls in the U.S. and Canada.

INTERNATIONAL LANDLINE RATES (PER MIN.): Canada, free; London, $.021; Beijing, $.021; Mexico City, $.021; Japan, $.023; Paris, $.021.

FEATURES INCLUDED: Free voicemail, free call forwarding in the U.S. and Canada, instant messaging

ADDITIONAL FEATURES: Toll-free numbers, call forwarding, additional phone numbers, conference calling

NOTES: Skype uses software on your PC to make telephone calls, however you can use select hardware that connects to your PC and acts like a phone (see RTX phone review). In order for people who don’t have Skype to call you directly, you must order “SkypeIn,” which supplies you with a local telephone number for $30 a year ($10 for three months).

HARDWARE: Cordless 2-in-1 USB DUALphone, $139.99, www.dualphone-us.com

REVIEW: Downloading, installing and setting up the Skype PC software is very easy if you’ve ever used an instant messaging program. Installing the DUALphone software was easy as well, although we had trouble at first because it kept alerting us that Skype wasn’t running, when indeed it was. Apparently, we just needed to reboot the computer, which of course solves 99 percent of PC problems. After that, the phone worked very well. In fact, Skype was the best sound quality of all the services, and way better than standard telephone service, a detail Skype doesn’t advertise enough. The phone allows you to connect it to both your PC’s USB port, as well as a standard telephone line, so you can use it as a landline phone and never miss a call on either network. While the DUALphone can be used with nearly any VoIP “soft phone” service, it’s designed specifically for Skype, allowing you to scroll through your Skype address book on the LED, so it alerts you when another Skype user has logged on. We would’ve thought a phone built for Skype would have a better graphic display, like today’s cell phones, even if that would’ve bumped up the price a bit. The service does require that you have a PC turned on to use it; however, the cordless phone means you don’t have to near it as well. Did we mention Skype is free?

www.skype.com

Vonage

DETAILS: $24.99 per month for Premium Unlimited calling plan. $14.99 per month for 500 minutes but that doesn’t include free calls to the countries listed above.

INTERNATIONAL LANDLINE RATES (PER MIN.): Canada, free; London, free; Beijing, $.06; Mexico City, $.07; Japan, $.07; Paris, free.

FEATURES INCLUDED: local phone number, E911, voicemail, caller ID w/name, call waiting, call forwarding, three-way calling, call transfer (transfers call to another phone), click-to-call (works with Microsoft Outlook––it calls your phone first, and then calls the other party), call return, caller ID block and repeat dialing (calls you when the number’s no longer busy)

ADDITIONAL FEATURES: 500-minute soft phone, with its own phone number ($9.99 per month), virtual phone number, toll-free service plan

NOTES: You’ll need to attach a router to your broadband modem so you have something into which you can plug your Vonage device. We used one of the available hardline ports on our Linksys Wi-Fi router.

HARDWARE: D-Link VTA phone adapter, $49.99, www.d-link.com

REVIEW: The Vonage service was easy to set up, once we plugged the D-Link device into our router. (As it is a wireless router and not located in a convenient spot, this wasn’t as easy as it sounds). Don’t throw away that home phone when you sign up for Vonage. The box is designed so you can plug any standard telephone into it, although there are Vonage phones you can purchase instead. Lacking a standard phone ourselves, we were ironically forced to use the DUALphone we received to review the Skype service––sacrilege in the VoIP community! Relax, it worked fine. The audio quality wasn’t as sharp as Skype, however, it was totally dummy proof to use, as there was no need to install any software or have a PC turned on to use it. We would’ve liked the device makers to include a longer Ethernet cable. We live in a wireless world today and, in many cases, the router isn’t sitting on a desk, but located on an out-of-the way shelf, far from where someone wants to keep their telephone. Of course, all-you-can-eat for $25 is an attractive proposition. That’s about the same price as one night at a Las Vegas buffet.

www.vonage.com

Packet8

DETAILS: $19.99 per month, unlimited calls to the U.S. and Canada; $49.99 per month, unlimited calls to an additional 40 countries (listed at www.packet8.net/about/intplans.asp),

INTERNATIONAL LANDLINE RATES (PER MIN., $19.99 PLAN): Canada, free; London, $.03; Beijing, $.03; Mexico City, $.04; Japan, $.04; Paris, $.03.

FEATURES INCLUDED: local phone number, E911, voicemail, voicemail-to-e-mail, caller ID, caller ID blocking, call waiting, call waiting ID, call return, call forwarding, three-way calling, find-me-follow-me (rings several numbers in succession until it finds you), simultaneous ringing (rings both your Packet8 phone and your mobile or landline phone at the same time and sends call to the phone you answer first), network-unavailable forwarding (forwards calls to another phone if your Internet’s down)

ADDITIONAL FEATURES: 411 directory assistance, virtual numbers, distinctive ringing, toll-free service plan

NOTES: You’ll need to attach a router to your broadband modem so you have something into which you can plug your Packet8 device. We used one of the available hardline ports on our Linksys Wi-Fi router.

HARDWARE: Uniden UIP160P 5GHz cordless VoIP phone, $99.99, www.uniden.com

REVIEW: In terms of set up and sound quality, you’ll find the Packet8 service nearly indentical to that of Vonage. The Uniden phone was extremely simple to use. If a friend of yours visited and asked to use the telephone, he’d have no idea he was using a phone that was plugged into the Internet. This makes it ideal for those less interested in gizmos and more interested in a seamless telephone experience, while also sticking it to the man who is the local telephone company. We walked several rooms away from the base station and only began to lose a signal at around 40 feet. Packet8 features such as find-me-follow-me and simultaneous ringing are impressive and useful for home offices.

www.packet8.com

Gizmo

DETAILS: Free PC-to-PC calls anywhere in the world, $.01 per minute PC-to-phone anywhere in the U.S.

INTERNATIONAL RATES (PER MIN.): Canada, $.026; London, $.025; Beijing, $.034; Mexico City, $.029; Japan, $.044; Paris, $.029.

FEATURES INCLUDED: voicemail, communicate with Google Talk and IM Google Talk users, instant messaging, call recording, conference calling

ADDITIONAL FEATURES: Gizmo “Call In,” a local phone number for $3 per month; Area 775, a toll-free number you can give to people so they can call your “soft phone” and regular phone number at the same time. You can screen the call and transfer calls from one phone to another ($3.95 per month, plus $2.00 each time the call is answered on a landline or mobile phone).

NOTES: Gizmo has become the hero of the podcasting community for its ability to record every telephone call at the touch of a button. The audio file is saved on the PC as an MP3 file and podcasters can then splice that into their shows. Despite widespread demand, Skype has yet to add this feature.

HARDWARE: Plantronics CS50-USB Wireless Office Headset System, $299.99, www.plantronics.com

REVIEW: As fans of the podcast community, we liked Gizmo from the start. The software was actually easier to install and navigate than Skype, and it was amazing how simple it was to record telephone calls. There’s even a voice that sounds whenever you start recording to notify both parties the call is being recorded. As for quality, it’s not as sharp as Skype, but certainly as good as typical landline service, and better than both Vonage and Packet8. The Plantronics headset is comfortable and the software makes it easy to use with any VoIP service, not just Gizmo Project. We would’ve liked a broader range of volume control, as the loudest point wasn’t as loud as it should be. The wireless range on it is nice, however, and it includes controls to mute the call as well.

www.gizmoproject.com