Broadband Voice

Not quite on topic, but as a `country member' I find best advice on this
group.

Has anyone any experience of BT's Broadband Voice telephone through
broadband's quality? They says it's as good a a mobile phone, but only offer
a minimum of 12 months contract. So although it has the potential to be very
useful, I'm a little bit wary of it.

Steve wrote:

> Not quite on topic, but as a `country member' I find best advice on this
> group.
>
> Has anyone any experience of BT's Broadband Voice telephone through
> broadband's quality? They says it's as good a a mobile phone, but only offer
> a minimum of 12 months contract. So although it has the potential to be very
> useful, I'm a little bit wary of it.
>
>

IIRC if you buy the hardware (a cisco ata-186 which can be used on other
services usually, or a fujitsu unit) the contract is reduced to 3 months.

From what i've heard (over at adslguide's voip forum) quality seems to
be good

Don't bother with BT's version - I use Skype to talk to relatives and
friends.

www.skype.com

you can also use it to call land lines both at home and abroad - with
excellent quality and at tiny call rates compared to BT's international
rates.

Si.

Si. <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> Don't bother with BT's version - I use Skype to talk to relatives and
> friends.
>
> www.skype.com
>
> you can also use it to call land lines both at home and abroad - with
> excellent quality and at tiny call rates compared to BT's international
> rates.

Where the BT unit is nice is that you buy it, take it wherever in the
world you want, and friends/relatives/... can just ring a UK number,
with no knowledge that it's different in any way from any other UK landline.

Steve <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>Has anyone any experience of BT's Broadband Voice telephone through
>broadband's quality? They says it's as good a a mobile phone, but only offer
>a minimum of 12 months contract. So although it has the potential to be very
>useful, I'm a little bit wary of it.

BT's service isn't the only option. There's a list of UK VOIP providers
at http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-VoIP+Service+Providers. I can recommend
InterViVo (http://www.intervivo.net, pay monthly, cancel after a month
if you don't like it, software only option to try it out with minimum
investment) but then I would 'cos I work there.

Cheers,

Mark.

On 05 Aug 2004, in uk.telecom.broadband, Ian Stirling wrote:

>can just ring a UK number, with no knowledge that it's different
>in any way from any other UK landline.

until the 5p/min charge is spotted. Peter M

--
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com/org/info/biz transfers give 12 month extension
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"Steve" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:cet4rc$gp0$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Not quite on topic, but as a `country member' I find best advice on this
> group.
>
> Has anyone any experience of BT's Broadband Voice telephone through
> broadband's quality? They says it's as good a a mobile phone, but only
offer
> a minimum of 12 months contract. So although it has the potential to be
very
> useful, I'm a little bit wary of it.
>
>

Quality at Hi setting is indistinguishable from a normal phone. Reqs
110kbitof your BW.
Lo quality is 43kbit, and is still much better than my mobie. Perfectly
acceptable. Even for my fax machine.

On Thu, 05 Aug 2004 17:08:24 +0100, Mark Turner wrote:

> I can recommend
> InterViVo (http://www.intervivo.net, pay monthly, cancel after a month
> if you don't like it, software only option to try it out with minimum
> investment) but then I would 'cos I work there.

it looks good! but does it work with linux?

will

On Thu, 5 Aug 2004 13:59:57 +0100, "Si." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Don't bother with BT's version - I use Skype to talk to relatives and
>friends.
>
>www.skype.com
>
>you can also use it to call land lines both at home and abroad - with
>excellent quality and at tiny call rates compared to BT's international
>rates.

Except Skype use a proprietary protocol so you have to use it with
their software running on a PC. With BT BBV you can use it with a
normal phone and it doesn't require a PC to be on all the time.

Chris

will kemp <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>it looks good! but does it work with linux?

If you choose one of the hardware options (we recommend/supply the
Grandstream ATA286 or BT101/BT102) then yes because it doesn't touch the
Linux box. If you'd prefer to run a "soft phone" then anything that
supports SIP *should* work but I'm afraid I don't know off the top of
my head which Linux soft phones work with our service.

I was going to test a few Linux soft phones before posting this reply
then I realised that none of my Linux boxes have soundcards, or at least
not ones that Linux is configured to use.

Cheers,

Mark.