Here's everything you need to know about VoIP in Australia.
- VoIP explained
- Types of services
- What you'll need
- VoIP Netphones
- Australian providers
VoIP explained
Simply put, VoIP (or Voice over Internet Protocol) is telephony
using your broadband Internet connection. A normal telephone
service turns voices into electronic signals which are then
converted into sound by your telephone. VoIP, on the other hand,
treats voice like any other piece of information being sent over
the Internet -- by digitising it into packets of data.
These packets usually have to be encoded into data and decoded back into sound by a computer or another stand-alone device (such as an analog telephone adaptor). And since you're only charged by how much data is transferred regardless of distance traveled (local, interstate or overseas) as opposed to how long you're on the line, it is significantly cheaper than normal voice calls. In the past, technological constraints and slow Internet speeds made the voice quality on VoIP calls rather patchy, but new systems and the prevalence of broadband has made it a much more attractive proposition.
VoIP strengths
For most people, the biggest plus when it comes to VoIP is cost
-- VoIP services are much cheaper than traditional landline
phones, and in some cases are even free. Some of the most popular
VoIP services in Australia charge as little as 10c untimed for
national calls, while international rates can be as low as under
5c a minute.
Apart from cheaper voice calls, VoIP has some great value adds available, depending on the type of service you sign up to. Since it's all electronic, services like call logs, call screening, forwarding, multiple phone numbers and more are easily handled. Australian VoIP carrier engin, for example, offers a voice mail service which sends any messages as WAV files via e-mail, meaning a customer will be able to check their messages from anywhere they have access to the Internet.
Another major VoIP strength is the fact that it's portable -- since it's on the Internet, you're not tied to any one physical location to make and receive calls. As long as you have a computer, broadband connection and an analog telephone adaptor (if it's part of your service) you can make calls using your VoIP account.
VoIP weaknesses
Cheap calls and portability are great, but there are other issues
you need to consider before you decide whether it's for you. The
most important thing to keep in mind is that VoIP won't be as
stable or reliable as your normal phone line purely because more
components need to be working for the service to be up. Depending
on the type of service you have, you'll need some/all of the
following to make calls:
- A broadband Internet connection
- The electricity running
- Your computer on
- Your analog telephone adaptor working (if it's part of your service).
With a normal phone line, all you need is the phone connected.
And despite the ability to make and receive all of your phone calls through VoIP, in most cases you'll still need to have a normal landline phone connected. Since you need a broadband service for VoIP, and since the most widely available type of broadband in Australia is some form of DSL (which no telco in Australia can currently offer without an active phone line), you'll still have an analog phone connection alongside your VoIP phone. At this stage, this also means two numbers -- one for your normal line, and one that your VoIP provider gives you.
The exception is if your house can access cable, satellite or wireless broadband Internet services, in which case you can dump your normal landline. But be aware that you won't have a phone if your broadband connection or electricity goes down -- which is an important thing to consider in case of emergencies.
While the quality of VoIP is improving all the time, bear in mind that if your broadband speed isn't up to scratch it won't stack up to a normal phone line. If your Internet speed falls below a minimum level then you will probably experience choppy sound and delays. And since you're using the Internet to make calls, most VoIP calls won't have any location information attached to it. So, for example, if you make an emergency call using VoIP, the emergency operator may not know exactly where you're calling from. The same goes for other location-based services such as calling for a pizza or a taxi. Some VoIP providers, however, have systems in place to get around this -- check with your VoIP provider to see whether they do.
Finally, like any thing you do over the Internet, VoIP will chew up bandwidth. If you have a broadband connection with a low monthly download cap, you may need to keep a close eye on your limit -- roughly 10-minutes of conversation using VoIP equals a 1MB download.
There are many more other Australian providers than listed in this story. The site http://www.ozinternetphones.com/ provides a much better reference (disclaimer, I have no connection with this site)