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Internet Phones

An Internet phone is a phone that connects to the internet to make telephone calls. There are several methods used to achieve this but they all rely on a relatively new technology called Voice over IP (VOIP).

Most Internet phones aren’t restricted to phoning other Internet phones. You can use them to phone any other telephone in the world, be it mobile or standard PSTN ( Public Switched Telephone Network). You can also receive calls on them.

So why and how do you use an Internet phone? What are the:

  • Advantages
  • Costs
  • Requirements
  • Phone Numbers

Advantages

The main advantages internet phone have over standard analogue phones is

  1. Cost - Call rates tend to be very mush lower than standard phone calls especially calls to international destinations.
  2. Features- Because it is digital there are more opportunities for services like integrated voice mail, forwarding to email, conference abilities etc. The feature list will
    undoubtedly grow rapidly as more internet phone service providers start to compete for customers.
  3. More numbers- You get an additional telephone number with the VOIP phone and could get more than one.

Requirements

Although Internet phone calls have been available for a long time their quality over a modem connection was poor. Almost all solutions today require the use of a DSL/ADSL
broadband connection.

The DSL/ADSL connection doesn’t need to be provided by the same company that provides the Internet phone service, but if they are different then it may be worth checking if there are any compatibility issues (especially AOL users)

Phone Numbers

Internet phones come with their own phone numbers so not only can you use the phone for outgoing calls but also for incoming calls. You will be allocated a phone number from the range that have been provided to the service provider.

The nice thing about this phone number is that it isn’t restricted to your geographical location, which means that when travelling you can connect to the Internet and receive phone calls just as if you were at home.

It may therefore be possible to get a London Phone number even though you don’t live there. What area codes will be available will depend on the service provider.

Costs

Most providers offer Pay as you go type costing similar to mobile phones. Some like Skype which offer a free service make their money by renting the phone numbers and add-on services like voice mail .

Depending on the service provider you may also have the costs of the Internet phones or headset.

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