Voip who has it and which services do you youse to

I have been using voice over IP for a year it has saved me a small fortune on telephone calls, I use it in the marina that I live in. I have wifi on my boat which gives me Internet access . What I would like to know is what services are the rest of you are using and what other benefits have you found. One of the major benefits which I found recently from my provider Skype was I was able to take a UK telephone number in London and all my friends and business acquaintances are able to ring me at the UK, at local call prices and it actually arrives on my boat via the Internet. Please give me some feedback on the subject. This is something I’ve Trying to get to the bottom of I have been talking to forums around the world on this issue. Paul

[Jack Tyler]

Paul, it sounds to me like you've already sorted it out. Here is how I would outline the choices:

1. With Skype, worldwide voice comms are possible computer to computer. Many of us out cruising use this regularly if a) we have broadband (e.g. wifi) connectivity, or we're wintering somewhere, even if we only have a phone and so slow modem. We've used this in London at terribly slow baud rates but, with some disconnects, it made many things possible that would have been expensive, indeed.

2. With SkypeOut, you can access N American & European conventional phones. A friend who's wintering in Cascais, Portugal just had his wallet picked, and due to Skype was able to deal easily with all the USA credit card issues (don't carry a wallet full of cards!) This also makes using toll free #s possible, which can be inaccessible when outside the home country.

3. VoIP disguised as 'regular' phone service, where a phone number for a given location is purchased; broadband required plus a 'modem' of some kind. Vonage has a million customers now in the USA and is of this type. SkypeIn is another alternative, tho' I don't know if a modem is needed. I'm told E Asian programmers on H3B visas who work here in the U.S. send Vonage modems back home (where broadband is abundant), and their family can now make "local" calls to all the relatives thru-out the USA. Same as your story about a 'London phone number'.

Jack

iam learning so much from these debates! you must remember that I am living in Spain on my boat and the only reason I brought this up in the forum is to find out what the rest of the sailing community is doing . this topic has been posted in nearly twenty forums around the world as I have said in a few this topic is not really about sailing but my answer has been what makes life cheaper for all of us in the sailing community makes our dreams go on longer.we have been using Email for so many years to keep in touch with friends and family but this is first great asset we have had to keep in touch with the personal touch without having to pay a small fortune to the landline companies and mobile networks never mind the satellite people.

by working together in airing are veiws we have a chance of making things better ,All the best PAUL @NeptuneNet.net

Originally Posted by name='Converted Post'

Originally posted by Jack Tyler

Paul, it sounds to me like you've already sorted it out. Here is how I would outline the choices:

1. With Skype, worldwide voice comms are possible computer to computer. Many of us out cruising use this regularly if a) we have broadband (e.g. wifi) connectivity, or we're wintering somewhere, even if we only have a phone and so slow modem. We've used this in London at terribly slow baud rates but, with some disconnects, it made many things possible that would have been expensive, indeed.

2. With SkypeOut, you can access N American & European conventional phones. A friend who's wintering in Cascais, Portugal just had his wallet picked, and due to Skype was able to deal easily with all the USA credit card issues (don't carry a wallet full of cards!) This also makes using toll free #s possible, which can be inaccessible when outside the home country.

3. VoIP disguised as 'regular' phone service, where a phone number for a given location is purchased; broadband required plus a 'modem' of some kind. Vonage has a million customers now in the USA and is of this type. SkypeIn is another alternative, tho' I don't know if a modem is needed. I'm told E Asian programmers on H3B visas who work here in the U.S. send Vonage modems back home (where broadband is abundant), and their family can now make "local" calls to all the relatives thru-out the USA. Same as your story about a 'London phone number'.

Jack