Setting up VoIP at home

If you use the phone a lot, especially to make international calls or calls during peak hours then you could save a lot of money by using VoIP. It can even be cost effective to install broadband with its monthly flat rate just to get VoIP. The telephone companies are continually reducing the cost of phone calls and providing special deals (fighting the inevitable conversion to VoIP) – sometimes these can provide a cheaper alternative to VoIP and are usually easier to get going but it depends upon your circumstances.

If you make long telephone calls nationally or internationally, it is usually cheaper using VoIP. In some cases, particularly if you are calling friends or family internationally you can call for free.

It can seem quite confusing since there are a lot of acronyms, numbers, names, passwords and different bits of equipment to deal with, but once it is all set-up it is as easy as using the telephone!

Get Broadband

The first step for using VoIP is to get a broadband connection – shop around for deals with free modems and low monthly rates. When selecting the broadband package for you, note that you only need broadband with 128kbits download and 128kbits upload. If you are going to be downloading emails and browsing the web while you are on the phone then I would suggest at least 512kbits download speed. Uploading/downloading large files (e.g. music/videos) can interfere with a VoIP call and cause delays and gaps in the voice. Peer to peer downloads of music and videos (e.g. bit torrents) can also cause bad interference on the outgoing voice as they can use up your upload bandwidth (which is usually much lower than the download bandwidth).

It is possible to use VoIP services without having a PC, if this is the case then go for the cheapest broadband you can find with the minimum rates given above. Note that although it is possible it may be much more difficult to perform the initial set-up.

One other thing to think about is maximum data usage – many broadband providers allow you to download/upload up to a set amount of data each month. An uncompressed VoIP conversation uses around 72Mb of bandwidth per hour; if you had a maximum data usage of 100Mb you would only have about 1 hour and 20 minutes of conversation time before you hit the limit (assuming you do not use the broadband for anything else). A maximum data usage of 10Gb gives you well over 135 hours of conversation time. A telephone bill usually shows you the total duration of your calls over a month so you can work from this.

Decide on your equipment

The next step is deciding on how you want the phones in your house to work.

Most modern houses have telephone jack points in several rooms; unfortunately with VoIP these are not much use. Your telephone needs to be connected to your broadband connection, unfortunately, you cannot just plug them into the telephone jack. Your current POT (Plain Old Telephone) needs either replacing with a VoIP phone or connecting to your broadband with an ATA (Analogue Telephone Adaptor).

If you have (or want) a single wired telephone your best option is probably a VoIP phone – you can get these from most electrical retailers (or from your VoIP service provider). Note that you will have to have it where the wires can reach your broadband modem/router.

If you want multiple handsets around the house, the best option is an ATA with an ordinary wireless telephone. Connect the wireless base station to the ATA, which in connects to your broadband) and then position the other stations as required. This is the most effective way to have multiple handsets all using the VoIP service.

There are wireless VoIP phones available but these are usually a more expensive than equivalent wireless analogue phones (even with the added cost of the ATA); they also require you to have a wireless network at home.

However you decide to connect things, it is a good idea to keep a POT around – with VoIP, if you lose power you lose the phone. In addition, many VoIP services do not provide emergency services (911/999/112 etc.) you will probably need to keep a POT for this!

Normally your VoIP service will be in addition to your normal telephone service, so if you plug a POT into an extension telephone jack you will be able to use the PSTN.

If selecting an ATA, find one that allows you to connect to the traditional network and your broadband connection at the same time; they automatically switch to using the traditional network if the internet is down (or you have dialled an access code), and also allow you to take incoming calls from the PSTN using the same phone.

Find a Service Provider

Today, if you are going to use VoIP, you will need to be able to make calls to normal telephones. The vast majority of the world use the traditional telephone network and a VoIP system that doesn't let you call the rest of the world is not much use! You need to find a provider that will allow you to do this.

The first place to look is your broadband provider – many of them also offer a VoIP service (often at discounted rates when using their broadband too). Check out the rates that apply to your circumstances, especially rates to any international calls you make; also watch out for monthly fees. There are a couple of advantages of going with your broadband provider. They often provide much of the equipment needed and technical support for setting it up; also if they have a maximum data usage, this will not include VoIP calls using their service (check with them first on this one).

Often, however, your broadband provider will not provide the best call rates. For this you need to shop around; and the best place to do this is on-line. One way to find a service is to use http://www.myvoipprovider.com to do the work for you. Enter your most common calling destination, Broadband, and your location and it will find VoIP providers for you.

When selecting a provider be sure to find a local one. Before it gets to the telephone network, your voice must traverse the internet to your VoIP provider – the quicker it can do this the less delay there will be in your calls. If you live in Australia and select a VoIP provider in Europe all the voice data in your calls to Australian numbers will go from Australia to Europe and back again – you will have a noticeable delay on your calls (reminiscent of international calls of yesteryear!).

Additional Lines

With the PSTN getting an additional telephone line to your house often means some new wiring and a visit from an engineer.

With VoIP, however, adding an extra line is much simpler. Just by using a service you get two lines by default – you could have a telephone connected to the PSTN (traditional telephone network) for taking incoming calls and a second telephone connected to the broadband for making outgoing calls (this telephone could also take incoming calls on your VoIP number). For more VoIP lines you simply need the equipment to connect them and some additional numbers from your VoIP provider. Depending upon the equipment you select and your broadband data rates, you can have several simultaneous conversations even on a single VoIP account. Many ATAs can support more than one phone with either the same incoming number or different incoming numbers.

Voice Mail

Many homes have an answering machine, and with an ATA, this will still work. Many VoIP providers, however, offer a voice mail service; allowing you to record an announcement and taking messages for calls you do not answer. Often these messages can be emailed to you or, with the appropriate equipment, an icon/message light on your phone will tell you that a message is available.