Broadband -Phone , Whats my options ?

[Mixednuts]

Hi,
A few months ago I got NTL 10MB Broadband at home but I also got rid of Eircom phone (never used , company mobiles , so did not justify paying line rental only ).

The thing is the boss (wife) would like a phone back in the house , please dont ask as I have the bruises to prove I put up a fight .
My question is this ....

What would be the best a cheapest method of getting a phone line .Eircom back ? Broadband ?

All advice Welcome .

M

 

[Wexfordman]

I second that, been using blueface for 2 years now, I have a wireless broadband provider, so got rid of eircom line altogether. 129 euro for all your uk and irl landline calls, cant be beat, another bery happy customer.

Try download the softfone trial from their website to see how it works, although you wont have as good quality with this compared to a hardware ata solution, but for the sake of the trial.

I have a sister lives in switzerland also, with blueface, a dublin phone number, fantastic!!

Wexfordman

 

[AlbacoreA]

I had Blueface but it didn't work well on my dodgy NTL connection. The NTL VOIP worked much better, because (AFAIK) NTL give their own VOIP preference on their network. that said its not as good as a regular ATA phone.

 

[dub_nerd]

I'd say BE CAREFUL. Experiment before you commit to anything, especially anything that costs money. VoIP is fantastic ... IF IT WORKS! (I use it from two home locations ... perfect in one, very dodgy and intermittent in the other).

Don't assume it's working just because you get one good phone call either. Look for consistency across a couple of weeks, different times of day. When you are happy with soft phone experimentation, consider hardware options. (I use Siemens S685 IP Dect phones, but there are many choices, and a plain old 40 quid ATA may suit you just fine).

There are literally THOUSANDS of VoIP providers you could use. Don't assume you have to use an Irish one. I hear good reports of Blueface -- good customer service. I found Freespeech.ie cheaper, but then they stopped supporting free incoming VoIP numbers. Still worth a look depending on your needs.

*DO* look at the Betamax family of providers. They are all basically the same shadowy Swiss company called Finarea ... it's just they differ slightly on price. Mostly it's down to a choice of completely free phone calls to most countries' landlines and slightly more expensive to mobiles (but still cheaper than you will get with Irish providers) versus a tiny cost to landlines and even cheaper mobiles. This guy has written a really handy script that generates a Betamax price comparison page that updates every day:

http://backsla.sh/betamax

Again, experiment before committing. I personally use poivy.com ... I have reduced the calls part of my phone bill from approx. EUR 300 per bill to approx. zero, replaced by about a fiver a month to poivy. You won't get blueface or freespeech that cheap, but there may be other reasons to go with them, depending on your needs. You will not be able to get a VoIP in number with poivy or other Betamax family providers. However, with something like the Siemens IP phone you can sign up to multiple providers simultaneously. With dialling plans you can use the cheapest service for different destinations automatically, although managing pay-as-you-go payments to multiple providers may get cumbersome. One of your services can host your VoIP in number.

Hope this helps.

 

[dub_nerd]

I should've mentioned, I have no connection with any of the companies I mentioned.

Again, not wanting to knock blueface because I hear they are very good, but to the person who said they "can't be beat" ... they most certainly can. You have to assess your own needs, but for instance, you can (bizarrely) get calls to Irish mobiles from non-Irish companies at a fraction of what blueface are charging. And you can probably get the equivalent of most of their residential plans for a fraction of those prices too. Many VoIP prices look cheap -- and indeed, many are -- until you shop around ... and realise that you can have your phone calls for literally next to nothing.