Thread: VOIP - worthwhile or stick with landline in semi-rural area

I have Voip for 5 years and it is the only phone that I am using to call any number within Australia.
Here we have ADSL 1 @ 1500 speed and voip works very well.
My contract is with one provider only (Club Telco ex Gotalk) and I have with them internet with unlimited downloads, a normal phone line to recieve calls and the Voip.
The cost for the 3 services is $ 93 per month which is very cheap considering the amount of std and mobile nimbers that we call every week.
I will not be without Voip in the future.
Cheers

I have VoIP with Pennytel at a $5/month fee including our own direct in-dial VoIP number. We have ample internet capacity and a broadband cable connection. I mainly use the VoIP for international calls (8 cents for an hour to the USA), free STD, and 5 cents/minute calls to mobiles.

Is it worth it for us? Maybe not at the moment whilst we are on a contract with our landline. We may drop the landline and rely on VoIP and our mobiles.

We can send SMS from our computer via the VoIP as well but they appear on the recipient's phone as from Pennytel, not with our number so people might discard them as spam. The Pennytel account allows us to have cheap calls from certain countries back to Aus.

With any VoIP service, you will still need some other way to call emergency services, e.g., a mobile or land line in the event of loss of internet.

See https://www.pennytel.com.au/personal-voip

Hi scouse,

First off I will declare that I work for internode, but I will try to keep this response general.

The fact that you are in a semi rural area may limit your options in terms of speed and choice of providers. Unless other providers like an internode, iinet or a iprimus have chosen to install a dslam (equipment within the exchange) then you will always require your telstra fixed line to support your ADSL service. This will be via telstra direct, or via a wholesale relationship that telstra has with other providers. But if there is no other providers dslam then you can not get a naked service.

Now, a number of providers will re-bill your telstra line (via wholesale arrangement with telstra) and bundle it with their ADSL service and will often provide a saving for you to do so. In internodes case, if you bundle, you receive a $10 discount on your ADSL plan.

This does give you the convenience of a single bill, but it does mean that your phone calls are generally more expensive than say the advertised rates of a pure VoIP provider, but another flip side is that you will continue to get call quality that is what you have always come to expect.

With respect to speed, if you would like to pm me your client number I can have this investigated for you. There are many factors that can impact an Internet connections performance but some simple checks will determine if the service is operating as intended if it isnt, then we take responsibility to fix it. This link provides some handy tips for what you might want to check. Internode :: Support :: FAQ :: Broadband ADSL :: ADSL Troubleshooting

Hope this helps

dk

We have had VOIP for about 4 years now, I'm with MyNetFone on the casual plan, $0 per month, 12.5c untimed calls to landlines in Aust, and if you tell them you are a member of whirpool forums they will drop that down to 10c.

We are in Darwin but most of our family are in Perth, so we have a Perth dial in number that the folks can call us for the cost of a local calls. I think they give you a free DID on the whirlpool plan aswell.

On average the wife an I spend between 5-10hrs a month STD to perth and our average bill is $3.50 a month. Mobile calls are cheaper than as well, but we tend not to call them as much.

We have ASDL 1, 1500k connection and there are no problems with line quality unless someone is downloading movies at the same time.

Overseas calls are also pretty reasonable, USA/UK landlines 1.9c/min.

Getting Viop was probably one of then best decisions we made and the inconvenience of not calling if the internet is down is ofsett by the really cheap calls, plus we have mobiles if it is urgent.

Hope this helps

Craig

Hey Scouse, I'm on 7 acres just outside of Camden and have had VOIP for about 3 years. It took 12 months to get ADSL on but now all is sweet and working well. If you have a ABN your choices will be greater but VIOP is good, though still depends on where you ring...I ring Asia a bit it's not so good but within Oz it's great.

I think you need to add up all you spend on internet + phonecalls + line rental + mobile and then start looking at options.

When we moved I went for the fixed landline/adsl/voip (mynetfone). All of our outgoing calls were VOIP at 10c untimed national. I was spending about $100-110 on internet and line rental, about $10 every month or two on VOIP, and probably $75 or so for two mobiles. So that's just about $180 a month.

Then I bought two iphones and I'm kicking myself for getting a landline number. $100 for two iphones with so much credit that we make all calls from them and have yet to run out of credit in a month. Just switched to a Telstra landline $20 a month and $49 with TFG for 200GB.

So not that much different really.

Mynetfone does a deal for Whirlpool users, or they did, where they send you a VOIP router for $20 or nothing and you charge some credit onto your credit card whenever you run low. It's so cheap you may as well do it, as long as you have a spare phone handset around. I'd go that way rather than a VOIP monthly contract with an ISP unless you make a lot of calls.

https://www.mynetfone.com.au/whirlpo...ol-Shop/Mitron

We have had VIOP since 2004, and that was when the land line was disconnected. I use a VIOP provider (different company to internet provider) and we have cable internet. If you are not making many calls than bundled VIOP is not worth it unless you can drop the line rental and go naked. You also need a reliable and reasonably fast internet connection – in the higher spec ADSL1 minimum.

My costs;
$35 / YEAR to viop provider for a dial in number (line rental if you like) – there is no ongoing charge if you don’t want to dial in number. Finding a provider to supply a local number may be an issue in regional areas.
10c / call to any landline in AUS – untimed. Calls to mobiles are made from our mobiles
$49/month for internet.

The inlaws have been set up with the same provider but without a dial in number so they have no line rental. They need a landline for adsl so only pay for the 10c calls made on the VIOP line. Calls between our accounts are free…

IMO beware of “bundled” products, providers bundle you in so they can make money.

WARNING. If you drop the land line you need a mobile for emergencies. 000 may not work (some providers do in some areas) and a lot of 1300 / 13 numbers will end up in Sydney or where ever the providers main drop out server is (when phoning the local Pizza shop).

i get sick to death of speaking to people on crap voip lines

as an aside

it amazes me that people in business think so little of the customers and so much of their own wallets that they subject potential customers to it. i find it hard to believe it doesn't cost them more in lost custom than it did for the phone line in the first place.

the internode man pretty much nailed it