So anyway, for those of you that don’t know…Laura and I are moving to Australia next year. This means we’ll need to sort out a proper voice over IP solution, but with so many different deals and packages around, what’s best?

I’ve ruled out Skype as it’s non-standard and therefore you’re quite limited on what hardware and software you can use, also I don’t like the idea that other people’s phone traffic will pass through my internet connection. I’ve also recently started using a SIP provider called sipgate which is really cool as you get a free local PSTN number. However, I’ve just learnt that some friends of mine are using Tesco Internet phone.

If anyone has any experience with the Tesco internet phone, please leave a comment…I could do with knowing whether it uses SIP, whether it’s easy to use with analogue telephone adapters and SIP routers…what the settings are, whether it’s possible to dial an internet IP etc.. thanks!

[Update]

Ok, I’m pretty sure Tesco Internet Phone is the way to go:

• The rates, although not the best are still pretty competetive.
• It’s very easy for someone else to get a tesco phone and use it.
• The mobile call rates are also good.

When you put the tesco solution together with Pipex’s free local/international calls adsl package and this Billion VGP router, it’s quite cool.

[Update]

Well, today I went out and bought two of the tesco internet phones…I’ve since discovered they use the IAX protocol (and not SIP), which although open, isn’t the best as not many clients (and pretty much no hardware) supports it.

So looks like I’m taking one of them back.. I don’t think I’ll be allowed to take back the other as I’ve used some of the free credit for testing. Not a total loss though, the handset will come in handy, and is worth a tenner itself. Seems to work fine just by plugging it in on Ubuntu dapper.

[Update]
There is some hardware out there. And software, and I also managed to connect to the Tesco service using a different client which confirms that it is indeed IAX2. Unfortunately it isn’t as popular as SIP, which is a bit annoying. However, I think it could well be the way to go once I get the right software/hardware… Ekiga should support IAX2 soon. And I found the AG-168V which is perfect, although it’s hard to get hold of.

[Update]
After buying two atcom 168V’s, I discovered atcom is a terrible make of ATA and should be avoided at all costs. They basically don’t work. Lots of problems connecting to the net.