Goodbye Skype... and Hello SIP...?

[KelvinAng]

My experience with Skype has been mostly positive with Skype-to-Skype calling as well as decent Skype-to-Singapore-phones calling, but with Skype-to-NZ land line calls I seem to be having quite a bit of a problem. I do that because I've got no land line, my Internet access is a cable connection, and I didn't want to spend $40 a month for the occasional phone call.

I frequently get "busy" or "no answer" errors from Skype where in fact the phone on the other end didn't ring, and as much as half the time when the call is connected, the other party couldn't hear me or I could hear the other party.

Just yesterday I decided to give a SIP-based telephony service (2Talk) a try and charged up my account with credits and so far, it works great! The ability to use an ATA adapter with my regular cordless phone for making phone calls instead of being tethered to the PC with a wired headset is a major bonus. The initial set up is a bit daunting (and I speak a little geek) but once it's all done it has been flawless. SIP also uses far less bandwidth while idle which is excellent for maintaining an "active land line" over the insanely expensive Internet connection here.

I'm wondering if anyone has any issues with Skype calling a NZ land line and have experience with a SIP service here?

[Alan]

I use Vonage which I brought with me from the UK, and I have found it totally reliable and utterly fantastic. I believe that Skype also have a SIP type offering which you pay for, not sure what it's like, just happy with what we got.

[bob_the_engineer]

I use Skype –Skype voice and video, never had an issue. I also use MSN voice video (when on the mac) never had an issue there either. I’ve used skype to call landlines, never had an issue.

I use a standard 2-wire adsl connection (phone line)

My friend has cable, he runs naked dsl so according to the spec it has (I think) a 2Mbs up link. He has real issues. Voice drops in one direction for 3 to 5 seconds, frequently,,,, all sorts of pain with the IP phone that has a NZ number.

He’s changed service ports, re-jigged network hardware positions, even changed the compander algorithms, as yet the problem is still there.

Logs from the isp show negligible packet loss. I wonder if it’s something to do with the fact that its cable? Perhaps someone isn’t playing nice with the cable to telco interface. Nothing quite like annoying your competitors customers to improve business. Although probably something less sinister,

But worth mentioning that once your on cable your off the POTS network so there is an interface to cross (owned by 2 competitors, eek)

Bob

[BigRod]

Well I have been running a fixed phone on SIP here for the last 3.5 years on a cable connection. Downtime has barely registered, and it is used regularly both ways.

Provider is SIPGATE who are both German and UK based. Good thing for me is I maintain a London tel number here in NZ - very handy for friends and family.

Rod

[coppers]

BigRod - how do you maintain a number here in the U.K?
You can get here skype mobile phones. Is it worth purchasing 2 of these. Putting a nz sim payg in them and then use them to make skype calls to each other in nz/nz and nz/uk.?

[BigRod]

BigRod - how do you maintain a number here in the U.K?
You can get here skype mobile phones. Is it worth purchasing 2 of these. Putting a nz sim payg in them and then use them to make skype calls to each other in nz/nz and nz/uk.?

If you have a UK address (you or a member of the family signing up) then you are entitled to a regional phone number for the SIP service. I signed up with SIPGATE before leaving the UK and chose a London number. This number purely maps to your IP address; hence I have a London number here in NZ.

HTH

Rod

[KelvinAng]

Perhaps someone isn’t playing nice with the cable to telco interface. Nothing quite like annoying your competitors customers to improve business.

Thanks Bob. That has been my suspicion. Hopefully a local SIP service provider would make things better in terms of NZ land line connectivity. Even if it does not, the features offered by SIP providers are quite good enough reasons for me to move away from Skype.

Seems like moving away from POTS is a PITA. How does your friend eventually get around his connectivity problem (if he did)?

Thanks Alan, BigRod, for sharing your experience with SIP in NZ.

[Hesh]

I use VoIPWise.. works a lot cheaper.. you can also transfer the call to your landline.. I pay 5 euro cents connection fee ( for transferring the call from comp to the landline) and 3 euro cents / min ( most of my calls are to India) .. they also have a list of countries you can call for free.

[dbonnett]

I use CallCentric.com for my SIP service back to the US - our old phone number there rings to my second line here. Generally pretty stable as long as my DSL connection is playing nicely. I use a Linksys PAP2T ATA to connect and have my bog standard cordless phone plugged into it.

It is a bit surreal to have line 1 in NZ and line 2 in the US (different dial tones, rings and number plans), but it has made the whole shift a lot easier for our families back in the States; they can just ring our old home number and we answer (assuming they get the times right!)

I pay $6/mo for the number, 1.9 cents/min outbound and nothing inbound (all amounts USD since I use a US credit card for it). The rates vary by country and land/mobile.

[KelvinAng]

You can get here skype mobile phones. Is it worth purchasing 2 of these. Putting a nz sim payg in them and then use them to make skype calls to each other in nz/nz and nz/uk.?

I don't think it works this way, if I understand correctly how these Skype mobiles (I'm assuming you're referring to those sold by 3) work. Once you leave 3 coverage areas these mobiles are just regular GSM mobiles.