Internet Telephone

About three weeks ago there was a program on A Current Affair regarding using the internet to make phone calls through a company called http://www.freshtel.net/ I thought I would see if it was as good as they said it was.

I went to the website and downloaded the free software. Because I couldn't get my headset to work because of a fault in the connection of the microphone I couldn,t test it out so I purchased a USB Logitech head set and tried it out this week.

If you talk to any one with the program it costs nothing to make phone calls over the internet. If you call a normal phone line from over the computer it costs 4.9 cents a minute or if you call a mobile it costs 30 cents a minute.

The best part is that it is clear even with a dial up 56k connection which if you are lucky will only run at 52k max. I find ringing my daughter in Ballina during the day is less than half what it costs with Telstra and there is no flag fall that you have pay to Telstra or Optus.

I believe Telstra and Optus have the ability to give to it everyone but think it will cost them too much.

Barry,

Why do you think Telstra raised their line rental costs?

They saw this comming. You still need a phone line to run ADSL, so even if you make no phone calls they still make lots of money out of you.

Have no fear, there is much a brewing in the internet/phone over internet war. You will very soon be able to have internet and home phone without either of the current 'big two' getting a cent.

Ben.

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Originally Posted by Barry_White

About three weeks ago there was a program on A Current Affair regarding using the internet to make phone calls through a company called http://www.freshtel.net/ I thought I would see if it was as good as they said it was.

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Ahh Current Affair are back arround to that story again ..... I will have to tune in again next week as they should have fat kids who watch too much tv eating junkfood ..... oh and then the week after that will be teenage single mother dole bludgers. You have got to love ACA idea of current affairs. It seems like a revolving story line with ACA.

Hi Ben,
Tell us more about eliminating tELSTRA

Stinky,
current affairs type programs work on the three Fs: Fat, Freaks and Finance! If they can they will try to get all three into the story. ie Fat bearded circus lady wins lotto or lotto winning bearded lady loses weight with new miracle diet or we show you how you can lose weight with a miracle diet thereby realising your dreams of growing a beard and running away to join the circus. :eek:

Mick

Echnidna.

First I must say that this isn't my area of expertise, I am simply repeating what I've been told be my brother (which is OK, cause his is right into this stuff).

I think the biggest news is that their is currently two companies in Sydney that are 'rolling out' wireless internet in Sydney, meaning that with a small setup cost, you'll be able to get your internet out of the 'air' (very basicly like TV). Combining this with the latest Voice Over IP or telephone over the net, and you can basicly do without a phone line.
Wireless is cheaper to setup than lines and cables and should be able to proved cheaper services (should).

This is just starting in Sydney and should be finding it's way to the other capitals in due time.
Wireless also has the potential to be great for those who live in the country too. instead of rolling wires from house to house they can point a focused beam with a range of 20 or 30 kms. from house to house.
Meaning decent net conections, in time (instead of half 56k).

Ben.

Disclaimer: I'm sure that at least 95% has been recalled from the Gray matter correctly. :)

You don't have to live in the big smoke for this sort of service.
Phone type service over the internet has been available in Ballarat, Bendigo and Mildura for the best part of 12 months. NCable, our local cable provider, now also provides it via wireless for those out of town and out of reach of their cables, although the wireless (quaint old term for radio) does not extend very far being (I believe) in the 2.4Ghz band.
New services of this type are being offered almost daily.
Cheers

tho don't forget that if there is a power cut and you are relying on your PC your phone is going to be DEAD. Same goes for your base station for those phones you can walk around the house with. My understanding is that the power for your bog standard old fashioned phone is sourced at the exchange ( which should have back up power ), which is why one of my phones is an old phone. I'm preparing to take my custom away from Telstra as I'm so hacked off with their plan to charge you if you pay by credit card "because they can".

If you're making international calls from your home phone I recommend the "green" card, used to be "apple". When you read the small print for some of their competitors you realise that they charge you flag-fall and a default period of time which the green card doesn't do. Just don't use it for calling "local rate" numbers in the uk as your $20 card will last about 2 mins :mad: which is a real pain in the bum because lots of businesses in the uk now only advertise their local rate number :(

That's just what we need: more crap buzzing around through the air. I already have enough trouble getting a decent signal on Radio National. :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by jackiew

tho don't forget that if there is a power cut and you are relying on your PC your phone is going to be DEAD. Same goes for your base station for those phones you can walk around the house with. My understanding is that the power for your bog standard old fashioned phone is sourced at the exchange ( which should have back up power ), which is why one of my phones is an old phone. I'm preparing to take my custom away from Telstra as I'm so hacked off with their plan to charge you if you pay by credit card "because they can".

:(

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Jackie
I live 18 klms from the telephone exchange and 55klms from the next major town. I use Telstra as a telephone provider and cannot get ADSL. I have an ISDN connection for the internet at 64K. The only beef I have with Telstra is if I could get ADSL I would only have to pay for one line rental.

Although the ISDN is only a single digital line it is split into two analog lines in the ISDN box on the wall so they charge you two line rentals as well as your ISP charges.

The one advantage is that I can also use the other line as a phone or a fax line and if I am on the Internet and a fax comes in it will still receive it.

My power cuts usually come from that big power source in the sky called lightening. I've already had 3 cordless phones cooked and a desk top computer.

My power provider Country Energy is pretty reliable. If it knocks the power out they are usually here within the hour.

If it cooks the telephone line or the ISDN box of which I have had four of them replaced free of charge, it can take Telstra up to a fortnight to come out to repair it.

I had a look at some of the charges that these wireless internet providers want and they certainly aren't cheap.

If I used a Satelite connection I would have to mortgage the house to get it on and pay for the monthly charges.

I had a look at some of the other internet providers with ISDN and they start at $70 a month and then Telstra would charge me a local connection fee each time I dialed up.

Using Telstra as an ISP at $28.00 per month I don't pay any dial up charges for the internet on ISDN.

I know everyone bags Telstra but all the others out there, are out to make a killing as well and I say that sometimes it's better the devil you know than the devil you don't know.

I will use Telstra for my local calls and use http://www.freshtel.net/ for most of my STD calls.

The thread wasn't about ACA or what they do I just thought people would be interested in a way to make cheaper phone calls.

I am in no way associated with http://www.freshtel.net/ just a customer who thinks it is a great idea.

So check it out then make you own decisions about it.

Hi Bazza,
Do you have dropout problems with Telstras ISDN?

I am 8 1/2 km from my exchange. I have a slow buggy dialup service which was slow but reliable until a new house was built down the road and since then I experience frequent dropouts. I have just dropped out 5 times this morning trying to send just one email.

Telstra suggested isdn would work but online forums suggest isdn suffers from regular dropouts. So I have told telstra after waiting more than 3 months for them to connect isdn, to stick it. I'm now waiting on a 2 way satellite - not from telstra.

The service used to be reliable so I changed computers and modems twice.
The other day I even signed up to another isp so now I have 2 diffrernt dialup isp's. Yet the problems remain.
Telstra has failed to answer my requests for explanations.

Sorry about hijacking the thread but as you can see I am not impressed with telstra.

I've been using Telstra ISDN for over a year now and found it to be more reliable than ADSL. I've probably had 2 or 3 drop outs in that time and I'm not convinced that ISDN was the problem. It's quite old and well understood technology. It's just slow.

Hi Bob

I couldn't be happier since I changed to ISDN. I am 18 klms from the exchange and when I applied it cost me $109 to put it on. The best part about is that they had to come out and upgrade the telephone line which it took 2 men a fortnight to do. They had to relay 100 metres of underground cable to get a clean line because ISDN is digital the line has to be perfect. They also had to install a relay booster half way along the line which was all included in the cost of installing it.

When I was on normal dial up I was always having dropouts and the fastest speed I could get was 24k and most times it was only between 12k & 18K.

Now if I connect through the normal internal modem in the computer it runs at 52k and no dropouts except if I leave it connected without any input.

I stayed on my normal dial up plan of $28.00 a month with a 400 meg download limit at 64K which I find is OK for me. I have occasionally gone over which is charged at extra.

The other thing is that the medium business area looks after ISDN and they are more co-operative than the other area of Telstra.

There is no dial up charges to connect to the internet but if you make normal calls on the internet line they are charged at the normal rate.

As I said earlier I have had the ISDN box zapped by lightening 4 times and they just come out and replace it free of charge.

It is cheaper than satellite for 64k speed.

Hope that helps you make a decision.

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Now if I connect through the normal internal modem in the computer it runs at 52k

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How come you do that? Mine just plugs straight into a COM port, no modem in my machine. Is it charged as a data call or a voice call when you connect? Maybe that's cheaper if you have a local number to dial in to. I get charged 30 cents per hour for the data calls because I'm using Bigpong. ISDN 64k is about $66.50 / month.

If you are experiencing problems with the calls to your Internet Service Provider dropping out, it more than likely is due to "call waiting" being enabled on your phone line. Tones are sent down your phone line over the data, which your modem or ISP's modem treat as a disconnect signal.

The solution is to program in front of your ISP's phone number in your modem setup *44. This then stops the sending of additional tones to your modem while your PC is connected to your ISP.

This is explained in the front of your phone book in how to use Telstra Phone services.

Hope this helps.

regards

Kev M