I have been running on an ADSL connection for under a month now, and am investigating using Skype for all telephone calls, mostly local and local long distance landline phones. I run a small business from home. Is this realy cheaper than staying with the Telkom normal service ? The line rental is included in the Telkom ADSL fee. I am using the Telkom Closer package that allows 1000 minutes of landline calls in a month for the package cost.Teh package cost includes the ADSL service. I would appreciate comments from anyone who has gone or tried this route.
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Is it cheaper ?
- Thread starter Speedy123
- Start date
There are ways of making it cheaper, but the Closer Packages are just more convenient/simple.
You could drop the closer package, and lower your Telkom cost to bare minimum, then go with a SIP Analogue Telephone Adapter to connect you existing telephone to the VOIP system of your choice.
www.voipbuster.com, cost
www.lowratevoip.com, cost
There costs are lower than Telkom's locally, and internationally are WAY lower, quite largely *free. And of course if you convince enough people to move over, it will be completely free VOIP-VOIP
You could drop the closer package, and lower your Telkom cost to bare minimum, then go with a SIP Analogue Telephone Adapter to connect you existing telephone to the VOIP system of your choice.
www.voipbuster.com, cost
www.lowratevoip.com, cost
There costs are lower than Telkom's locally, and internationally are WAY lower, quite largely *free. And of course if you convince enough people to move over, it will be completely free VOIP-VOIP
If you are running a business then you still need a number that your clients can call and for these international services this is not really viable as a call to you would incure international call charges.
I suggest you investigate the local offerings. Although they are not as dirt cheap as the international ones I would say it is money well spent for the benefit of clients being able to call you at local rates.
Be aware though that the interconnects between Telkom and the VoIP providers only went live less than a month ago - this is really bleeding edge technology from a South African perspective.
I suggest you investigate the local offerings. Although they are not as dirt cheap as the international ones I would say it is money well spent for the benefit of clients being able to call you at local rates.
Be aware though that the interconnects between Telkom and the VoIP providers only went live less than a month ago - this is really bleeding edge technology from a South African perspective.
Don't drop your Telkom line, you still need it for your ADSL access anyway, simply never make a single call out over it.
Use the SIP gateways for that. Quality is perfect, even on DSL 384.
headstrong
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Were does one find a SIP gateway?
I use VOIPBuster... sip.voipbuster.com, but there are loads of providers.
Mams
Senior Member
cheapest i found and am using is lowratevoip.com
Miquette
New Member
I don't know if I am being rude now but I do not believe in Skype. Everyone thinks Skype is a VoIP solution but its not. Get yourself a real VoIP provider with good equipment. Contact [email protected] for a turnkey solution especially if you are running a small business. very cost effective and efficient.
Mams
Senior Member
its always being working for me...im using it via my N95 (wifi)
i just tried it now again and its 100%
Some more advice plse !
Many thanks for the good information supplied. My new ADSL connection was down for 5 days, after only been installed for three weeks. I experienced the normal sparkling Telkom service
and woke up one night dreaming the fault report line music on hold - Di da da dee, di da da dee dadda da !!! 
.
In a few words ,can anyone tell me the difference between Skype and a SIP service ? What makes SIP more preferable to using Skype ? The numbers I get for calls to France to a landline show that Skype is the cheapest rate by far. Must I duck for cover ?
Also , what sort of data can I expect to use off my cap per average VOIP call i.e data per second ? Someone told me it was between 3 and 16 kbyte/sec - about 28hrs per Gig.
I'm still doing the numbers, but for my application it seems that the Closer package that I have, using VoIP for overseas calls via the Skype/SIP phone adapter is going to be the cheapest solution. This is assuming that I use the 1000 mins included in the package. I still have to monitor my usage to get make the right decision.
Many thanks for the good information supplied. My new ADSL connection was down for 5 days, after only been installed for three weeks. I experienced the normal sparkling Telkom service
and woke up one night dreaming the fault report line music on hold - Di da da dee, di da da dee dadda da !!! . In a few words ,can anyone tell me the difference between Skype and a SIP service ? What makes SIP more preferable to using Skype ? The numbers I get for calls to France to a landline show that Skype is the cheapest rate by far. Must I duck for cover ?
Also , what sort of data can I expect to use off my cap per average VOIP call i.e data per second ? Someone told me it was between 3 and 16 kbyte/sec - about 28hrs per Gig.
I'm still doing the numbers, but for my application it seems that the Closer package that I have, using VoIP for overseas calls via the Skype/SIP phone adapter is going to be the cheapest solution. This is assuming that I use the 1000 mins included in the package. I still have to monitor my usage to get make the right decision.