VoIP

Voice over IP (VoIP)

Voice over IP (VoIP) lets you use your broadband connection to make calls to other people. This can be a call between two PC's, PC to telephone or VoIP telephone to another device.

VoIP is spreading and can be used from many different devices. The type of VoIP that most people know about is PC to PC using something like the Skype service. However things are starting to change and people are plugging what look like normal telephones into their broadband lines.

If your working from home and part of a team then using VoIP is a great way to keep the cost of internal calls down, they are usually free of charge. For other calls then you need to watch the prices very carefully. Calls to mobiles and local calls can be more expensive than a normal phone call - read the small print.

Watch out for emergency 999/112 calls as most VoIP companies don't allow access, although recent guidelines from Ofcom should change this. You might also struggle to get in the Phone Book or on Directory Enquiries. It pays to have a normal land line for this reason.

In business circles VoIP is growing and already starting to take a large number of calls away from the normal telephone services. For anyone that wants to work from a virtual location its ideal. You could have a home in France but use VoIP and have a UK number. No one need know you are out of the country.