Internet Phone Calls

If you’re travelling with a laptop computer and have access to a broadband or Ethernet connection where you’re staying, you can save a great deal of money by using the Internet to make your phone calls. The technology behind Internet Telephony is called Voice over IP or VoIP (IP is another acronym that stands for Internet Protocol, but let’s ignore that.) The way it works is that your voice is picked up by a microphone attached to your laptop and then converted into a digital form which is sent over the Internet to the recipient. At the far end, it’s converted back into sound and fed to the recipient’s speakers or headphones. You can also sign up to a service which redirects it to a real phone number, letting you call any number in the world.

The quality of Internet phone calls has been variable as the technology has developed. It’s getting better and the services I recommend below are ones that I find more than acceptable. There is sometimes a delay in the conversation, so it feels that you’re calling someone on the moon, but given the amount of money you’re saving it’s a minor irritation.

All of the different ways of making voice calls over the Internet need you to load software onto your laptop. It’s best to do this before you start travelling, as they can sometimes be less than obvious to set up and it’s normally easier to try them out on a test run at home.

What you need

Other than the software, which we’ll come to below, it’s worth investing in a headset with a microphone. You can use the inbuilt microphone and speakers in your laptop, but if they’re anything like mine the quality is appalling. I’d recommend a headset and microphone that plugs into your USB port. These are a little more expensive, but they normally include a feature called noise cancellation which helps to reduce background noise from the microphone. There’s a wide range available from around £15 / $20. Check that the one you choose includes noise cancellation. If you also listen to music on your laptop it’s probably worth getting a stereo headset, so the same headset can do both jobs. I currently use a Logitech USB Stereo 30 which works well. I’ve also had good results from Plantronics headsets. These are available from most larger PC stores and web stores like Amazon. You may also come across USB handsets, which look like normal phones. I’ve found that these can pull quite a lot of power off the laptop. In most cases you can’t dial from their keypad for Internet phone calls, so unless you really hate wearing something on your head I’d avoid them. If someone tries to sell you an expensive VoIP phone, ignore it – the software on your PC will do the VoIP bit for you.

Once you’ve bought it, plug it into the laptop and check that it works. Windows 2000 and Windows XP should load the drivers you need automatically. The next step is to decide on the Internet Phone software.

There are two basic types of Internet Telephony – making calls to another PC and making calls to a real phone. The first can be totally free, wherever that other computer may be in the world. However, if you want to call a real phone, you’ll need to sign up for an Internet phone service and buy credits in advance of your call. There are many different service providers and software, but from my own experience I find the ones below the most reliable.

PC to PC Calls - Skype

Skype is a free piece of software that lets you call any other PC running Skype for free. When you call someone, their PC will “ring” just like a normal phone, and they can answer the call and talk to you. The obvious limitation is that if they’re not at the PC, or the PC is turned off they won’t answer.

Having said that, I find the voice quality on Skype the best of any of the services, so if you are regularly calling someone who is likely to be at their PC it’s worth installing it at both ends. It also seems to be very good at dealing with corporate firewalls, which can cause problems with other Internet telephony software.

To use it, download it from their web page, install it, log on and start using it. You need to know who you are calling and they need to be running Skype as well, so choose user names you will recognise or you could end up looking for them for a long time.

PC to Phone - Net2Phone and Go2Call

If you want to be able to make calls to real phone numbers rather than another PC, you’ll need to sign up to one of the Internet Phone services and pay them money. There are an increasing number of these services, but the two that I’ve used and found reliable are Net2Phone and Go2Call.

To use these services you need to download their specific software, which is free, and then buy credits for your phone calls. The way this works is that you purchase these with your credit card, generally in increments of $5. When you make a call these are decremented and you’re shown a running total of your remaining credit. Be aware that the credits normally only have a 90 day life, so it’s better to start off with a reasonable amount and top them up as you go along. Typical rates to the US from anywhere in the world are $0.05 per minute, so $5 would give you around an hour and a half of calls. Watch out for higher rates to mobile phones. You can also call other PC’s with these pieces of software, but you’ll be charged for the calls. If you plan to make many PC to PC calls, I’d suggest installing Skype as well and using it for the PC terminated calls.

I’ve found that with both of these services, it can take a couple of days for the credit card authorisation to go through, so I’d recommend setting everything up the week before you travel. If you don’t like performing credit card transactions over the net they will accept alternative forms of payment, but allow even longer.

There’s not a lot to choose between them. Go to their web pages and see which has the best rates for the countries you want to call. To try and confuse you, both have web pages make it less than obvious where to find the service you want. For Net2Phone, click on their PC2Phone link; on Go2Call click on the Consumer option at the top of the page. If I were to recommend one over the other, it would be Net2Phone because of the more comprehensive support information. They also have a useful audio setup wizard which helps you get the headset up and running. Having said which, they obviously compete with each other’s features, so any recommendation is a moving target.

Once you’ve made you choice, download their dialler and follow the installation instructions. Sign up for an account and buy some credits, plug in your headset and try making a call. It should work – welcome to the world of Internet telephony.

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