The Top VoIP Service Providers

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What Is VoIP?

VoIP uses your dial-up or broadband connection to make free calls over the internet. The acronym VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol and is the technology for transmitting voice conversations via the internet.  VoIP has been called a few different things in its colourful past such as internet telephony, peer-to-peer, P2P, IP telephony, broadband telephony, voice over broadband and many, many other names.  

How does VoIP Work?

Your voice is carried over an internet connection, usually broadband. Your speech is broken up and carried over the internet as blocks of digital data (the same way that something like an email would be carried), before being turned back into speech at the other end.  Technically it’s possible to use VoIP over a Dial-Up, or narrowband service – but the quality of the service is likely to be poor and it would tie up your normal phone line in the same way that surfing the web on a dial up service would.

I’ve heard that VoIP offers free phone calls – is this true?

Yes and no. All VoIP services offer free calls to people who have signed up to the same service as you (even if they live abroad), but charge to make calls to traditional landlines (either a fixed monthly fee or pay as you go (PAYG)).

You may have to pay a fee to set up your VoIP service to receive calls too. Call costs are often lower than using a landline service to make calls because the type of connection is much more cost-effective.

The reason that calls to other computers are free but you have to pay for calls to and from landlines is that with PC to PC calls you’re only involving the broadband network, so it costs no more than sending an email (subject to download limits).

When the normal telephone network is involved the service provider has to make the connection by opening a gateway between the two networks, which incurs a greater cost.

Is VoIP always cheaper than a landline?

VoIP is often marketed as a cheap alternative to traditional landlines. There’s no doubt that it can offer huge savings for many types of call, but don’t assume that VoIP will always be better value.

Your best bet might be to operate a home phone and VoIP service in parallel, and pick and choose which offers best value for different types of call. It has to be said that sometimes the quality of a VoIP call isn't as good as a normal landline.

What do I need to get a VoIP service?

The main thing you need is a broadband internet connection, the faster the better. Our Broadband report has information on a range of best buy broadband services. A dial-up internet connection will work with some VoIP services but the quality is much worse.

You’ll also need some sort of equipment, whether a headset or an telephone adapter, to make calls. It is possible to use your computer’s in built microphone, but the sound quality is likely to be poor.

Not all VoIP services are Mac compatible, and some may require you to have a more recent version of Windows (2000 or XP).