Internet Telephone

[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.

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.

[Ben from Vic.]

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.

[Sir Stinkalot]

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.


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.

[echnidna]

Hi Ben,
Tell us more about eliminating tELSTRA

[journeyman Mick]

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

[Ben from Vic.]

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. :)

[GeoffS]

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

[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".

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 :(

[silentC]

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:

[Barry_White]

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".

:(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.

[echnidna]

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.

[silentC]

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.

[Barry_White]

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.

[silentC]

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

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.

[KevM]

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

[Barry_White]

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.
SilentC

When I signed up I stayed on my normal dial up plan which allows you to connect to via either through dial up or through the ISDN box with a USB connection. I had occassion to use the normal modem when there was a fault in the ISDN box which incurred a local call charge using their 0198308888 number which you use either for dialup or ISDN. See their site. http://www.bigpond.com/internet-plans/dialup/personal/default.asp

Quote from their site:
You can access any of these plans from most fixed phones Australia-wide, for the cost of a local call on a PSTN connection or usual ISDN call charges if you are connected to ISDN. End of Quote.

You really shouldn't be being charged for being connected at an hourly rate because they dropped that back in August last year. As well as that there is no charge to connect for each time that you connect for a data call. See their site.
http://www.bigpond.com/internet-plans/isdn/500/12/
Quote from their site:
ISDN Data call charges to BigPond 0198308888 access number are included in the BigPond ISDN monthly fee. End of Quote.

[silentC]

It's probably all changed since I set it up in March last year as a result of the push to privatise. I don't pay the bills, the company does, so I'm not sure what they're being charged now.

I've never used PSTN over it, so not sure how it compares. Apparently I'm connected at 115.2 Kbps at the moment. It's faster than a 56k modem, which is what I have at home, but nothing like broadband.

I ditched the USB connection early on because it kept dropping out. I spoke to a tech at Telstra and he told me they have endless problems with USB. I use the RS232 interface which has been solid ever since I set it up.

[Barry_White]

I ditched the USB connection early on because it kept dropping out. I spoke to a tech at Telstra and he told me they have endless problems with USB. I use the RS232 interface which has been solid ever since I set it up.
Silent
I am using a laptop that doesn't have a RS232 port so I have to use USB. I was having the same problems before with my desktop computer before it got zapped but they have upgraded the software and the USB is reliable now.

KevM
That maybe so with a normal dialup connection but I hate call waiting and if I am on a call the other party can call back because I have it permantly off or they can leave a message on the message bank. But because with ISDN you have two lines and you don't give out your data line for people to call and if a fax come in on the data line the internet goes off line untill the fax is finished and then comes back on. And if you want people breaking in on your conversations you can turn it on, but from memory call waiting may not work with ISDN.

As Silent C say it is old technolgy but is reliable and for a long time that is all Internet Providers had to use

[Bob Willson]

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.
They set the price that other companies have to charge by the amount that they charge those other ISPs for their access top the backbone of the internet.

See also this site (http://http://www.aussieforum.com/archive/index.php/t-4640.html) to meet other people who have Telstra problems. See also what they have to say about pair gain cables that Telstra sells to toher companies so that they have major problems.
I really do think that all the other ISPs should get together and take out a writ against Telstra for the hundreds of thousands of fully documented cases where Telstra has deliberately ripped off others. Ah I can't go on. I get too excited and go all incoherent when I rave about $%^&*+# Telstra. :mad:

[echnidna]

Since making sure call waiting is permanently off about 1/2 hour ago I have drooped off 3 times. I suspect that telstra pair gained my line to get the other house down the road a few months ago.

I can see a reasonably strong possibility that Telstra may end up with a class action by people like me. Theres some good city lawyers who will do it "No Win - No Pay"

[jackiew]

I've been using Telstra ISDN for over a year now and found it to be more reliable than ADSL. ...... It's quite old and well understood technology. It's just slow.

:confused: i remember writing firmware for ISDN Muxes when it was cutting edge technology .... oops .... just added it up on my fingers ..... 19 years ago .... yep its definately old technology !!

[silentC]

You have 19 fingers? No, don't tell me, you can count in binary. :D

[ozwinner]

Is this any help to anyone?

http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/

Al

[Bob Willson]

<SMALL>From the link that Al supplied.</SMALL>
<SMALL></SMALL>
<SMALL>Published Wednesday 23rd June 2004 13:22 GMT</SMALL>
Telstra - Australia's incumbent telco - should be fined more than AUS$100m (£38m) for its anti-comptetitive broadband pricing, according to the boss of a rival ISP.

In February, Telstra cut the cost of its retail broadband service undercutting what it charged other operators for wholesale broadband. Rivals said this was unfair and an abuse of Telstra's dominant position.

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In March, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) agreed that Telstra had engaged in anti-competitive conduct and slapped the company with a competition notice.

Although the ACCC has yet to decide what further action, if any, to take against Telstra, the watchdog has been given a rather forthright pointer by the MD of one of Australia's leading ISPs.

Greg Wilson, the boss of Primus, said that Telstra should be fined more than AUS$100m to deter the telco from engaging in such behaviour again, <CITE>The Age</CITE> reports.

He told an American Chamber of Commerce lunch in Sydney: "Boy, I'm hoping that a massive great stick will come down on Telstra. They need to be given a massive disincentive not to do this to the industry again."

"Telstra cannot be allowed to get away ever again for what they did. For two to three months they raped and pillaged everyone else's customer base. They should be punished for that. Punished severely."

Go on, Greg: say what you really mean.

[Barry_White]

Man did I open up a can of worms starting this thread. Talk about going sideways.

[echnidna]

Telstra should be privatised completely.
That way it will go belly up.

[ozwinner]

Man did I open up a can of worms starting this thread. Talk about going sideways.http://mindscraps.com/s/otn/other/popworm.gifhttp://mindscraps.com/s/otn/other/popworm.gifhttp://mindscraps.com/s/otn/other/popworm.gifhttp://mindscraps.com/s/otn/other/popworm.gifhttp://mindscraps.com/s/otn/other/popworm.gif

[Barry_White]

Oz


http://mindscraps.com/s/otn/other/popworm.gifhttp://mindscraps.com/s/otn/other/popworm.gifhttp://mindscraps.com/s/otn/other/popworm.gifhttp://mindscraps.com/s/otn/other/popworm.gifhttp://mindscraps.com/s/otn/other/popworm.gif
Love the can of worms I'd give you a greenie only it told me I have to spread it around before I can give you another one.

[Tankstand]

Barry,
I would like to thank you for making us aware of Freshtel, I missed that ACA episode, I've signed up for the free Firefly option, Bloody Fantastic! I can now Yak to my sister up in Port Augusta For Nix! :)

[Phil_H]

Hi Guys

Another one that I have been using for a while is

SKYPE (http://www.skype.com)

Works really well and is free too

Cheers

Phil

[Barry_White]

Hi Phil

The major difference with Freshtel is that you can also use it to call any landline or mobile phone at a cost of course but about half the cost of using Telstra on STD & ISD calls as well as free to other users and is also free to download.