I am setting up a business where I need my UK customers to be able to telephone me here in France.

I do not want to put an International number on my UK website. Ideally I'd like to have a 'normal' UK number.

Has anyone got experience of using VoIP or similar to forward calls in this way? If so what's needed in terms of hardware/software and how well does it work?

Thanks in advance,

Mike

Some people perceive it as not being as professional but have you thought about Skype?

Yup.

I've used a company in Leeds called AQL.

Simple, cheap and relocatable. You can pick any town in the UK or an 0845 prefix. You can also get a fax number where they'll also forward any faxes to your email address as a PDF.

One thing to note would be that although you can answer calls via the computer / mic / speakers it sounds like you are on a handsfree in a car.

I've got a SIP phone / handset which looks and works like a "real" phone, just plugs into a spare socket on the back of the switch / router.

Another advantage is that they record all your calls and store them for a few months.

If you get "Skype In" you can select a normal UK number (or US or a number of others). When someone rings you, it rings on your Skype. You can also buy credit so you can call as if from a UK number - my son has done this while on his uni year abroad in Japan for when he needed to phone e.g. his bank in the UK. It works well, AFAIK and not unreasonable price-wise

http://www.skype.com/intl/en-gb/prices/

http://www.skype.com/intl/en-gb/features/allfeatures/online-number/?intcmp=search-direct-online-number

Hi Mike

When I set up I was given another number for the English to use, at a cheaper rate than normal. This number did not have a french code.

Did you not get one with your provider?

Derek

Try Vonage they do a pretty good package you can pick any UK regional number or 0845 you like.
In terms of equipment you can use an adaptor into which you plug a normal landline/DECT phone, buy a sip enabled router, SIP Phone or just use your PC with headset.
VOIP was going to be the next big thing in the Telecoms market but has been held up by the cr@p broadband quality in this country. As I run Telecoms company I wouldnt recommend it as the primary way of contact as speech quality can be dire but for what you want its ideal.
Skype is a proprietary form of Voip, SIP is the real deal, you can download test software to ensure that your broadband line is up to scratch and ensure call quality.

Cheers,
Bob

quote:

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Originally posted by Humbug
If you get "Skype In" you can select a normal UK number (or US or a number of others). When someone rings you, it rings on your Skype. You can also buy credit so you can call as if from a UK number - my son has done this while on his uni year abroad in Japan for when he needed to phone e.g. his bank in the UK. It works well, AFAIK and not unreasonable price-wise

http://www.skype.com/intl/en-gb/prices/

http://www.skype.com/intl/en-gb/features/allfeatures/online-number/?intcmp=search-direct-online-number

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WWW.sipgate.co.uk

Free to receive calls and have most UK std codes

Thank you all for those useful leads. I'm on it now and it actually looks pretty simple.

Cheers,

Mike

I run 5 incomming voip lines, some with either local or 0208 number overlays, instead of using a seperate voip phone i run both pots (bt) and voip through my router onto standard handsets.

I use a draytek 2820 vgn router and use the sips service from draytel, no outages in the past 2 years.

Shop around for the best deal but you will probably have to play with the codecs to get the best results.

Roger

Another point to note is that services like sipgate use standard SIP so you can buy VoIP phones like the SPA942 or similar pictured above that look like phones.

However Skype doesn't use SIP so whilst you can get "hardphone" handsets that are Skype compatible your choices are more limited.

Sipgate doesn't routinely record all your calls but can email .wav file attachments for your voicemail etc.

I'm don't think they are the cheapest necessarily if you use them for outgoing calls but I only use them for incoming calls.

You can configure most VoIP phones with multiple (completely different) SIP accounts as different line extensions, so you can make outgoing calls via one account which is very cheap and use a different account for the incoming calls etc. I.e. it's more flexible.

Note the longer answer now I'm not typing on a mobile phone!

quote:

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Originally posted by splitrivet
Try Vonage they do a pretty good package you can pick any UK regional number or 0845 you like.
In terms of equipment you can use an adaptor into which you plug a normal landline/DECT phone, buy a sip enabled router, SIP Phone or just use your PC with headset.
VOIP was going to be the next big thing in the Telecoms market but has been held up by the cr@p broadband quality in this country. As I run Telecoms company I wouldnt recommend it as the primary way of contact as speech quality can be dire but for what you want its ideal.
Skype is a proprietary form of Voip, SIP is the real deal, you can download test software to ensure that your broadband line is up to scratch and ensure call quality.

Cheers,
Bob [/quote@)

Oh yes we give you 50 Meg and you moan it's still slow.... See it the web sites
You are visiting are well slow oh and the wireless connection you insist on using on your ancient laptop.
Do you want 100'meg yep we will take that as well.
By the way b t are limited by the 100 year old copper in the last mile.
My take on last mile rebuild is it's going to takeforever as the money it costs to dig is extortionate.
The old ducts are full and silted. It's all most a rare event for the cabling crews to get cables through without a blockage.
So until we get a heap of cash thrown at a new build it's a slowband country.
Most of the cost is the digging as the red tape and permissions required are a departments worth of humans pushing stupid paper to another department trying to fine them at every hole dug. Barriers that the kids throw in to the hole need to be replaced several time during the job all cost in fines or men's wages sent to keep putting them up agian

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