renluop said:
Our child, husband, and three grandchildren are shortly to move to Africa for about two years. It seems that the practical way of voice communication wail be VoIP. They already use Draytel,
Firstly does it matter what provider I use
As you are probably aware, you can use VOIP in one of 2 main ways. Either via Skype or by using a dedicated ATA (
Analogue
Telphone
Adapter).
I have never tried Skype although I have quite a few friends that do use it. The disadvantage to Skype is that I understand that it is a pc based software installation and so therefore your pc needs to be on to make a call. Also with Skype, you are allowing the program to use your bandwidth to relay other calls (in the t&cs when you install).
This ability is a peer-to-peer function and given that the guys who developed Skype were the guys who developed Kazzaa then this is not such a surprise.
The alternative using an ATA or VOIP enabled router is that this is more of a HW based solution which does not require the pc to be on. Furthermore, if an account is set up say in the U.K, then the ATA can be taken anywhere and calls can be made as if the unit were still in it's
local region.
I personally started using VOIP in about 2004 when BT launched it's Broadband Talk service. They provided a free Cisco ATA 186 but have since moved on from them and have purchased my own unit (Linksys PAP2T, this unit is not for the faint hearted) and use
Voipfone and
VoipTalk as my service providers.
The other choice is to go to say
Vonage (did this for my mum) who send you an ATA (cheap one) free but already configured, so it is very much plug-n-play. They have monthly fees though.
The quality of the call will be determined by the codecs used whether hi or lo quality. At the end of the day bandwidth use will not be huge I think the codecs I use are 108kbit.
Good Luck