The Metro have an article this morning about VoIP phone services, giving a good rundown on those available in the UK market. Obviously triggered by Google Talk, the key message is that this is a good thing. It goves a brief write up o Skype, Vonage, 056me and BT Communicator.
For me, it’s interesting that for the 2 computer based services just states plainly that your computer needs to be turned on to use. Explainging some of these services to various family members, the difficulty was in the non-computer based services, ie how can an internet-based tool work without the PC being turned on, because internet=web=browser. Now my parents finally have broadband, I’ll be able to get them connected up.
I also now have a theory as to why the very mention of Google gets lots of people excited. Say it, then say it again a number of times. I think it triggers long buried memories of being a pre-speaking child and being ‘spoken’ to by adoring relatives- google-google-google. Just a theory!
In the case of voip, it does not need to.
There are boxes available, which allow incoming SIP to be routed directly to the normal telephone – actually, the one i just bought is about not having to have the computer turned on all the time. 🙂
As flatrates and dsl go more ubiqutious, the possibilites of those little gadgets will increase. 🙂