BT Broadband Voice - Get it Now or Wait a few Months & Software Client Question

[Dee]

I'm just wondering if I should wait until just before the April deadline to
get the equipment free or order now?

I've been looking for a virtual 2nd phoneline option and this is almost here
in terms of what I want.

a) But are there any kinks in the hardware supplied that BT are still
ironing out or will most problems be solved through new software and
firmware?

b) Also I'm wondering why do we need to take the physical hardware with us
when we travel if we want to recieve incoming phonecalls? Can't BT just
create a software client like an MSN Messenger and whenever we're online we
can recieve incoming calls? That way if we travel to another country and are
in an internet cafe which has PC's with Headset we can just make and recieve
phonecalls as normal without the hassle of trying to plug or carry extra
euipment?

c) Also how many digits is this new 05 number?? - From what I can tell it's
going to cost aprox 5p per minute at all times to call an 05 number from a
normal landline??

regards

Dee
www.EveryTwoWeeks.com

[Phil Thompson]

On Thu, 22 Jan 2004 10:07:13 -0000, "Dee"
> wrote:


>a) But are there any kinks in the hardware supplied that BT are still
>ironing out or will most problems be solved through new software and
>firmware?

seems OK. the hardware is if anything getting near the end of its
product cycle. There is later version firmware around in the USA, not
tried it with BT box yet. I did read somewhere that BT would
eventually move to SIP as they saw that as "the future"

>b) Also I'm wondering why do we need to take the physical hardware with us
>when we travel if we want to recieve incoming phonecalls? Can't BT just
>create a software client like an MSN Messenger and whenever we're online we
>can recieve incoming calls?

a software client hopefully *not* like MSN messenger :-)
Haven't seen any MGCP software clients - if you find one we could test
it

>c) Also how many digits is this new 05 number?? -

05511435???

Phil

[dd]

wrote:
> On Thu, 22 Jan 2004 13:00:55 +0000, Don Pearce
> > wrote:
>
>> What does "blip out" mean?
>
> It means cut out.
>
> When I was talking, parts of my words were missing to the
> other party.

aka, "you're breaking up! you're breaking up! hello? hello?"

[Matthew Thompson]

On Thu, 22 Jan 2004 12:47:08 +0000, wrote:

>>I'm just wondering if I should wait until just before the April deadline to
>>get the equipment free or order now?
>Get it now

Agreed.

I've spoken to a guy at BT who tells me that they are likely to stick
with MGCP for the hardware side of the service - apparently SIP is not
quite as capable of doing all the features that people expect of a
standard phone line.

He also mentioned that it is possible that they will start running SIP
alongside so that users can take their phone numbers out and about
with a soft-client.

M@t :o)

[Dee]

"Don Pearce" > wrote in message
...

> What does "blip out" mean?


I was using my PC to talk to relatives in Canada using Skpe.

If you've not tried it then give it a go it's the best voice quality PC to
PC I've come across but did have a few Blips where the sound broke up.

www.skype.com

Having said that I believe the voice transmission may also be encrypted???
So perhaps that adds to the Blips??

I've tried SIP software products but can never get them to work over our
network at home with NAT.

Skype just uses port 80 and works perfectly - if you can get a website to
display then you just know Skype will work and the fact it can ring the
internal PC speaker is so handy if you have a Headset plugged into the PC.

regards

Dee
www.EveryTwoWeeks.com