Hi Stuart

How did you get on with this? I am interested generally since I would like to contain my phone bills a bit and also specifically since I am trying to discover how I can get a UK phone number, both for folks back home to dial me on, but also outbound, so it looks like I am dialing from a UK phone number....

...keen to upgrade my Sky service from the free to air stuff to the subscription service and, conscious of admonitions in other posts, don't want to be identified as a jonny foreigner by the blighters at Sky when I phone them to match the card to the box.....

Thanks for any update you can provide!

Ddejay

Ddejay - http://www.sipgate.co.uk/ as mentioned VERY early in the post gives you a localised UK number

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Perhaps you should take the trouble to learn German instead.
I've been using sipcall for about 2 years now - very reliable service and good rates for Switzerland (cell + landlines), Western Europe and the States - horrible rates for Eastern Europe. I use Skype to call my family in Hungary, lots cheaper.

oh, and as for the equipment: I have a FritzBox! Fon ATA, works like a charm behind a Swisscom VDSL router

As our landline is on it's last legs... I'm looking at buying a new phone. Alternatives at the moment are the Siemens C455 voip phone or an S455.
I'm uncertain if voip is necessary for the future and if there will be a significant reduction in cost. We have ADSL (bluewin) and swisscom Fixnet landline. The Swisscom page says they would charge an extra Fr. 18.90 for sip (?) monthly for Bluewin Phone. Somehow, this doesn't make much sense to me. We call one number in UK per week on average, so call costs aren't that expensive - it's the landline and the adsl that bumps up our costs. We are not considering changing from bluewin or swisscom at the moment, as they have been very reliable so far...
The S455 has the advantage of an answering machine - I hate combox !
So - my question is, does anyone have any advice or opinions: shall we go for the voip or for the answering machine?

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Hi
Like many I am not interested in anything proprietary like Skype.

I have recently setup an account with voiptalk.org in the UK
Their prices seem pretty competitive and the advantage for me was they gave me a UK geographic number for free and I was also able to purchase a second (Swiss) number.

So now I have cheap calls to the UK (free on SIP) and my customers in the UK and in Switzerland can still call me whereever I am without them having to incurr an international call.

I use the excellent freeware X-lite softphone on my Mac portable (PC version also available) and also SIP using a normal phone plugged into my Vigor Router in the office. Both work fine, and the SIP gives my proper number as the CLI on outbound calls so would probably fool Sky and the like.

Am still looking for a local VoiP gateway provider to reduce the cost of my calls in/to Switzerland.

Hello there,

Switzernet charges 9 Fr/month for unlimited free calls to CH, US, UK, FR, DE, and for a Swiss phone number 021 or 022. Rates to Swiss mobiles are the lowest according to http://www.comparis.ch/

[1], [2], [3], [4]

Rounding of calls and call setup fees are hidden costs which "secretly" increase the displayed price by 40%. Switzernet’s does not have any hidden fees. The billing is second by second [5], [6], [7].

The only expense is 9 Fr/month and a 12 month commitment, but you can cancel the contract within the first 15 days (the trial period is counted from your first successful call).

Until September 30 the shipment is free of charge (instead of 9.50 Fr). During this period Switzernet offers 42 Fr for referred customers (you can self-refer your new accounts). As a referrer, your phone number or your name should appear on new contracts. If it is not made you can inform later to contracts@switzernet.com. There are no limits on the number of referred customers. The amount credited to your Switzernet account can be transferred to your bank account at any time. More info: http://www.unappel.ch/public/070914-parrainage-refer/

Anyone having experience with Switzernet, please post here.

Regards,
Switzernet