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Internet Dev Ice Lets You Make Free Calls From Your Phone GBP80 Broadband Box Will Bypass Computer

Posted on: Wednesday, 28 September 2005, 09:00 CDT

By BRIAN DONNELLY

A HIGH street retailer yesterday challenged major telephone companies by launching a new internet call service.

It allows users to make phone calls through broadband using a normal handset without having to switch on a computer.

DSG International plc, the parent company of Dixons, Currys, The Link and PC World, said the launch marked the beginning of the end for traditional landline phones. It said its Freetalk service was the cheapest on the market.

Householders will gain access using a small adaptor box which costs GBP79.99. They then have unlimited free calls to all UK landlines for a year.

Once the first 12 months are up, Freetalk will cost GBP6.99 a month for unlimited calls to UK landlines.

The service works using VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) which makes calls over the internet through broadband.

Unlike internet phone services offered by Google Talk or Skype, which was bought by eBay earlier this month, users do not have to switch on their computer to make a call.

Instead, they plug their existing telephone handset into the adaptor and make calls as usual. But they must have a computer to set up the service and then receive and pay bills.

Users can pick their own area code regardless of where they live in the UK. The adaptor retains that number even if it is plugged into a broadband connection at another property in the UK or abroad. This means users can take their home phone number with them without incurring a roaming charge, Freetalk said.

Simon Turner, divisional managing director of DSG International, described Freetalk as a wake-up call for traditional telecoms companies.

He said: "This is the most significant development in the telephone market since the launch of the mobile phone and will transform the way we use phones. The days of oldstyle fixed-line phone calls are numbered."

Dr Bill Buchanan, of Napier University and author of 22 academic books relating to data communications, networks and the internet, said it would probably prove a useful tool for businesses allowing maintenance of just one communications infrastructure, rather than both a telephone and computer network.

"As voice communications is typically a mission-critical object, it is unlikely that VoIP will replace existing communications for the foreseeable future, as it is still an unproven technology, especially in its robustness, and whether the internet and local networks can prove the infrastructure that is required forVoIP.

"A major issue for the VoIP is whether our existing computer networks are capable of carrying the extra data traffic that is generated by it."

Davis Janowski, of New York-based PC Magazine, has studied the technology since its infancy in the US six years ago. He said: "The trend we've seen in the States is that the folks we call early adopters, technically- savvy people who want to save money, have leapt onto VoIP and added it to their broadband service. We are also seeing success among cable providers who are rolling VoIP out as part of a bundled service."

DSG's target is for half a million users to sign up for the new service within a year.

Users will be charged 5p per minute to call phone mobile phones at weekends, 10p a minute on weekday evenings, and 15p a minute on weekdays.

Freetalk adaptors go on sale at PC World, Currys, The Link and 50 Dixons stores from Thursday.

Onetel, a phone discount service provider, announced last night it would also launching its own brand of VoIP. A spokesman said it would provide an adaptor for half the price of DSG.

HOW IT WORKS

The Freetalk VoIP phone service enables UK residents to make unlimited calls to UK landlines, discounted calls to UK mobiles and very low-cost calls to international numbers.

Calls are made as normal, but they are routed more efficiently to save money.

Phone calls will have the same quality as before.

The technology sends all calls to and from your phone through the broadband phone service adaptor which routes the calls over the internet, instead of using the traditional public telephone network.

There are no extra numbers to dial, no special instructions and no talking through a computer. Users hear a dial tone and dial as normal Incoming calls ring your phone, also as normal.

Source: Herald, The; Glasgow (UK)

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