RunningWithBulls.com - The curse of Sanfermin

VoIP allows you to make telephone calls over a data network like the Internet. VoIP digitises the voice signal from your phone and sends it as packets over the internet, then converts it back at the other end so you can speak to anyone with a regular phone number. When placing a VoIP call using a phone with an adapter, you’ll hear a dial tone and dial just as you always have. VoIP may also allow you to make a call directly from a computer using a conventional telephone or a microphone.

The services Blueface offer are as follows:

Freedom Basic - €9.99 per month/No call credit/Can receive calls from SIP devices and PSTN phones/Low cost call charges
Freedom 500 - €19.99 per month/500 mins call credit/Can receive calls from SIP devices and PSTN phones/Low cost call charges
Pay As You Go - €0.00 per month/No call credit/Cannot receive calls from SIP devices and PSTN phones/Low cost call charges

Low cost call charges include:

While the Freedom 500 package is a feature rich package, the Basic is pratically useless, for nothing other than SIP-SIP calls, which you can have already with a package like Skype.
If there was a package between the 500, and Basic packages, I think this would be better.

One very nice option, is the week free trial. You are given approx. €1 free call credit, which equates to approx. 30 minutes of call credit for local numbers (ie 30 minutes of calls to Dublin numbers, 01.XXXXXXX).

I have signed up for this free trial, and made some basic tests of the service.

My network configuration is:

Eircom DSL—>802.11b Access Point
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Bridged to a second 802.11b Access Point->100MB network->802.11b Access Point->Apple Powerbook running the free downloadable X-Lite Softphone.

On completing the sign-up form you receive an e-mail with the configuration details for the Blueface SIP gateway. All very simple.

You also receive the Dublin STD number which users can call, and are then connected to your SIP extension (mine for the record is +353-1-4361740. This equates to my Blueface subscriber # of 3156. From other SIP devices, 3156@blueface.ie. I am guessing I am subscriber #156, since Aaron Clauson, MD of Blueface.ie, seems to have SIP extension of 3000@blueface.ie and phone number +353-1-4361700).

According to their website, the new 076 STD is being implemented by Eircom at the moment, and is due to be rolled out by May 2005. This would see the

I am using the free downloadable X-Lite Softphone from X-Ten.

Simple. Load the settings, and you are ready.

One of the first calls I made was to my house landline. The connection time was pratically zero. I clicked dial, and the phone rang straight away.

I then called Cliph’s cellphone, to see the call quality to a GSM phone. The results are here and here.
Every person I called (I made 4 calls) mentioned the “tinny” (speaking into a bucket, my sister said!) quality of the call.
This I am not too worried about, as the speaker/microphone configration was the default microphone and laptop speakers of the powerbook.
I am now looking for a VOIP handset (something like the Blueface recommended Grandstream BudgeTone 100 series) for our house to test. These will no doubt give better call quality.

With regards overhead of network traffic, I noticed an increase of approx. 4-5Kbps of traffic while a call was taking place.
This is more than sustainable on a modest DSL connection.

The real winning point for me with this service would be the possibility of removing my Eircom PSTN line for good as my broadband provider can change to wireless.

Lets hope that Blueface release some more packages, between the Freedom 500 and Freedom Basic.