We use Vonage VoiP which plugs into the ADSL router (so you don't need a PC on all the time) and then you just plug any normal phone into it. That costs us £7.99 a month (there was a set up fee but can't remember what that was now) which gives us a UK number (you choose the area code you want) and you can then call any UK landline for nothing and mobiles/other numbers are charged but cheap. Anyone calling you from the UK just pays what they would for calling a UK landline.

Thanks for the info Juliajavea
limex

There is a company in the uk called (please let me know if I can announce this number on the forum), they charge 1p per minute to call Spain landlines 24 hours a day.
There is no contract or monthly fee. There is no minimum spend, all you need to do is dial a prefix (no registration required) and the call will be diverted from you usual supplier. There is no seperate bill to pay it is all included in the same bill. Very simple.
the number is 0844 861 7878. I hope this will be useful for family and friends to phone you all at home in Spain.

I use Skype for work, communicating with people in UK, I have a phone plugged into my pc, the quality isn't the best , it has a slight delay. Whats the call quality like with the skype dual phone??? Finally how much did it cost?

Thanks

What's the quality of incoming calls like mate? I'm thinking of running my business from a new home in Spain in a couple of months and I'll be servicing UK clients. I don't really want them to know that I'm not in the UK...does a UK number with the local rate diverted to you in Spain still have UK dial tone?

Cheers.

The quality of both incomming and outgoing calls is superb with the dual phone. The phone itself cost 129 euros inc. delivery. Expensive I know but well worth the money as far as I am concerned.

Cheers. Do you know if you get a UK ring tone when calling from the UK on your "Glasgow" number...?

The ring tones are poor. You can only select from melody´s on th phone.

To the caller, it sounds as if they are dialling locally. You can also divert the call to another number such as a mobile, but you pay that part of the call.

Thanks. I didn't really mean the individual ring tone of the phone itself but the dial tone the caller hears when they phone (i.e. a UK dial tone or an overseas dial tone). Sorry for the confusion.

Thank you. That's what I wanted to know.

You can get a sky card but need an address in the UK, I also have a 0844 number for free that people use in the Uk at local rate to hone my landline in Spain.

We use jajah (www.jajah.com) which is very similar to Skype but you use your normal phone... costs 2.5c/min to UK landlines from Spain. You log on, enter the number of the person you want to call, and the service phones your landline, when you pick it up it rings the other person and connects the pair of you.

Sounds complex but it isn't... you put say 20 euros of credit on and forget about it - sound quality is just like normal.

It can also give you a special number to dial to connect through their network from any phone but we don't really use that to be honest as we use it from home 99% of the time. It may cost more too, I've not really worked it out.

For us, the fact that you can use your home phone (ours is wireless) means it's much better than Skype.

That sounds like a good idea for outbound calls but what about incoming? Presumably people calling you from the UK must use your international number?

We do exactly this with a Vonage contract/adaptor. Tried using Skype with a phone for a while but the call quality wasn't great. For us Vonage beats it hands down and it's only £7.99 per month for all calls to landlines throughout europe. Calls to mobiles are cheap but not the cheapest to be had, for example voipcheap is a cent or two cheaper per minute. Not sure that the price difference is worth the hassle of having two phones/adaptors.

Your £7.99 per month also gets you a bunch of other features such as voicemail, redirection and so on.