Peter Squires

Hello again,

After researching this forum, Voipcheap seems to be a good bet for making calls to the UK. I am trying to set myself up for when I arrive in January and want to use Voipcheap through the router even when the PC is off.

Their web site recommends certain phones to buy and I fancied getting the Siemans Gigaset cordless phone in the UK and bringing it out with me. I contacted Siemans to ask if the UK version would work in Spain ( with an adapter from BT to USA phone slot thingy) and they replied "If the telephone is used anywhere else, we are not able to confirm that the telephone or all the features (if any) will be functioning as it should in its country of origin".

Very helpful! Has anybody tried using UK phones in Spain or am I barking up the wrong tree trying this route?

Regards,

Peter

spain

why not just buy a cordless phone out here ?

Peter Squires

Not any old cordless phone will work with Voipcheap (apparently), I wanted to buy it in the UK on my business account (as it will be used for business when I am out there), most electrical equipement also seems to be much cheaper in the UK, plus you get instructions in English.

Regards,

Peter

spain

you can look up lots of instruction manuals in English on the internet, we have done that with stuff we have bought over here

It probably wont help but in Pedreguer there is a market/rastro and Im sure there is a stall there that sells various voip phones ...just a thought

lynnxa

we use voip, though admittedly with a USB - I can't imagine that you can't get cordless here

valenciatim

If you want to use voipchep with the pc off, then wouldn't you be better off with an ip phone? Or a mobile with wifi?

jdr

That is the only problem with Voipcheap, you do need the pc on.
But we use our landline for the calls at 5cents connection, the free call is just as good as the Telefonica line.

spain

yeah me too, I also use mine for texts to UK mobiles

Dxf

Hi

I have a Dect phone bought in Mediamart (or however you spell it). around 55 euros but works

Davexf

Beachcomber

You can use Skype with the telephone connected directly to the router so it works totally independently of the computer.

Another option is Jajah which, once set up, can be used directly from telephone to telephone also independently of the computer although this only works with numbers that are also registered with Jahjah.

bob_day

Another solution to look at is Vonage. We subscribed to this recently. Last trip bought out our Vonage adapter along with a DECT phone. Plug it into the router and it worked a treat. Independent of the PC and you can pay a monthly subscription for unlimited calls. Although I suspect that unlimited does actually have a limit as is the case with broadband providers. We went for the £7.99 per month with free calls to 15 countries.

Peter Squires

I emailed Vonage Support this very question today, their answer was, UK to Spain = free calls, take your adaptor to Spain & phone UK = NOT free calls on the £7.99 per month package. They didnt bother to tell me what the charge would be, nor did they suggest adding a Spanish based number for a further £2.99 month which I think (but do not know for sure) would make Spain to UK free.

I asked them if you were cut off after 60 minutes, they did not reply - I asked them if there was a maximum free calls per month and they did not reply. I have heard the max is 2000 mins per month?

Have you been charged from Spain to UK calls yet Bob?

Regards,

Peter

bob_day

Haven't used it extensively in Spain as yet. Looking through the bill we made half a dozen calls to UK numbers over a weekend and the only one which incurred a charge was to a mobile. This would have been charged anyway no matter where the adapter was plugged in. The others show unlimited in the rate column.

Sorry I don't have more data to go on but this was only a test to see if it will be a viable phone system when we make the permanent move next year. March will be the real test as we are over for the month and will be running our UK business as normal.

On previous trips we have used SkypeOut/In with a USB phone plugged into the pc. That didn't prove to be very reliable and voice quality was often poor. Don't believe that our broadband connection was responsible as it is a good solid connection at 2Mb

Peter Squires

I am in the same boat as you Bob, want to run my UK business while I am Spain two weeks each month. Just telephoned Vonage and they contradicted their email by saying the same as you, free Spain to UK calls with the adapter over there.

Still undecided wether to go with Vonage or the less expensive Voipcheap, might try them both

Regards,

Peter

Peter Squires

but not if you use their adapter and a SIP phone surely?

Regards,

Peter