dunroving

Has anyone taken their Lingo/VOIP modem to the UK and used it from there?

I just called Lingo to ask about cancelling my service. The guy said I can continue to use Lingo, I'd just plug it in same as usual (although I would need a 220v adaptor). I would be billed via my credit card same as usual.

Seems like an excellent idea as I'd have free calls to Canda, US, and Western Europe for just $20/month.

Or is this too good to be true? Seems I'd need a US-spec phone, too(?)

Bob

They must have a portable version of there phone, I'm pretty sure vonage has one at least and I know skype do them, so it shouldn't be an impossible task for lingo to have it either....and I think I remember someone mentioning it here a while back, not sure of the details, but fatbrit talks about lingo a lot, so you might find info doing a search for his username etc...

Big D

Skype etc is fully portable (no 'modem' just a USB handset or webcam) and doesnt matter where in the world you are. Vonage etc work slightly differently but should still be OK.

Bob

aye, but I read someone that vonage were knocking out a travel USB thing that you plug in to act as the box...

blaze

I heard this was indeed the case, I've never tried it though.

Haggischomper

Regarding these VOIP and SKYPE things - are they any good? Reason I ask is that I generally just use MSN messenger with a microphone plugged in. Cheap as chips and pretty good quality. With the upward trend of all things VOIP-ey and SKYPE-ey I always wondered if it wasn't just an unnecessary rip-off?

blaze

Lingo is superb and very cheap as Dunroving says. I have never had a problem. I think if you do a search for previous threads then you will find a discussion that we had a while back about this subject. Not everybody has had luck using them but the majority were happy with the service.

Haggischomper

Thanks.

Bob

skype, well at the mo, it's free calls to land lines till end of year and that includes mobiles...and 2c to landline in the UK...after this year, don't know, but it's some kind of deal there offering.

the quality is good, but you do need a half decent mic/headset for it to be any good and a bit of bandwidth to spare for any decent quality.

And Lingo, well it's $20 a month and that's free calls landline across the US and western EU, so can't knock that if you use it a lot, and can wire your home phones to use it...and for an extra $5 can have another home number anywhere in the US or UK if you wanted folks to ring you cheaply.
Downside would be, you lose your lecky, no phone, it also soaks up bandwidth if you don't have much internet speed...

dunroving

Are landline phone specs the same in the UK as US? If I took my Lingo modem home with me, would I need to take a US phone also? Or could I plug a UK landline phone into it? In other words, are phone leads the same in the UK as US?

I'm presuming that the internet (ethernet) cable connectors are the same over there ..... ?

Peter21

I took a Vonage VOIP box to UK and it worked fine except that to save a few bucks Vonage only supplied a 110v power supply for my modem. I purchased another power supply in UK.

The Internet connectors are the same in UK (RJ45) but the phone connectors ARE NOT the same. The British use a much bigger phone plug see
http://www.adslguide.org.uk/images/h...nectors/bt.jpg

I took a small US phone with me.

As with all VOIP, it might also be good to check the VOIP capability before you go to the effort of taking the stuff over there by having someone test the connection (if you can) using, for example,

http://www.testyourvoip.com/

Also, hotels in UK that offer broadband often seemed to only offer wireless and then they charged quite a bit for it.

jibsymalone

Could you not use a regular box (with a new power source) with a little connector module to connect it to an old modem cable (UK) which has the required plug on it? or for a more permanent installation could you not just buy an american phone jack socket (just for the lingo box) and hard wire it directly into the houses phone network cabling? just a thought?

blaze

The plug that goes into the phone line jack on the wall is a different size in Britian to the US. They look the same but one is wider than the other.

Peter21

You could also use either a RJ11 to BT plug converter or a RJ11/BT plug cable (used for connencting computer modems in UK). These are available on E-Bay and in computer stores in UK. The US phone connector is called a RJ11 and the UK connector is the BT plug

See for example
http://www.retractacable.com/images/...ne_adapter.jpg

and
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Images/P..._3/CX700HS.JPG

dunroving

Brilliant, thanks!

Would that enable a US phone to work on a UK system? Are the "working guts" inside a US and UK phone similar? (I'm just thinking outside the box, if the Lingo thing doesn't work out, whether I could use a US phone on the UK phone system).