I’ve been a big fan of Skype for some time now. I’ve raved about it ever since I tried it for the first time. It’s simple, fast, reliable, low bandwidth, and the audio quality is great.
Glazou today recommend SIPphone (in particular PhoneGaim). He mentioned this a while back about SIP. I tried PhoneGaim, but couldn’t get it to launch on my XP laptop. So I instead got X-ten2.0 lite, and gave glazou a quick call. Some observations:
- Audio quality is surprisingly clear. I think marginally better than Skype, though both are very good
- I love the interoperability of SIPphone. 411 goes to TellMe, I can call landlines for a low rate, free to other SIP phones.
- I like having a number rather than a username.
- What happens if the company goes out of business? New number?
- Slight delay (not bad) at times. I noticed this when making a test call to my house. Again, not bad, but it’s sometimes there
Overall, I’m pretty impressed. What do I prefer? I’m really not sure. I’m kind of mixed. One one hand, it’s easier for someone to get setup with Skype. Takes less time, and it’s UI is less confusing. But SIPphone feels more complete and real.
I think the phone is the next thing to change in our lives. Phone service today sucks.