Tesco Internet Phone (voip) - Any Good?

[solder]

Hi,

I'm back in the UK for a short break. I have been looking at Tesco "internet phones" and wonder if anyone has experience of using them in Thailand. Pay as you go costs just 2p a minute, or for 5GBP per month you get unlimited calls to UK landlines anytime you like. For 8.50GBP a month, you get unlimited calls to landlines in the UK and "our 30 most popular countries" which includes:

USA (including mobiles)

Canada (including mobiles)

China and Hong Kong (including mobiles)

South Korea

Singapore

Thailand

Malaysia

Australia

New Zealand

...

Of greatest interest to me, by purchasing a Tesco internet phone, I would get get a UK phone number with choice of area codes. Personally, I'm tempted just to buy one of these cheap phones (they cost about 20GBP) for the convenience of having a UK phone number that I could take with me.

Has anyone here used a Tesco internet phone or the Tesco phone service with their own VoIP service from Thailand?

What was the call quality like?

Do the Thai ISPs try to block it?

Would it be better to sign up for the Tesco internet phone service and buy a different handset in Thailand?

Are there any alternatives that you would recommend? Remember, I'm particularly interested in having the UK number.

Regards,

Solder

[solder]

Tesco FAQ:

"If you are a Pay as you go customer, your account will be automatically closed if you do not use the service for more than 90 days."

Seems like a very cheap way to have a UK phone number. Just one call (2p per minute) every 90 days. Apparently no other charges.

[solder]

FAQ in full

=======

you can find here: http://www.tesco.com/internetphone/info_faqs.html#top

Edited April 22, 2008 by Reimar
Change the full text of FAQ to the Link to the original Web Site

[solder]

Just received a PM asking for a link to the FAQs. Here it is:

http://www.tesco.com/internetphone/info_faqs.html#top

Thanks for that solder. Appreciated that because it's more easy to browse the topic.

Thanks

Reimar

[Crossy]

Assuming it will work in LoS (and nothing in the FAQ suggests that it won't) why not

Their 'favourite countries' include Thailand so there is a route for cheap calls UK==>Thailand too (1 pound an hour maximum, depends upon the amount purchased), keep the lady happy whilst you're away

Do they have a stand-alone phone that doesn't need your PC running?

You're probably going to end up as the guinea-pig, but 20 squid 'aint going to break the bank.

Edited April 23, 2008 by Crossy

[solder]

Assuming it will work in LoS (and nothing in the FAQ suggests that it won't) why not

Their 'favourite countries' include Thailand so there is a route for cheap calls UK==>Thailand too (1 pound an hour maximum, depends upon the amount purchased), keep the lady happy whilst you're away

Do they have a stand-alone phone that doesn't need your PC running?

You're probably going to end up as the guinea-pig, but 20 squid 'aint going to break the bank.

There are cheaper ways to call Thailand from the UK, the cheapest that I am aware of costs just 0.5p per minute. It works, as I tried the service yesterday. Neverthess, I'm still interested in trying the Tesco service as it gives me a UK number that people can easily phone without thinking about dialing with special prefixes etc. Also, I could use it as a "UK" contact number on my web site.

They do have a stand-alone phone that doesn't need the PC running. Not sure of the price, but think it was something around 39 GBP.