Vodafone DE plans special (skype only?) voip-tariff

[babble]

According to german press reports, Vodafone DE plans to introduce a special voip-tariff.

Für Kunden, die den günstigen Dienst zum Telefonieren über das Internet (VoIP) verwenden wollten, werde es künftig spezielle Datentarife geben, sagte Vodafone-Sprecher Kuzey Esener heute der Deutschen Presse-Agentur dpa auf Anfrage.

- In the future, a special data tariff will be available for customers who wish to use cheap internet telephony services (VoIP), said Vodafone spokesman, Kuzey Esener, while answering questions from the German Press Agency (on 11 May 2009).

Source (in german):
Streit um Skype: Vodafone plant VoIP-Sondertarife - teltarif.de News



However, the Vodafone DE voip-tariff may be a "skype only service" -- My quotation marks.

Die offizielle Erlaubnis für die Skype-Telefonie in Deutschland, so Vodafone-Sprecher Thorsten Höpken, werde Vodafone noch im Sommer oder Herbst dieses Jahres erteilen.

- Vodafone will announce the official launch of Skype-telephony in Germany later this summer or autumn, said Vodafone spokesman, Thorsten Höpken.

Source (in german):
Vielleicht fällt bald das VoIP-Verbot fürs iPhone - teltarif.de News

[inquisitor]

According to this article not only Vodafone, but also T-Mobile plan special data tariffs for VoIP.
Actually I don't appreciate those news at all since except for eplus no operator has blocked VoIP or IM so far, allthough those services were prohibited by their T&Cs. So if VoIP-enabled tariffs come, that would mean for regular data tariffs VoIP-prohibition will finally be enforced.

[babble]

Inquisitor,

Voip over eplus is "deliberately crippled" but not blocked. "Normal" out-going calls are limited to about two minutes unless an additional non-voip service is used to keep the internet connection alive: ping works for me.

An always-on voip connection for accepting incoming voip calls over eplus is more difficult to achieve, but not impossible.

Most voip software gives poor audio quality, drop-outs, etc, on the overloaded eplus network (even with G.729). However, "perfect" two-way audio is possible, with the correct software, for both incoming and out-going eplus voip calls over UMTS.

The eplus network is so overloaded, it couldn´t cope with an influx of permanent voip users. So I´m sorry, but I won´t name the "best" voip software. Well, I will say that at least one free package works much better than the other offers. I had to try several until I found the one that works perfectly.

[inquisitor]

Well, I must confess I was never so naive to try VoIP over eplus' congested last-century network.
I concluded VoIP was blocked, as I remeber some thread on a German forum discussing how to by-pass eplus' VoIP-blockade.
But as you'll certainly agree, eplus is ineligible for such time-critical applications like VoIP.
As to software, I prefer Nokia's inbuilt VoIP-stack, which is superior in terms of integration and quality to anything else I've tested so far. With the SIP-settings tool from Nokia, which I mentioned in this posting one can manually change the preference of codecs in favor of a low bandwidth one. Unfortunately the Nokia client is only avaiable on Nokia phones.

[babble]

You may be interested in 6 euro cents/min voip calls to all german mobiles: Get cheap calls with Australia's leading VoIP & internet phone company - Freshtel.

At the moment, official tariff is 10.7 australian cents/min (keine MwSt). Initial anti-fraud credit card check takes about three days.

[babble]

I forgot to mention the "Takt": 60/1.

Mods: Can I please request a longer edit time?

[inquisitor]

Thanks. Freshtel is interesting, but can you use the same account from two different devices/IP-addresses?
I'm currently using poivy for calls to German mobiles (€ 0,075/min), but since I have 250 free airtime minutes on my mobile, I rarely call mobiles through VoIP.

Regarding edit time I would appreciate if it was extended to at least 24h.

[babble]

Originally Posted by inquisitor

Freshtel is interesting, but can you use the same account from two different devices/IP-addresses?

inquisitor

Simultaneous outgoing calls can be made from two different voip telephones, connected to the same router or switch, and sharing a single freshtel account. However, calls cannot be made if you try to phone from a single freshtel account which is simultaneously registered on two different ip addresses.

[Effendi]

Originally Posted by inquisitor

Regarding edit time I would appreciate if it was extended to at least 24h.

24h to see if you made a little mistake?
I put it to 60 minutes (it was 10 minutes), I think it's much much much more than enough.