By far the biggest factor that attracts people to VoIP telephony is the potential for big cost savings. If you make a lot of interstate or international calls, you can expect to shave a significant amount off your monthly phone charges.

VoIP also offers the prospect of free calls, with many service providers offering them between people using the same service. So for example, if you and a relative in the UK are both with the same VoIP provider, you can talk for as long as you like for nothing. The providers can offer this because the calls never actually travel across the traditional phone network, remaining on the Internet for their entire journey.

The cost of calls to regular phones is also much cheaper, with many major service providers offering untimed calls anywhere in Australia for as little as 10 cents. International rates vary, but most countries can be called for less than 4 cents per minute. Calls to mobile phones are also cheaper than using a normal phone service. In these types of calls, the data stream travels over the Internet until it gets as close as possible to the called party. There is it handed over to the traditional phone network to complete its journey.

If you’re willing to ditch your landline phone altogether, and don’t need the line for an ADSL service (that is, you’re using cable or wireless broadband), you can also save by no longer having to pay for a fixed line rental.

Many VoIP services also offer a range of free extra services. For example, MyNetFone users get everything from voicemail and caller ID to call forwarding and conference calls as part of their package.

Another big plus with a VoIP service is that it’s portable. As long as you have access to a broadband connection, you can effectively take your phone number with you wherever you go. So, if you’re in a hotel in the United States, calls to your Australian VoIP number will come straight to you. You will also be able to make outgoing calls for the same rate as you can at home.