INTERNET TELEPHONY

The idea that it's "good to talk" is fine as long as you are not paying the bill.  Most businesses have dedicated fax, voice and internet lines, and so making the most cost-effective use of this infrastructure is essential.  One way of cutting your telephone call costs, if you have a decent broadband service, is to use VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol). 
This involves using your computer, the internet and, usually, another computer at the other other end, to make and receive voice calls.

Although British Telecom have offered this service for a few years, they have not promoted it, mainly because of the fear of losing fixed line customers and call revenue, and up to the end of September 2005 had only about 50,000 customers.  But since the beginning of October 2005 they have been making strenuous efforts to catch up Skype who, for some time, have been actively promoting this type of communication.  By the end of September 2005 the Skype software had been downloaded by nearly 200 million customers worldwide.

There are several other suppliers of this technology, and a search in Google using "voip" should give you some idea of what is on offer.  However the following observations are based on the Skype service.

To contact those with a PC it is necessary for you and your correspondent to have downloaded and set up the free software.  Then all that is needed is a special handset, or a pair of headphones with a USB connection, or your usual loudspeakers and a microphone.  Then all calls are free and without time limit.
 
To contact those without a PC you can use SkypeOut. Charges to the 29 most popular countries are about 2 pence per minute.  To use this facility you will need to set up an account and select the amount of credit you need, and make the payment with any major credit card company.

If folk without PCs wish to phone you, then you can use SkypeIn.  But in order to allow this it is necessary for you to obtain your own regular telephone number.  These Skype numbers are sold on a subscription basis.  A 12 month subscription costs about £20 and for 3 months it is £7. 
If you buy a SKYPEIN number then you get a free voicemail subscription along with it.

Another goodie with SKYPEIN is that if, for instance, you are based in London and you get a lot of calls from the USA, then instead of your callers having to pay international rates, one of your SKYPEIN numbers can be a USA number.  You can have up to 10 SKYPEIN numbers in different places and keep your callers guessing as to where you are!!  Naturally each number is a separate subscription with its own 12 or 3 month charge.

When you are in contact with your correspondent you can also type messages, in addition to talking.  You can invite up to 48 other friends to join in and make a group chat, AND you can send documents or pictures via Skype File Transfer as well.
When you're busy or offline you can direct your calls to your voicemail by using Skype Voicemail. 

For full details of this superb service, and to download (FREE) the necessary software, then go to http://www.skype.com/