Now that a voice over IP (VOIP) broadband telephony service for Australian consumers  is on the shelves of major retailers Dick Smith Electronics, Powerhouse and Tandy, the question remains will consumers take to it.  engin Voice Box from ASX listed Mobile Innovations Limited (MOB) allows home users to make calls to, and receive calls from any landline or mobile phone over a broadband Internet connection.

Consumers are given a standard 10 digit telephone number, and using a normal phone, can make and receive calls to anyone at anytime.  engin Voice Box does not require software or a computer to be turned on.

The big selling point of VOIP over the standard PSTN landline service most homes have is supposed to be dramatic cost savings.  Mobile Innovations claims that its product will enable households and SOHOs to reduce their phone bills by up to 40 per cent, based on its consumer trials. Consumers can make local and intercapital city calls for 10c untimed, with no charges on engin-to-engin calls. But you still have to pay $149 up front for the "voice box hardware", a monthly rental of $19.95 for the service. This compares to a standard PSTN connection costing nothing up front for hardware (assuming your home is already fitted for a phone) and  $29.95 monthly line rental.

Thus, it really all comes down savings on calls. The rates, which can be found at the www.engin.com.au site, show 10c untimed for local and intercapital calls, 30c a minute for calls to mobiles, 5-15c a minute for overseas calls, depending on destination. Engin to engin calls are free. Checking my latest phone bill and doing some calculations shows that I spent a total of $125.10 on local, intercapital and mobile calls last month. If I apply the engin VOIP rates, the bill would have been $75.80, which is almost exactly the 40 per cent savings claimed by Mobile Innovations in its marketing blurb. Thus, if you include the $10 a month savings on line rental, the engin VOIP service would have paid for the initial hardware costs in just over two months.

Given that the VOIP does indeed provide substantial cost savings, and also provides some nifty features such as the ability to email voicemail messages as sound files, what remains to be proven is the reliability and quality of the service. We will be putting a trial system through its paces in coming weeks and report back the results.