WHICH HOME VOIP SERVICE IS BEST FOR YOU?

As Skype closes down and residential landlines switch to internet services, Nik Rawlinson picks the best VoIP providers for staying connected

- Nik Rawlinson

There’s nothing new about VoIP ~or, to give it its full name, voice-over IP telephony. Even before the Covid-19 lockdown, millions of people were using services such as Zoom, Teams and Google Meet for live audio and video conversations over the internet. And when half the nation was obliged to work from home, they quickly became household names.

Yet the service that was once the biggest of all is on its way out. Microsoft bought the enormous Skype platform in 2011, but six years later it started to phase it out in favour of its home-grown Teams product. And in February of this year, Microsoft announced that Skype would be shutting down on 5 May, replaced for both business and home users by the Teams service that’s now been integrated into Windows 11.

For many people, this will bea non-event, as Teams can do most of the same things as Skype. However, the one thing it doesn’t have is the Skype Number feature (previously known as skypeln), which allowed people to call your Skype account from any mobile or landline. The Microsoft Support website blankly states that “Existing calling and Skype Number subscriptions will continue to automatically renew until April 3, 2025 and will then remain active until the end of your active subscription period”. After that, your number will expire.

While Teams does offer a similar phone service, this is only available on business plans; home users are limited to making internet voice and video calls to other Teams users.