Switching from Phone to Voice-Over-IP?

An anonymous reader asks: "I am fed up with the telcos. My last phone bill for one line was over $100 _without_ the $45 for ADSL, so i'm looking to cut as many costs as I can. I've compared my current Voice + Internet solution to one consisting of Voice-over-IP and Cable Internet and it looks like I would save over $50 a month by throwing away my land-line phone and switching to Cable/VoIP. I'm new to the whole changing-from-POTS-to-VoIP process though, so what are some of the 'gotchas' involved with switching? Can I keep my existing number? Will calls suck my bandwidth dry? And most importantly, do any of these VoIP providers work with or support Linux?"

Comments

Internet provided by phoneline provders

[jago25_98]

I can see a problem here that flicking over the posts I can't see raised and that this:

Most internet services are provided by companies who are in some way linked to telcom companies or provide thier own telcom themselves.

Examples:

- adsl/dsl's?
- cable; Telewest broadband offer phonelines pretty much same rate as BT

Does anyone know of a way to get internet access on its own without buying from a cable company who would prefer to sell you a phoneline too? - in the UK...