Switch Call launches the UKs simplest VoIP service for consumers and SMEs

Service provides normal telephone number; free telephone handset; 5-minute set-up; cheap telephone calls

Bristol, 21 September 2005 – British company Switch Call today launched the simplest VoIP service available in the UK. The VoIP service provides consumers and SMEs with normal ‘geographic’ telephone numbers, a free telephone handset and a set-up which takes just 5 minutes. The company is launching its VoIP service for just £5.00 a month, combining the simplicity of a landline service with the low cost of a VoIP service.

The new service from Switch Call takes it head-to-head against rival services SkypeOut and Vonage, in the rapidly-developing consumer & SME VoIP market. However, subscribers to the Switch Call service can also take advantage of cheaper calls than SkypeOut and Vonage services. Sign-up to Switch Call’s service is available at www.thevoipchallenge.com.

The VoIP service comes with a choice of two telephone handsets, one recommended for consumers and one recommended for home offices or SMEs.
The consumer UP90 handset, worth £27.99, is available as part of a one-off joining fee of £24.95, in return for which they receive a package of services worth £300. The professional IP300 handset, worth £69.99, is available as part of a one-off joining fee of £49.99.

The simple set-up of the service will prove attractive to consumers who want to make the most of cheaper telephone calls available through VoIP services, but who may be daunted by some of the more complicated work-arounds available through rival suppliers. The telephone handset connects to the back of your PC with a USB cable, making the phone truly ‘plug-and-play’.

Under the banner ‘Take the VoIP Challenge’, Switch Call is offering all its services with a full-money back guarantee, meaning that there is zero risk in signing up to the service. If subscribers do not like the service for any reason, they can cancel, return the phone and receive a full refund of their joining fee.

One of the innovations which comes as standard is a ‘find-me’ service, which means that the service will effectively check where you are at any time and route calls through to the most appropriate location, whether that is your home number, your work number or your mobile.

Nick Kaulbach, Managing Director of Switch Call Ltd commented: “Technologies tend not to become truly mass-market until they become simple as well as beneficial. Many people fully understand that VoIP services are beneficial to them based on their low-cost. But until now, I think that there has not been a service simple enough to break through into the mass-market.”