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Vonage uses conventional phone numbers that are accessible by traditional phones.

“My mother does not have to have broadband but it still works,” said Breedon. “It’s not like it requires both parties to have the technology.”

Vonage is charging £9.99 for its basic service, which includes unlimited local and national calls for no extra cost, along with services such as voicemail, call diversion, caller display and three-way calling. Voicemail can be set up to send on messages as an e-mail attachment, allowing the user to play back their calls from anywhere in the world.

Breedon has also taken a “virtual number” in Virginia, allowing her mother to call her in London as if making a local call, i.e. for nothing.

Vonage, backed by 3i, has 650,000 customers in America and Canada.

The company made its UK debut in January with a “soft” launch to test its systems. Despite minimal promotion, it has already attracted three times as many customers as it expected, according to Kerry Ritz, UK managing director.

Now the bigger brands are wading in. Wanadoo, the internet-service provider, has just launched its VoIP service, Wanadoo Wireless and Talk. For £4 a month, customers can make free evening and weekend calls to any UK landline.

Customers plug their phone into Wanadoo’s Livebox, a broadband router that also provides wireless internet access throughout the home.

Eric Abensur, chief executive of Wanadoo UK, said the company has set “extremely ambitious” (targets) over the next few months. “Look at what’s happening in the US or in France. You have almost half a million people across France using voice over broadband, and the local regulatory body is talking of that rising to almost 1m by the end of 2005,” he said.

BT has launched two variants of VoIP — BT Communicator, to be used from a computer screen, and BT Broadband Voice, meant as a second line.

VoIP threatens to take a big chunk out of the traditional revenues earned by BT and other national telecoms companies.

But BT is embracing the technology, albeit cautiously.

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