their Indian accents are so thick, and half the time they can't understand our accent either.

Apologies for nit-picking, but as far as I'm aware, the only offshore call centre owned or operated by Tel$tra is in Manila & the language spoken there is tagalog (abortionated version of spanglish)

Optu$ has one in Bangladesh & Vodafail has an Egyptian one.

Not that it really matters, they are **ALL** equally unintelligible.

Thanks for that extra info on VOIP, praxidice, especially for the notes on Mynetfone, and for the general confirmation of the usefulness of Voip on landline broadband as long as one has sufficient ADSL speed.

This raises the important point that, when people are considering whether to connect to broadband 'wirelessly' (ie on mobile broadband) or via landline, for their home connection, it is worth investigating the merits and potential cost-savings available by adding a VOIP service to a landline internet connection.
Many people go with a 'bundled' 'mobile' connection, attracted by swags of internet download allowance and 'free' mobile phone call time, and that may be great for those who use the internet and their mobile phones a lot, but otherwise it is worth doing the sums.
On my Voip service, I pay $10/month, 15 cents for local and national calls (anytime, untimed), 30 cents for calls to 13 and 1300 numbers, and calls to mobiles are 30 cents/minute, no flagfall, and this fits in well with my limited use of internet and mobile services, and augments my modest mobile phone plan. Oh, and my Voip service is one-way, outward calls only. Anyone ringing me, rings my Telstra landline, on which I have a simple answering machine. I dislike Telstra 101.
Of course, this may not suit those who 'live' on the internet and on the mobile.
Just a thought.

The Whirlpool / MNF deal gives a connection for $0 per month and untimed / no flagfall calls within Australia for 10c (MNF to MNF ones are free). Note that VOIP will also work on a good mobile connection (which obviously excludes Vodafail). Advantages of VOIP over Skype include much cheaper calls & ability to call from phone to phone. Skype for most users involves computer to computer calls although there are (fiddly) workarounds. Engin is a good company too albeit a tad more expensive than MNF. Avoid Pennytel like they have the plague ... they are 'cheap' in every sense of the word.