One of the ways I’m keeping in touch with my family is to do so via the telephone. Yes, of course, Skype or Google Hangouts are there and everything else, but many people have trouble with using those, and so I wanted to make it simple. And, while calls to Australia aren’t that expensive these days, calls within the UK are, for most people, included in their phone tariff anyway, and therefore are free.

So, why not just let people from the UK call me on a UK number?

So, above is my London telephone. It has a proper 020 7xxx number, which I’ve had for years.

It’s a number from Sipgate. When I joined (and still, seemingly, now) you can get a UK telephone number that is contract-free. You pay for the outgoing calls at quite low prices. You get the option of voicemail and call forwarding, too.

Technically, Sipgate works over an internet protocol called SIP. You can use SIP on special telephones (which are quite expensive and physically plug into your broadband connection); or you can get SIP apps for your computer or mobile phone. I use Telephone on my Mac, for example.

SIP is also baked into Android 2.3 and above: so, pretty well all versions of Android that you are likely to have. So, if you dive into the menus, you can use your existing Android phone with a SIP provider. On the latest version of Android (5.1), go into the phone app, then choose menu > Settings > Calls > Calling Accounts > Internet Calling (SIP) accounts.

The above, however, is a Nexus One, a really old Android phone that is relatively useless these days. It’s running a replacement ROM Cyanogenmod 7, which means it’s running Android 2.3.7 — that’s high enough to have SIP within the dialer.

I’ve added a small and unobtrusive widget to give the time in London directly underneath, and also some direct-dial buttons to ring family members. The phone is set to always use Sipgate to dial out, too: so I’ve an easy way of calling UK numbers. I’ve removed the rest of the typical Android paraphernalia from the home screen.

This lives, on charge, somewhere in the house in Australia; and operates as a cordless phone with a London number. (I need to find out how to set “do not ring” overnight, but that shouldn’t be too hard.)

Technology, eh?