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Anyone using SKYPE? For those who don’t know, Skype is an Internet phone service using VoIP (voice over IP). It allows you to make free phone calls to anyone that has another Skype account. You can also call land based phone service as well as cellular phones. Right now, the fee for calling a land based phone anywhere in the universe is free!! After the end of the year, sometime in 2007 they will start charging for outgoing calls to land based/cell phones (Skype to Skype will still remain free). They also have for a small fee a service called "SkypeIN" where you can get a land based phone number so people can call you regardless if they have Skype or not. You get to choose from a group of telephone numbers based on your local area code. The cost for SkypeIN is $12.00 (US) for three months which includes voicemail. After the first of the year, if you call a land based phone using SkypeOut, the fee (as far as I can figure) is $0.024/minute including VAT for the lower 48 USA states. International calls are slightly more.

Skype is adamant about informing you that its service does NOT replace telephony service that can be used for emergency service. What that means, I guess, is that you can't rely on it for 911 service as it's Internet based. That’s not an issue for me, as (believe it or not..) I don't have 911 service in the Podunk town I live in. I suppose there's a few others from this board that don't...Deano, you prolly don’t living out in the boonies of Arizona either).

Also, using SkypeOut, the Skype service that you use to call a land based phone, you don't display callerID. It simply cant do this, because of the nature of their service. This presents a minor problem. I tried calling a friend of mine, and I got a message saying: "The caller has blocked calls from sources that do not display a callerID number. Please press the # sign and leave your name, then press # when your done..". I did this, a computer somewhere called my friend, it told him someone named "mark" was trying to call him with an unidentifiable callerID, press "#" to accept the call, or hang up to reject. Once he accepted the call, it put me in a list of numbers that allowed me to call him in the future, so I didn't have to go through this hassle every time. Now, when I call my friend David, the callerID shows my number as: "1234567890". Again, this may be important to some people, not necessarily to me. A lot of people have commented (in the Skype user forums) that since you bought a SkypeIN telephone number, it *should* be able to provide a callerID. This is theoretically possible, but logistically a nightmare.

Other thoughts...the Skype webpage needs lots of work. For some reason, its hard to navigate, and also insists on showing rates/charges for their service in Euros and not USD. A pain in the ass!

Skype installs as an applet that can pop up/down as needed and hangs out in the Windows tray with all the other tray icons. It's a pretty clean interface, but has some more work to be done to be right. For one thing, when you resize the Skype application, the telephone "keypad" on the bottom of the window doesn't resize. The net result is that some of the lower graphic digits disappear (789, *0#). And, there’s no scroll bar to scroll to them, so your forced to resize the Skype window to size that gets them back. Minor programming issue, surprises me that they haven’t addressed this yet.

Call quality: using a headset, it sounded surprisingly clear. My one niggle about the quality, I hear an echo in my headset that’s a bit unnerving. I called myself from my SkyeOut number to my regular land based number. I noticed that there is a slight delay between the two. Probably because of the way it works. This isn't going to be a problem, once I can figure out how to get rid of the echo on my Skype headset. I probably have one of the microphone settings wrong.

There are a variety of vendors now making VoIP Skype compatible telephones ranging from $20 on up. Some of them plug into your computers USB port and can access a native Skype user call, as well as a SkypeOut landline call. They will display the Skype contact list that you build, and they will work with SkypeIN and ring in when someone calls you. Some vendors make dual mode phones that allow you to have a second landline plugged into the Skype set so that you can take advantage of both world (Skype and traditional landline phone service). The majority of these are wireless systems, and also plug into the USB port of your computer to access the Skype network. The drawback to a USB enabled VoIP Skype phone is the necessity to having a computer turned on and connected to the Internet at all times in order for Skype to function. I suppose this goes without saying, but Skype is designed for "always connected" high speed Internet service (cable modems, ISDN, DSL, etc.). Dial up solutions are not recommended. There are also a few vendors making Skype wireless solutions that use an existing WiFI network to connect. The advantage to this is that if you have a WiFI Wireless network in your house (lots of us do...) you can use Skype without having to dedicate a computer to its use! I'm interested in this solution, but will wait before investing in this hardware.

I've bought a Bluetooth USB Skype wireless phone and am waiting for it's arrival (click here to see this phone). Once it gets here and I get a chance to test it out, I'll report back. Ultimately, if Skype works, I'm getting rid of my traditional long distance carrier service. It's too much money and I don't make enough long distance calls, so Skype may work as an alternative!

Anyone else have any experience with Skype?

Mark
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Yeah, I've used Skype for almost a year and I really enjoy it. I've called both Iceland and Norway, and it usually sounds great. I know I've saved a ton of money using it. In the beginning I called using my computer speaker and microphone setup, but then I bought a Skype USB Phone Adapter from D-Link. Now I can use my cordless headset phone with Skype (no feedback), walk around the house and do stuff while chatting with any Skype user all over the world, for free! Just plain awesome.

A friend told me about it this summer and asked me to download it. It worked fine whenever I talked with him. I agree about the web site - could use some work on that! I've only used it for international calls - nothing nationally or local. No problems though, and I didn't hook up any extra microphone/speaker to my laptop.

I recently signed up for Sunrocket (http://www.sunrocket.com) and have been pleased. I can forward, check voicemail, check phone calls, basically everything I could imagine, from the internet. Now they offer some new feature that can simultaneaously forward an incoming call to three different lines! They do offer 911 locator service "in most areas" but I haven't tried it out. I noticed a little difference in the sound quality at times (sometimes an echo and other times a little broken up) so I enabled VoIP QoS (Quality of Service) on my router and it seemed to take care of the problem. With Sunrocket you signup and pay for a year and it works out to something like $17 a month and they usually offer some freebie when you signup - I got another cordless phone. Free long distance and all that stuff. They also offer a second local number anywhere in the U.S., so if you had family say living in another state you can setup an additional phone number that would be a local call in their area that would answer on your phone.

I have been using Skype for all my oversees calls to Greece, Europe and etc for the past couple of years and I love it. I use it to call both PC to PC and also PC to analog phones, it has saved me a lot of money and although at times quality may not be the best it is better than the more expensive Vonage Service that we had for a short time.


I have been recently using it to make Video Phone calls to my sister and parents in Greece it works very well. I hope they come up with a WiFi video phone since my parents are somewhat computer challenged.


Tinos

I used skype to talk with my son in the USAF in Saudi Arabia and also when my husband was in Russia. It works OK. The time is real time which is an issue if you are 14 hours apart.
The connection is sometimes fussy but other times it is perfect. Nice to talk with loved ones for free when they are so far away. They are all home safe and sound for now.

It is not hard for even a techy challenged individual like myself.