Skype

[meeja]

Has anyone used Skype for cutting down the cost of long distance (ie international) phone calls?

Any advice?

[Mark.S]

Working in Germany during the week at the moment and after getting my first mobile bill since I started here I looked into Skype pretty quickly!

Seems fine to me. You purchase SkypeOut credit via credit card which allows you to make calls to regular phones. Costs around 0.012 Euros for UK/EU landlines, 0.20 Euros for UK mobiles.

I use a TDK bluetooth card, Jabra bluetooth headset and an additional utility called SkyeHeadset which switches audio to the headset when a skype call starts.

[406]

I use this -> www.voipbuster.com/en/index.html Free calls to landlines in over 20 countries. Just need to deposit 1 euro credit into your account.

HTH

Dave

406

[jodypress]

I don't live in the UK anymore and it is BY FAR the best system to call home, or USA or europe as it is one standard rate.

quality is very good, if you run no other internet apps (esp bit torrent) as skype like to hog all the bandwidth.

i like the fact it is now msn style so it now savea all contacts online, so you can use it on any pc/mac.

would definately recommend it.

[meeja]

jodypress said:

would definately recommend it.

That's what i wanted to hear....

It is for my father, who lives in the UK, but works as a consultant to two German companies, and spends a couple of hours a week in total on the phone to Germany.

The MD of one of the German companies is a gadget-lover, and he mentioned Skype to my father.

Dad has a 1mB cable connection (NTHell) and only uses it for email and a bit of surfing (ie no Torrents etc)

I noticed at the weekend that Toys 'r' Us were selling Skype handsets (ie they look like regular phones) for £30.... is it as simple as buying a handset (USB connection presumably), downloading a bit of software, a bit of configuring and off you go? (Once you have bought some credit obviously!)

[jodypress]

Pretty much. personally i wouldn't bother with a £30 handset.

i use my laptop and it has built in mic and speakers which are fine, but the best combination is a cheap headphone/mic headset. about £5 i think.

[roadsweeper]

More info here:

www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?f=141&h=&t=195919

In summary, it's excellent - my business hosts small conference calls on it for free and as long as the users have headphones on (prevents echoing feedback) and no file sharing apps running (hogging bandwidth) it's very good.

Also, think about vonage. I've been using it for about six months and it's excellent.