Skype: The internet is my telephone

Skype

‘sk - I – pe’ or ‘skippeee’

Whichever you call it Skype is looking amazing. On April 15th they introduced SkypeIN and Skype Voicemail. Already in the lineup they included SkypeOut and plain ole Skype. What is Skype you ask well let me tell you.

Skype is

(pronounced to rhyme with ripe) is a peer-to-peer internet telephony (VoIP) network, founded by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, the creators of Kazaa. The network is provided by all combined users of the free desktop software application. Skype users can speak to other Skype users for free, call traditional telephone numbers for a fee (SkypeOut), receive calls from traditional phones (SkypeIn), and receive voicemail messages. Wiki

Summed up, Skype uses your high speed connection to make and receive phone calls.

Skype is free to use if you want to make computer to computer calls but where it gets useful is when you purchase SkypeOut, SkypeIn and Skype Voicemail. When you combine these three services you receive a home phone number which can be called by any phone, the ability to call out for roughly 2 cents a minute to all areas of the US and some other countries and voicemail.

The Cost.

SkypeOut – You purchase credits for roughly 2 cents a minute. So 1000 minutes would net you about 20 bucks.

SkypeIn which gets you a local phone number callable by anyone costs only $39 for a years worth of service. Compare this to the 27-40 your local phone company charges you a month.

Skype Voicemail – Free with the years subscription to SkypeIn ~ $6.50 for three months

To sum this up for $40 per year plus 2000 minutes for $40 you can have a local number available to make and receive calls. It is important that you also have a decent internet connection for this to be a true landline replacement but if you are ready to drop the landline I will assume you already have a high-speed connection. The cost of the high-speed connection then is negligible since you would have it and a landline anyway.

So the total price is $80 for one year. If you go over 2000 minutes you would pay maybe another $0 bucks to get your total minutes to 4000.*

*Important note you do not have to purchase minutes in 1000 minute blocks. This is done by me simply for ease of calculation and examples.

The average cost for a landline with local only service appears to be around 40 dollars, based on querying people I know. SO their total cost for a year is about 480 dollars.

THAT’S $400 dollars more than a Skype (all services) User, and that doesn’t include long distance savings!

The doubters and traditional people reading will complain about having to sit at your computer, Quality Issues, and Security Concerns, etc etc. My answers to you naysayers lie below.

Quality of SKYPE calls:

We’re working with the very best in the industry to provide a sound quality far superior to what you’re used to from ordinary telephones. If you will bear with us for a moment here we’d like to share some technical stuff with you: with normal telephones you can only hear sounds from 300 Hz to 3 kHz. Not so with Skype; We’re all over the spectrum, from the lowest hum to the highest screetch. In other words: ‘F’ and ‘S’ will sound like the two different letters they were meant to, and in the end you will be able to have a much more natural conversation.

Security Concerns:

When it comes to talking, instant messaging or transferring files, we’ve gone to great lengths to make it secure. Skype automatically encrypts everything before sending it through the internet. Likewise, on arrival everything is decrypted on-the-spot and presented as crystal clear speak, text or a file transfer nobody can intercept.

Sitting at your computer: I don’t think so!

3 main solutions I see in order from most useful to least useful in my opinion.

1. Actiontec Internet Phone Wizard USB IP phone adapter
This product plugs into your USB port and allows you to connect any regular phone to the Internet Phone Wizard. This means you can still use any of your regular phones including cordless to make internet calls with Skype.

Average Cost ~$60

2. a USB phone
A USB phone will allow you to place calls while it is connected to the computer. This would have better quality than your regular phone but would not be as easily interchangeable.

Avg. Cost $60-$150 ranging from corded to cordless

3. Headset
Plug in a USB headset and get going but not to far you’re still tethered to your computer.

Avg. Cost $20 for a mid range headset.

Disadvantages I see.
1. You must dial a 00 then country code then your number including area code. This can be avoided on some calls using speed dial or a prefix dial but is troublesome nonetheless.
2. A computer connected to the internet is required.
3. No use of other sounds on your computer while placing calls. Unless you want to listen to your mother and the latest 50 Cent at the same time.
4. Big technological leap

Advantages
1. Cost – way cheaper
2. Portable – hook it up to your laptop and you have cheap calls worldwide form any high speed connection
3. higher quality calls when using the USB phones.

Overall

Since I have not used Skype with all the included services I cannot render a verdict but I am looking into this for post graduation. The price is tempting but the hassles of needing PC software running and dialing a country code would turn off me and or Amber.

I hope to write another post about research on Vonage a VOIP solution which plugs into your router rather than your computer removing the software and PC from the circle. The issue I have with Vonage is that it is currently not available in the 419/567 area code.

As many of you may have assumed or know I am a technologically inclined person and usually an early adopter but I think this may prove to be a harder choice to make. I could easily give up a landline for my cell phone but the costs for switching to Skype and a USB cordless phone though low may prove too high for me until I see one and use it in person. (You should all know I am extremely Frugal (or cheap as some friends call it but I buy too much stuff to be considered cheap IMHO).

It is interesting that phone lines gave us the ‘internet’ and now the internet is giving us ‘phone lines’ per say.

Thanks For reading. Look for Vonage and other IP solutions as well as cable deals and High-speed deals coming in the near future as we hunt for an apartment and the requisite services for one. Finally A great article about Stow and Go Seating and Drug Smuggling is coming later today or Tuesday.