Description:
What is Skype? Skype is a little
piece of software that lets you make free
calls over the Internet. It is
revolutionising the telecoms world by
allowing users to make superior quality
voice calls to other Skype users for free
and to landlines and mobiles worldwide for
the price of a local call.
It's getting pretty
popular because of the quality and cheapness
of calls. They have already had over 100
million downloads of the skype software and
every day over 150,000 new users join the 33
million current users. Skype is free to
download, easy to setup and is an excellent
alternative to call cards and 105x type
services.
The software is available
for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and Pocket PC
platforms.
SkypeOut
lets you call landlines and
mobile phones around the world at local
rates and users can buy credit in units of
€10 or €25.
SkypeIn
gives you a personal number so that friends
can call you on Skype from their
old-fashioned phones, wherever you connect
around the world. A SkypeIn number costs €10
for 3 months or €30 for a full year and
comes with free Skype Voicemail.
Skype Voicemail
lets you pickup messages
when you’re offline, away from your
computer… or just ignoring people. A Skype
Voicemail subscription costs €5 for 3 months
or €15 for a year.
What is Skype?
Is it connected to a
land-line?
How do I get it for the house?
Skype is a computer
program that you download onto your PC and
use to make phone calls VIA the internet.
It works a little bit like MSN Messenger
but concentrates more on the Voice side of
things (although it does have chat like MSN
Messenger).
Anyone with Skype
installed on their PC and connected to the
Internet can phone each other free and
if you want to call a home telephone or mobile
you have to buy credit. It's currently 2cents a
minute to call UK, USA, Europe, New Zealand etc.
Not bad.
In other words it costs me the same to call
another house in Oliva as it does for me to
phone a fixed line in UK.
I've been using Skype
since the beginning of 2004 to make and receive calls
to ordinary phones with my computer.
All you have to do is download and install the
software
and follow the instructions for the quick setup
and you are in business. You will need
headphones and a microphone of some sort or you could
use the microphone from a webcam with
conventional speakers. I recommend
purchasing a Skype phone from their website.
They are relatively cheap but the quality of
the calls with these devices is far superior
to headphones or speakers and make it a very
real alternative to the old domo phone.
When I started I used a handset that I bought from a
company in Finland a couple of years before. It's
just like using the phone and plugs into the microphone
and speaker ports. Now I have upgraded to a
USB Cyberphone which is a proper phone with
keys and flashing lights and volume controls
and really works exceptionally well as it
doesn't use your soundcard.
When have installed
the software and created your skype name (no
charges) then you need to find
someone to call. My skype name is mick_graham.
If you phone when I'm not around you will
get the skype voicemail function. cool.
SKYPE OUT
If you want to make calls to UK phone numbers
etc then you need to put some money on your
SkypeOut account. I added 10 euros and it has
lasted ages and I make regular calls to UK.
I also use it now for most other calls because
I'm usually sat at the PC when I'm working.
SKYPE IN
You
can now purchase a real telephone number that
will ring your Skype account where ever you are
logged on.
Example:
For €30 (per annum) I now have a London number
020 8816 8320. If someone rings it, it will ring
my skype account.
i.e. It rings my PC and I can
answer where ever I am logged on.
This is good for people in UK who only have to
ring a national call to get hold of me in Spain.
But it means that if I was in the States or
Australia and was logged onto Skype it would
ring me there too. Pretty clever stuff and
undoubtedly the way that things are going to go
in the future.
Its also possible to have U.S. numbers and other
European but not yet Spanish. I guess that will
come soon enough.
Click on any of the
banners to go to the Skype website
Articles Menu