SKYPE

[CeeJay]

I have just downloaded the free software Skype and have started making free phone calls to other Skype users.

It evens works to non Skype users at a greatly reduced call rate.

I can't wait to get across to France soon to try it back to UK. Has anyone tried it out yet?

[Racerbear02]

I am a satisfied (well most of the time) Skype user.

I have been using it since November and I reckon I have saved over 250€ in that time. Most of my calls are international and I was previously running around 200€ per phone bill, I am currently putting about 25€ a month on my Skype account.

There are drawbacks however, the sound quality can vary from excellent to absolutely appalling, there is often a delay, similar to the old style long distance satellite calls, often on the most important phone calls of course

Part of that may be due to the fact that I am using a mobile phone bluetooth headset to make the calls, so that could be self inflicted, but there are new phones coming out weekly, I just read a review on one which is a normal dect phone which has a USB cable and Skype funcionality so as long as the base station is near your running computer then you can call from almost anywhere in the house just like a normal phone but with the benefit of Skype call rates.

It should improve even more as time progresses.

[Lautrec]

I talk regurlaly to the UK using the free phone system, I have used Skype and Windows Messenger and Yahoo Messenger. I find the most efficient to be Yahoo. Sound quality is good and I use my PC loudspeakers and a small microphone, which I bought in the UK for about £5.

When the internet is in the 'rush hour', you do get a voice delay, but at quieter times it is very good indeed.

[amp]

Hi

When you say free calls, surely you still pay the modem connection charge for either dial up or broadband?

 

Paul

[Jonzjob]

"When you say free calls, surely you still pay the modem connection charge for either dial up or broadband? "

Yes and that's all you pay if you are phoning someone on their computer. If you phone anyone on their 'house line' then all it costs, to the U.K. and lots of other countries, is 1.7 centimes a min, + the dreaded TVA of course. I've used it for about 6 months now and it's been good. The only downside is that you have to have your PC on.

I found something nearly as good and it uses your normal house phone. It's 'Phonexpat' Have a look at www.phonexpat.com . I don't work for them. You use your normal line, normal phone numbers (no prefixes), no contract and a call to the U.K. costs 3 centimes/min. When you sign up with them you get 100 free minutes in the first month and if you get anyone else to sign then both they and you get 240 mins. It's a similar thing to Tele2 but a lot cheaper. French national calls are 0.9 centimes.min...

John.

[Miki]

Phone-expat seems OK for us (2 months) but do not forget that there is a charge of 0,12 centimes connection fee for all French and international calls then the call is billed per second.

Calls in France, either local or national, are only 0,009 centimes per minute, TTC and to the UK they are 0,031 per minute, TTC.

Still works out OK though. The charge is 0,22 centimes for connection charge for any calls to a mobile in France.

[amp]

[quote]"When you say free calls, surely you still pay the modem connection charge for either dial up or broadband? " Yes and that's all you pay if you are phoning someone on their computer. If you phone a...[/quote]

Thanks

It sounds a better idea than having your computer on all the time. I will give it a try

Paul

[I1]

Skype (as somebody says above) can be variable. There are a few “issues” in the software that still go unresolved as the developers are focussing on things that make them money (futures - e.g. answer-phone functionality that will be charged for, etc.). Some of these issues can cause significant quality issues often depending on your speaker/mic or headset devices. Skype can be particularly bad with speakers and microphone – often giving a full volume echo around 4 seconds after the initial speech. These can often be got round” by manually editing the configuration file and tend to be caused by problems where Skype will continually try to adjust the sound settings – even if you tell it not to. Sometimes you can set everything good and after 30 seconds you can see Skype start re-adjust your volume controls back to the bad settings. It varies and can depend on who you are calling as well (i.e. speaker/headset configuration at both ends) – and the problem is not only restricted to speakers and microphones. Skype can (for no good reason) just keep turning up your headset microphone sensitivity until in introduces the delayed echo (even if you turn it down it will just turn it back up again).

You may or may not suffer from these problems with Skype. Good system at the moment but it is proprietary when the industry is moving more with Open Standards so soon Skype will either have to open their system of start to decline. They have a massive user base so this will help them. However, for example in the US, SIP calls are cheaper than Skype and SIP system is an Open Standard.

I’ve been through times when the SkypeOut (computer to telephone you pay for) regularly cuts you off with an internal error to the point where it becomes unusable. Skype don’t say much about this problem but it is thought to be an issue with their servers that handle you computer to telephone network call. The problem for me “comes and goes” (and has fortunately gone for the last few weeks or so).

If it works well for you great (works well for me). If not, try the manual configuration edits and it might get better. If not, then nothing lost (unless you have paid them for the Skype to PSTN – people don’t have much luck getting any refunds from Skype).