I think anyone who hasn’t used Skype before should certainly give it a try. I would hope that this blog helps regular non-techy people find out about technologies that can make their lives better and more convenient, Skype is one of services that deserves a lot more publicity to push it in to the mainstream because of the ease of use and the potential money savings it can bring to anyone.
Skype is basically an application you install on your computer that allows you to use the internet and the computer microphone/speakers to tranform your computer into a telephone. It uses the technology behind a VOIPÂ telephone system however the end point is a computer and not a home telephone.
You can call any phone to most international numbers… …for ~2 cents per minute or you can call another skype user for free. You can extend your services by renting an actually phone number which allows incoming calls from any phone be re-directed to wherever you are logged into Skype. You can also buy a voicemail service too. Imagine being an expat .. you can keep a phone number in your country of origin and people can call that number to contact you with no international cost to the caller.
You can either subscribe to a monthly unlimited plan or go for the pay per use, which works like a pay-as-you-go mobile phone where you put $20 on the account and your call charges will be charged to the account as you use it … good thing here is the money does not expire!
Actually last night I was on a conference call with 3 of my friends back in the UK planning my next trip back for about an hour and it didn’t cost anyone … anything. I travel on business a lot and I never use my hotel phone and hardly get roaming charges because I subscribe to Skype.
Its a very reliable service and highly recommend it. Also if you are serious about subscribing its definatly worthwhile buying a good quality headset to make the calls with.
Hope you found this useful, leave me a comment.
