Gone are the USB cables and being tied to the desk for Skype… nice one. Motorola released a bluetooth headset for Skype a while ago, but I came across this Skype handsfree unit this morning. It’s manufactured by USRobotics, who made my lovely 14.4k modem all those years ago, should retail for around €40, looks well on the desk….
nice.. i dont really use skype though.. Is it good?
yepper. we’re using it in the office the whole time making landline calls. just waiting on them to adopt SkypeIn for Irish phone numbers (we could get a UK number, but what good is that?). There is another Irish company that provide 076 numbers for VOIP with number rental but we’re waiting to see what happens with Skype.
Put a tenner into the business account months ago and its gone down a grand total of €1.19 in the time we’ve had it, given it gets calls made every day of the week.
With the new computer setup at home I’m going to set up a skype unit at home as well, maybe try the handsfree one for the craic. Time to turn out the technology in the house!
so it costs money to make the calls??
No… not if you’re calling another Skype user. Sorry for the confusion. PC to PC calls are free, it costs you money when you want to dial a landline or a mobile. If you’re sitting at your PC, and I at mine, I can call you if you’re online and it doesn’t cost a penny. Could chat for the day and it won’t cost you a thing.
They generate their fees through the SkypeIn service (you get a unique phone number so anyone in the world can contact you – if you’re online you’ll get it on your skype phone or PC, from any phone or mobile), SkypeOut (which allows you to dial outside of the internet), the Skype voicemail (in case you miss calls) and other such small services. VOIP is most certainly the way forward in terms of calls.
Telecoms companies have been doing it for years anyway. How do you think they make transatlantic calls? International calls? Trunk calls? Someone finally developed the technology to allow everyone else avail of it!
so how much would it cost to call a landline?
Peanuts. Its not running at 50c a minute anyway! Really want to know?
Skype’s global call rate is 0.017 per minute. That covers calls to all landlines, so it pays to be phoning a landline I guess.
thats unreal!
Yeah its pretty good going. Chorus would charge 60 c for a 15 min local phonecall at day time, Eircom are 73.87c, Skype would be 25.5c, whether you were dialling locally or to the Ring of Kerry…. good value 🙂