Skype today announced that SkypeOut calls are now free for users within the USA and Canada, until at least the end of 2006. As a regular Skype user, this is amazing! This now means you can now have an outgoing telephone in the US for no cost. If you want incoming calls, it’s $3 a month. Of course, Skype calls to other Skype users is absolutely free. International calls are still absurdly cheap as well, at just ~$0.02 a minute to call Sweden ($1 gets you a 50-minute phone call).
Of course, there are a few caveats with Skype. First, you’ll want some hardware to give you better audio capabilities on your machine. For just $24, you can buy an IPEVO USB Phone that plugs into your PC or Mac. If you’ve got a bluetooth headset for your cellphone, you can use it with Skype as well. Dallas and I currently have a USB DualPhone (no Mac support) at home. At work, I don’t have a desk phone, so in the rare moments that I need to make a phone call, I use my bluetooth headset. Sharing a bluetooth headset between a phone and a PC is a bit problematic at times, so I do not recommend it unless you like pain or have two headsets.
Skype has had it’s issues of course. When you make phone calls, it comes up on caller ID with bogus numbers such as 0123456789. Since 1-800 number providers have to pay for each incoming call, they may choose to block your Skype call because they cannot determine your location. Due to this same issue, forget using the Skype phone to call 911. Run to your neighbors house in an emergency, or keep an old cellphone around, as they can make 911 calls without an active service plan. Also, if your internet provider suffers major slowdowns periodically, your Skype audio quality will be pretty bad at times.
Glad to see that the Skype folks are still doing good stuff after eBay bought them out.
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