Technobiography

Mobile phones, services and applications. PCs, PDAs, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Internet, gadgets, electronics, photography. A technology-life journal ... Relaxed prose, sometimes witty, sometimes funny, reflective and insightful. Short and sweet. Filipino.

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Skype - Sky's the limit on IDD calls

Skype is an online service that let's you make Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) Skype's no limitcalls. It's free if you're calling Skype-to-Skype (users who have downloaded the software). You can also call any landline in the world for a minimal fee.

Unlike other VOIP services, Skype doesn't have any membership fees. It is able to do this because the service does not require large servers to acommodate calls. It uses the PCs of Skype members all across the globe.

By the way, have I mentioned that Skype was made by the same creators as Kazaa - the downloading software that relies on peer-to-peer connections?

The thing that struck me was that ... it uses other user PC's in the Skype network as a conduit for the calls. I'm sure that people are hesitant to use this because of the potential security issues. Imagine your phone conversation passing through other people's PCs! [insert horrified face here!]

But the membership of Skype keeps growing. Their website now announces that they've served close to 2.5 billion minutes of calls and

Heto pa! Skype has a version for Pocket PCs! Thus, a Pocket PC user could walk up to a Wi-Fi Hotspot, run Skype and then make IDD calls to other Skype users for free! I better ask Carlo Guerrero of ppcsurfr.com if he has tried this already.

Here's Warren Mira's take on Skype and VOIP

I wonder what ever happened to Net2Phone.com . I remember back in 2000, friend Mark Delfin asked our high school batchmates in the US to send him their phone numbers. He played around with Net2Phone and was able to call our friends in the US for free from his internet shop's internet connection.

I visited Net2Phone to find out how they're doing. But with this by-line:
As a global leader in communications and voice technology, Net2Phone delivers low-cost calling services to individuals and businesses worldwide.
... I have no interest in it anymore. I'm allergic to "low-cost". I'd take "free" anytime. ;-)

My brother tells me that our friend, Aloy, has a gadget that connects directly to their LAN switch. From there, she is able to make IDD calls to her boyfriend abroad. One to sawa daw! Matanong nga what she uses ...

- Edwin

Read: Our weekend eSkype
Search Technobiography: 24/7, celebabad, Skype
Search the Web: Skype
Visit: Skype.com, Net2phone.com

2 Comments:

  • At 9:08 am, Blogger admin said…

    Hi! Just bloghopping, got the link to your site from Catsudon.

    Anyway, I've used Net2Phone and I must say, it isn't quite bad. True, hindi nga sya free but it was still cheaper than IDD charges. However, I did research that calls to some countries are actually more expensive than the BT international call charges. So, I've sort of made this list of which "carrier/medium/provider" to use if I want to make a call to this country and another.

    I will try SKYPE though. Looks pretty easy and cost-effective! Will let you know...

     
  • At 9:45 am, Blogger Edwin "ka edong" said…

    Thanks for the input, Lady C ;-) .

    Care to share a link to your list of countries and rates?

    Another tipid tip i espouse is Sun Cellular's IDD calls. It's 30cents per minute compared to the 40cents per minute of Smart/Globe/PLDT

     

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