Edong SkypeWalker

I’ve used Skype a couple of times, mostly to talk to my sister in Australia. It works very well for people communicating across borders and across seas.

My first real conversation over Skype happened at Seattle’s Best at Rockwell via their Airborne Access WiFi connection. It was perrrrfect! My sister and I talked for almost an hour without interruptions. It was like a regular mobile phone call. A little noise or lag here and there but it was mostly good. Not to mention the savings compared to a regular IDD call.

If we had made that conversation over IDD, it would have cost us ... 50mins x 40cents/min = US$20 or Php1,100! On the other hand, I spent only P100 (for 1 hour WiFi access) for our Skype telebabad. Ang laking tipid, ‘di ba?

Another time my sister and I spoke, I was at school. We have free WiFi access there, so it didn’t cost a thing. But this time, there were noticeable lags in our conversation. I realized that the lags were caused by the photos I was sending to my sister. Apparently, when Skype is sharing the Internet bandwidth of your computer with other processes (other downloads, uploads, updates), the voice quality of the Skype conversation is affected.

It’s as if my sister’s voice is sometimes being stretched. Sometimes, there are a few split seconds that I don’t hear her.

That conversation with my sister was funny because she kept on commenting about the background noise. She asked “are those plates and spoons and forks?”. Uh huh, she heard it right. She was hearing the high frequency noise in the background while I had to shout out my words because she sometimes couldn’t hear me. That must have been due to my headset. I purposely bought a small headset so that it wouldn’t be too bulky when I put it in Kurdapia’s bag.

The last time I used Skype was when I spoke to my crazy friend in Vietnam. We passed around my headset as other classmates and schoolmates dropped in to say hi via Skype.

I haven’t been using Skype lately. Buti nalang I’ve outgrown my Skype fascination and have stopped calling that British lady phonepal for making test calls (click picture on left).

I haven’t tried using Skype on ordinary dial-up. But I’m quite sure it won’t be as good as using it via a LAN.

I’ll end by sharing a photo from an online friend, Warren Mira. If in some cases tech gets in the way, Warren’s story is one instance where we can take a break and let tech do some magic.

Read: Telebabad - ang pagbabalik, Our Weekend eSkype
Search Technobiography: Skype

Edong SkypeWalker