Credit Alliance Group Dallas
Skype-ing around the world
One of the more attractive promises of VoIP is the possibility
of a hefty cut in your cost of communication, and in some
instances, a total elimination of cost using Skype. Skype is a
program that allows you to make free calls over the internet to
anyone else who also has Skype. Best of all, it’s free and easy
to download and use, and works with most computers, PC or Mac
Once Skype is installed on your computer, you can start voip
calling and talking to friends and family all over the world for
free. And in case you are wondering what they sound like, VoIP
calls using Skype have excellent sound quality and are highly
secure with end-to-end encryption.
There are no configurations necessary. No need to disable
firewalls or configure routers and other networking devices. It
is a simple plug and play routine.
Skype not only works on Windows, but works on other operating
system platforms such as Mac OS X, Linux and PDAs using Pocket
PC, “with a native look and feel for each platform.” Also
tallking, sending instant messages or even file transfers work,
between different platforms on skype. But why don’t we all have
Skype?
If we lived in a perfect world, everyone would. And we would not
have to pay for calls anymore, local or distant. But we live in
an imperfect world where things happen for reasons beyond our
control.
But not to worry though. Skype is made by real people for real
people in the real world. Because Skype knows that not everyone
has skype or uses VoIP, provisions have been made for skypers to
be able to call their non skype cousins using Skypeout.
SkypeOut is an innovative way for the skpe voip users to talk to
family, friends and business associates anywhere in the world,
who have not yet joined the skype bandwagon, at a substancially
reduced rate.
Implementing SkypeOut is as easy as hopping over to the skype
website, loading up on skype credit with your credit card and
simple. There are no contracts to sign, no complicated bills to
figure out. Call rates are the same for SkypeOut calls to your
neighbor across the street and calls to family and friends
across the globe in Kualalumpor.
Not being able to call your non Skype friends is not all that is
wrong with Skype. Your non skype friends could not call you
either. That was true until the arrival of Skypein.
SkypeIn is billed to be a bridge between users of Skype and
their non-Skype, non voip POTS (Plain Old Telephone Systems)
friends and family or business associates.
Here is how it works. SkypeIn allows you to receive calls from
your non skype friends and family, just as you would, if you
were on a regular POTS. With SkypeIn, you can get your own,
regular phone number. So, when your non Skype contacts call you,
by dialing a regular number, you can still receive the call in
Skype. This is true regardless of where you are.
For instance, if you have a Dallas-based SkypeIn number, but
you’re living somewhere in Moscow, your Dallas contacts can just
dial your SkypeIn number, and your Skype in Moscow will ring as
though you were in Dallas. And the good thing is that your
friends are only paying whatever their phone company charges
them for making a phone call to Dallas.
There is no restriction as to where your calls can come from.
However, if your SkypeIn number is a United States number, and
someone calls your SkypeIn from Australia for instance, they
will have to pay for the international nature of the call.
Anothe neat thing about SkypeIn is that if you have friends in
many places, you can get up to 10 SkypeIn numbers in different
places and no one would really know where you are unless you
tell them.
With SkypeIn you can make it possible for family, friends and
business contacts who are not necessarily connected to the
Internet or using VoIP to keep in touch with your, without
breaking their bank book, but they have to be connected to their
broadband wired connections. Well not anymore, at least in some
places.
When two or more join together in a partnership, things can
happen. One of such partner-ships is the marriage between
Boingo, a giant in the wireless fidelity (WiFi), providing
communication hotspots, with about 18,000 sites worldwide; and
Skype.
Having successfully launched SkypeIn and SkypeOut, Skype is now
poised to providing its subscribers the freedom they so much
desire by going into this alliance with Boingo, to provide
wireless services to its subscribers.
Skype Zones as this WiFi hotspots are now called, will offer
discounted Wi-Fi access to Skype’s millions of customers
worldwide. And to be able to take advantage of Skype Zones,
users will have to install the Skype Zones client software. This
can be downloaded from the Skype Store.
Reacting to news of this new partner-ship, Mark Blowers, senior
analyst at Butler Group has this to say, “We are going to see
more of this. Skype is very innovative and it is logical that
they would extend services beyond the desktop like this. “I
think we will see others do this soon too. It is clearly a
growing threat to mobile and fixed line carriers.”
About the Author
Austin Akalanze is an avid watcher of VoIP and also likes to make money, while
he sleeps.
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