Skype

Full review
PC phone system Skype continues its slow march to awareness, if not desktop prominence, as the service turns 5 years old in 2008.

Skype is essentially a mini phone system inside your PC. Recent advances have improved the call quality, and the service works well for videoconferencing even on higher end laptops. Skype offers a bewildering array of payment plans and options, some arcane rules and really shines when broadband connectivity is consistently available.

Current owner eBay has had financial ups and downs with Skype and rumors abound that the company's new management may sell the unit. That shouldn't impact your decision to subscribe, however, and the best way to use Skype is by subscribing and taking advantage of a menu of options suitable for individuals, small businesses or even divisions in larger companies.

Quality Connectivity Is Needed

The service still drops calls. And while quality has improved, that last foot between your computer and its Internet connectivity can still cause disruptions or even dropped calls. But we accept some level of less than perfect quality from wireless providers so why not from a much less expensive VOiP provider? I live in an area with 5 million people and there are 2 one-half mile stretches within a few miles of my house where most cell phones don't work. so don't try Skype on a dial-up connection, but with decent broadband, you should get typical US wireless quality results.

One feature I find especially attractive is Skype's constant polling of service quality. When a call ends, you often receive the ability to rate the call quality and make appropriate comments.

Meanwhile, don't rely on your computer or cell phone's built in mic functions. Buy a good headset (Logitech makes an especially nice model for Skype) and make sure that you don't talk while the other person is talking.

A Great Inexpensive Alternative To Many Services

Marooned in Aruba sounds lovely unless you've lost all your credit cards and identification. Then you can spend a day in this tropical paradise calling credit card companies. You might try that on a wireless phone or on your hotel phone for a huge amount of money. I used Skype, and while people sometimes had trouble hearing me, I couldn't beat the price of between 5 and 10 cents a minute on credit already stored in my account. All told, I spent maybe $15, about what a single call may have cost me from the hotel.

Plugins (many for sale, unlike the open source WordPress or Firefox) offer everything from rudimentary answering services to call recording and even as an mini-PBX system for a small business. I'm not sure that last is very viable with so many low cost providers crowing into that space, but you'll at least want to spring for the subscriptions. I prepaid for Skype Pro and have a standard phone number, voice mail and unlimited calling within North America.

The voice mail is great, and the call recorder (the ubiquitous one is called Pamela and actually lets you turn off the typical notice that the call is being recorded) works well too. The plugins are affinity-based, such as streaming last.fm to your setup or even conference calling on a budget. With my subscription, I've connected three other landlines to my laptop with only minor complaints about quality. I hear similar complaints when I use my teleconference service over landlines so again, I'm not too concerned about a gap in quality between Skype and the competition.

My biggest and sole remaining complaint about Skype is that credit left on your account expires before your subscription does. This is counter-intuitive to any consumer experience I have experienced, and requests for customer service help are met with policy-based responses. I only lost $10 or so, but having already lost the use of the $10 by prepaying the account, to lose the principal as well simply added insult to injury. This is a silly policy Skype must change.

The Bottom Line, Dial Tones and All

Skype is so inexpensive now that it makes sense to have your own separate phone number you can use for family or a certain type of business call. Since eBay owns the company, PayPal is one of the payment options, and you can register your teleservice-based business as one using Skype. For anyone traveling internationally, Skype is a must-buy. For North American consumers and small businesses, the service is one you definitely want to trial, but don't skimp -- go straight for the subscription.