Skype
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What is Skype? Skype is a piece of software that customers can download to call other people on Skype over the internet for free and make and cheap calls to phones and mobiles worldwide.
Posted on: February 27, 2009
Filed under: Business VOIP, Consumer VOIP
Reviews (25)
Brandon Speaks
February 27th, 2009 at 11:31 am
Skype Rocks!!! At $1.95 per month for unlimited calling from and to anywhere in the United States, how can you beat that. Skype is one of the largest players in the VOIP industry, and rightfully so. Their new video call features are also included and are very high quality while consuming minimal bandwidth. I would recommend Skype over any other VOIP services.
DVC_Chris
February 28th, 2009 at 11:00 am
For what it is, Skype is a good service. It allows for cheap telephone calls anywhere in the world. The downside is that Skype works through your computer, unlike some other VOIP services, such as Vonage, so it cannot be plugged into a home’s existing telephone wires.
Burt
March 1st, 2009 at 5:11 pm
Skype is such a phenomenon. It demonstrates technology at its best, with the ability to connect people from all over the globe.
Skype is really a cost effective way to contact your love ones when they are away, make business calls, or just phone up a friend.
The quality of the service is superb. I’m always aware that they are taking customer satisfaction surveys, making sure they are making us happy.
I’d say the best thing about Skype is that it’s FREE if you’re calling from skype to skype.
Kattosha
March 2nd, 2009 at 12:11 pm
I can’t rate the support as we had no reason to use it, but everything else about Skype is great. I had a service tech going to china for 3 weeks and we needed to be able to stay in contact with him. Cell phones to there are absolutely outrageous. This worked fantastic and allowed him to keep in contact with us and his family and cost the company minimal money.
Magda
March 6th, 2009 at 10:17 am
Skype is the best site ever! You can communicate with your friends all over the world totally free! I live abroad because of my work and I can call my family and my friends whenever I want. I can speak for hours without limit and it costs nothing. This is amazing!
JB
March 7th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
I use Skype all the time to talk to my friends and family around the world. The best part is that it is free to call other Skype users through Skype! I can’t imagine how much money I’ve saved.
Works great on Macs and PCs. The software is easy to use. High audio and video quality. I have no complaints.
Ethan
March 8th, 2009 at 8:46 am
For a free product, skype is fantastic. It makes it amazingly easy to stay in touch while travelling internationally–no need to pay ridiculous phone charges when all you have to do is track down a networked computer.
Kendra Schaefer
March 8th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
I use Skype at least 4 hours a day. I have purchased credits with both SkypeIn and SkypeOut, and as I work at home, I use these for both local and overseas calls. Skype voice connections are clear about 75% of the time, and I have my calls cut off mid-sentence perhaps 5% of the time.
It’s definitely worth it for those who have lots of long-distance friends, but I wouldn’t recommend this for local calling, as the connection is definitely not as clear or reliable as a land line.
However, it was a real lifesaver when I was living overseas, since I could purchase a local U.S. phone number through Skype, and my friends could call me by dialing a U.S. number, but still reach me while I was abroad. In that respect, Skype is fabulous!
M. Levine
March 8th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
I switched to Skype 2 months ago when I canceled my Verizon wireless contract. I now use Virgin Mobile pay-as-you-go for when I really need a mobile phone and Skype is my main home phone. So instead of paying $40/mo for a cell plus $30/month for a landline I pay $9/mo and have unlimited Skye use and enough mobile minutes for my needs.
Skype is very easy to use and the sound quality is by far better than Yahoo VoiP which I tried for one day- impractical to use if the sound crackles. One thing to be aware of is when you use a general microphone it will pick up background noise and create an echo of your voice during the call. By switching to a VoiP headset, you’ll fix that issue. Skype is the best value becoz it is functional, safe, secure and has no unnecessary add-ons to bug you.
CC
March 8th, 2009 at 9:46 pm
Its free for PC to PC calls, which is great. I also have a subscription, which even when paid monthly at $3 a month, is a great price for ‘unlimited’ long distance in the US. Its actually 10,000 minutes a month, which is more than I need.
A few of the comments here say Skypes downside is that it has to be on your PC. This is not true, on the Skype website you can view several handsets that don’t have to be connected to your PC. You can also find many on Amazon.
Overall, Skype is great. Especially for how little they charge compared to other companies.
NJ
March 13th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
Skype is very easy to use. It has an excellent voice quality unlike many other competitors in the market. Also you can make international calls to any landline or cell phone at a very cheap price. Overall very nice product.
Jeanette
March 15th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Skype is an excellent service and a reliable program. I’ve been using it off and on for two years and have never had an issue with it (which is why I don’t know their customer service quality!). I’d easily recommend it to anyone. The only downside to it is that I wish they had more payment options available.
DanaL
March 15th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
I’ve never had a problem with Skype’s VOIP services, but am very upset with the company’s privacy policies and cooperation with government intelligence agencies. Numerous news reports have indicated the company provides telephone data without going through the proper legal steps. As a result, I cancelled my paid Skype service last month.
JimUser
March 15th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Skype is simple to setup then use. There was some complicated thing with my DSL nat and it took a while with their support to get it working but now it works great and you cant beat that price of $1.95 a month.
Stephen S
March 15th, 2009 at 11:13 pm
Skype is amazing so easy to use voice and video quality are outstanding. Especially great if you have relatives outside the US because calling is much cheaper then phone services. Overall great program and would recommend it over any other VOIP clients available.
Simple Sap
March 16th, 2009 at 10:35 am
Skype is very interesting software. I like the funtionality of skype and the overall purpose of the software is really quite amazing. Skype is very simple and allows for easy calls at very cheap prices. One downside is the complicated trial process for a new user. This could be improved. Overall though, Skype is very good software.
Chris
March 31st, 2009 at 7:43 am
I’ve had a long history with VOIP software, starting with FreeTel way back in the mid-90s. I’ve tried lots of junk, but finally Skype (after they’ve sorted out their problems) has really given me a VOIP solution I can get behind. I suggest it for all manner of things to others and prefer to use it. The call quality is very high, there’s very little lag, there’s very few bugs – overall the software has almost been perfected. I haven’t had a problem with it for the past 6 months.
Callie
March 31st, 2009 at 9:25 am
I love Skype. My parents live abroad and it has made communicating with them cheap and easy. Calling with Skype is cheaper than all other options and the call clarity and everything is fantastic. Skype is easy to use and makes my life better at a low cost. I would recommend it to everyone!
Thomas Stowe
March 31st, 2009 at 6:33 pm
I’ve been a Skype services user from the beginning. Skype started out offering voice chat and instant messenging and has really made the grade with their implementation of videoconferencing and also skype phone calling and “Skype In” services. Being a pioneer and given eBay owned company reputation and staffing, the quality of support is great and more often than not if I have a problem a support staff person responds via email within hours. Where they’re really shining now is competing with other computer based VOIP solutions. Without a clunky piece of hardware, they offer cordless phones that work from USB ports, purchase of a dedicated number in almost every area code in the United States and cheaply! I pay roughly three dollars per month for the services and for my skype in phone number I paid twenty-five dollars per yea. With what I spent totaling around sixty dollars, I feel I got the best deal on the ‘net for phone service. I have a phone number friends can call, voicemail, call forwarding, unlimited local and U.S. calling (essentially unlimited local calling and unlimited use free long distance service) to meet my needs. Tied in with my ebay and myspace accounts plus the ability to log in anywhere to check my voicemail and if I have a microphone and speakers, I can easily dial a number from a friend’s computer by downloading and installing a small program installation package from Skype. I highly reccomend Skype’s services to anyone and as it works so great to replace my landline when coupled with my cellular phone, I’ll be using this economical solution for the foreseeable future.
mmc
March 31st, 2009 at 11:16 pm
I used skype when my SO was in Doha and it was prohibitivley expensive to call on his mobile or land line. I didnt have to purchase a headset because I had one from work. I don’t know the service would have been useful without one. We did have some latent packet issues, but overall it did what it needed to do. I don’t see myself using it at my primary form of communicaition any time soon though.
tiby321
April 1st, 2009 at 6:58 am
I use skype to call my parents when I studied abroad. It is a very useful tool and it is considerable cheap compare to other method of calling US. Also I can stay in touch with my classmates and friends back home. It’s too bad that not many ppl use skype in the state.
tiby321
April 1st, 2009 at 7:00 am
I use skype to call my parents when I studied abroad. It is a very useful tool and it is considerable cheap compare to other method of calling US. Also I can stay in touch with my classmates and friends back home. It’s too bad that not many ppl use skype in the state.
Dennis M
April 1st, 2009 at 8:53 am
Of the applications that allow users to make telephone calls over the Internet, Skype is one of the more mature. It has a very well done user interface that is easy to use. Beyond simply providing voice communication over the Internet, it also offers video to users who have webcams. The service is almost always of high quality There is no charge for users who are making calls from one PC to another on the Internet. Users may also make calls to landline telephone numbers and also to receive calls from landline numbers.
Both of these services are fee-based, but the fees are very reasonable. All in all Skype is well worth using.
AaronA
April 1st, 2009 at 3:36 pm
We used Skype to call from the US to the UK, and found it to be easy to use and understand. All we did was intall it to our PC from the simple downloader, and got a mic from the electronics store, and blamo! We used the Skype interface to locate our contact, rang him up, and talked for about 20 minutes with all the ease of a standard telephone. Oh, and btw, it was FREE!
Hema
April 4th, 2009 at 7:40 am
Skype has really changed the way I communicate with my friends internationally. Ever since I’ve been able to videoconference so cheaply, I’ve strengthened my relationships with people that I otherwise am not able to see. It’s so much easier than writing, and really creates a personal connection. I think this is really changing the way people relate.
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