Crafty

15 December 2006



Skype to Charge for Regular North American Phone Calls

Skype is an internet phone service provider with a difference. It allows free calls between Skype users. However, for calling from a Skype phone to a regular phone, there is going to be a fee starting in January. North American users have had a free-trial thus far, but the imposition of a fee (necessary to keep owner eBay happy) probably won’t hurt anyone much. After all, is $29.95 a year too much for local and long-distance phone service?

Theoretically, Skype is in danger of putting every other phone company out of business. If everyone downloaded their free software and used it on their broadband connection, just how would the Baby Bells and the rest compete? They can’t cut prices below free. And when it comes to quality of service, they haven’t done much to distinguish themselves even after the Ma Bell break up. Fortunately for them, only 136 million worldwide use Skype.

Now, Skype also offers a 2.1 cent a minute fee for those who don’t want to pay the subscription fee. This was in place before they launched their free trial offer. However, if one is going to talk more than about 1400 minutes a year to people without Skype, the subscription is a winner. Add in a 50% off promotion for those who sign up before January 31, and it looks even better.

The real victim here appears to be Vonage Holdings, the company currently paid for phone service around here. Vonage allows unlimited local and long-distance calls for $24.95 a month, or about 12 times the cost of Skype. And since both require a certain degree effort to install (not onerous, but neither is perfectly “Plug and Play”), ease of use is a wash.

There is good news for non-Skype types. One’s current phone number can’t be transported to SkypeIn (as its service is known). Skype has to provide such a number. If one wants to leave Skype, the number is transportable in countries where that’s allowed. Also, one has to buy a new phone with a USB jack (about US$40) or get a “starter kit” for around US$10 – which keeps one next to the computer to talk. And emergency dialing doesn’t work either. The jury is still out on moving entirely to Skype.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.


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