Callum Macdonald

If you haven’t discovered Skype yet, you’re missing out!

Skype in it’s basic form is a free program you can download which allows you to make phone calls from your computer to another person with Skype for free. You connect from your computer to their computer and there are no call charges, no line rental, you simply pay for your internet connection and they pay for theirs.

However, Skype goes way beyond that. What about all the people who aren’t on Skype I hear you cry. Well, that’s where Skype Out comes in, you can make calls not only to other Skype people, but also to regular phone numbers. Any number, anywhere in the world. The call is routed across the internet to whichever country you’re calling, so you avoid international phone charges. In fact, to call most countries in the world costs 1.3p per minute. Be it the USA, the UK, Finland or Sweden (don’t quote me on those prices!).

Wow, I hear you cry, I gotta get me Skype. However, it gets even better. Skype In. Skype In is the daddy! For a mere €30 per year or €10 per quarter you can get a regular land line phone number, which when somebody calls you, rings on your computer. That’s right, rings on your computer, anywhere in the world, anywhere you happen to be connected to the internet actually. So you can have a single phone number which rings at work when you’re on Skype at work, and then at home when you’re on Skype at home. Or rings when you’re at your office, your home office, or an internet cafe in an airport.

Again, no call charges, works all over the world, and you only pay the line rental. What’s more, you can have your landline number in any of about 10 countries. For example, my brother’s currently in Singapore for a year and has an Edinburgh phone number his friends can call which rings on his computer, for free, in Singapore. Amazing.

Well, enough talking you say, show me how I join the revolution…
http://www.skype.com/ (new window)