Comments on: SkypeOut!

SkypeOut!

will — Sun, 04 Jul 2004 14:24:34 -0800

Last week popular peer-to-peer telephony company Skype launched SkypeOut, allowing you to call regular telephone numbers from your computer or PDA. The price list is sweet, and the global rate for selected countries looks good too. There's no press relase, news announcement or description page yet, but Heiko Hebig confirms that it's working with an early short review.
(Via Loic Le Meur Blog, Rodrigo A. Sepúlveda.)
Related on MeFi: Skype Launches.

By: quiet

quiet — Sun, 04 Jul 2004 16:45:05 -0800

The prices seem expensive to me compared to what I get when calling from my landline. From the UK I use 18866, TeleStunt and TeleDiscount. Also, I still have to pay the VAT.

By: sunexplodes

sunexplodes — Sun, 04 Jul 2004 18:01:20 -0800

$.02 CDN per minute to phone overseas is pretty sweet to me... there's a bit of a lag which hampers conversation flow, but nothing to complain about (so far...)

By: rhyax

rhyax — Sun, 04 Jul 2004 19:15:52 -0800

no mac version

By: ao4047

ao4047 — Sun, 04 Jul 2004 19:33:37 -0800

Does Skype have any spyware yet? I'm assuming that's the next step after they get wider distribution (aren't these the Kazaa guys?).

By: Kwantsar

Kwantsar — Sun, 04 Jul 2004 19:43:27 -0800

1. phone cards are cheaper 2. it shouldn't be very difficult to build your own skype->PSTN calling gatway.

By: reklaw

reklaw — Sun, 04 Jul 2004 19:50:12 -0800

ao4o47: It seems more likely that this would become the second coming of Altnet... it's not spyware, as such, but software by the same guys who wrote Kazaa and Skype (Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, I believe) that uses your resources as part of a big distributed-computing network that they can sell on. I wouldn't be too surprised if they started bundling Altnet with Skype at some point, at least for people who never pay the outside-calling fees.

By: ParisParamus

ParisParamus — Sun, 04 Jul 2004 21:16:59 -0800

On a tangent, is anyone aware of a way, at least in the NYC area, but which one can obtain DSL+regional or national flatrate phone service for less than, ~$100/month with tax? Reward for anyone who can show me how to break Verizon's monopoly, essentially, on DSL.

By: troutfishing

troutfishing — Sun, 04 Jul 2004 22:39:10 -0800

PP - Hire a lobbyist. Initially, though, this is pricey.

By: dorian

dorian — Sun, 04 Jul 2004 23:56:25 -0800

eh, I do better calling thru my asterisk system but at least something like this is helping to get the word out -- I'm sick of those stupid "unlimited calling thru voip, only 39.95 per month!!!" ads on the nyc subway. PP -- lingo, vonage, packet8 &c. &c. as for breaking dsl monopoly, eh, there's always cable. but clec vs. ilec is still hard to break through in many cities. I thought verizon was sposed to be having competitive rates for dsl recently...?

By: dmt

dmt — Mon, 05 Jul 2004 00:37:35 -0800

trout, cheaper than a lawyer! ;-)

By: jammer

jammer — Mon, 05 Jul 2004 00:50:30 -0800

no mac version There will be soon.

By: rough ashlar

rough ashlar — Mon, 05 Jul 2004 06:48:49 -0800

Reward for anyone who can show me how to break Verizon's monopoly, essentially, on DSL Elect Republicans, as they will help remove government oversite of corporations.

By: ParisParamus

ParisParamus — Mon, 05 Jul 2004 11:44:50 -0800

Vonage, et al, doesn't really help, since it still requires DSL or Cable access. Verizon DSL is still going to cost about $50/month with basic phone service. Tack on Something like vonage, and we're back up to $100. So, what gives?

By: ParisParamus

ParisParamus — Mon, 05 Jul 2004 11:46:16 -0800

What I should do is just share a cable connection with my next-apartment neigbor. But that's illegal...

By: dorian

dorian — Mon, 05 Jul 2004 12:48:32 -0800

tanstaafl, go fig. the 50/month for dsl/cable/etc. is something which we are all of us going to be paying for anyway, right? then 20/month for lingo or whatever is not such a burden. you could always convince your friends and acquaintances to use something free like fwd or iaxtel... there's also enum but that's harder to explain. in general voip is amazing -- fwd is still offering the free libretel access service, so people all over the us can make the equivalent of a local call to my fwd #. and there is a similar program giving out uk national-rate numbers, so my friends in the uk can make a semi-domestic (to them) call that will ring my phone here in the us.

By: dorian

dorian — Mon, 05 Jul 2004 12:49:03 -0800

s/amazing/what the goram pstn should be/