SkypeOut!
July 4, 2004 2:24 PM   Subscribe

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.
posted by will (16 comments total)
 
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.
posted by quiet at 4:45 PM on July 4, 2004


$.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...)
posted by sunexplodes at 6:01 PM on July 4, 2004


no mac version
posted by rhyax at 7:15 PM on July 4, 2004


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?).
posted by ao4047 at 7:33 PM on July 4, 2004


1. phone cards are cheaper
2. it shouldn't be very difficult to build your own skype->PSTN calling gatway.
posted by Kwantsar at 7:43 PM on July 4, 2004


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.
posted by reklaw at 7:50 PM on July 4, 2004


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.
posted by ParisParamus at 9:16 PM on July 4, 2004


PP - Hire a lobbyist. Initially, though, this is pricey.
posted by troutfishing at 10:39 PM on July 4, 2004


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...?
posted by dorian at 11:56 PM on July 4, 2004


trout, cheaper than a lawyer! ;-)
posted by dmt at 12:37 AM on July 5, 2004


no mac version

There will be soon.
posted by jammer at 12:50 AM on July 5, 2004


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.
posted by rough ashlar at 6:48 AM on July 5, 2004


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?
posted by ParisParamus at 11:44 AM on July 5, 2004


What I should do is just share a cable connection with my next-apartment neigbor. But that's illegal...
posted by ParisParamus at 11:46 AM on July 5, 2004


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.
posted by dorian at 12:48 PM on July 5, 2004


s/amazing/what the goram pstn should be/
posted by dorian at 12:49 PM on July 5, 2004


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