By Austin Akalanze
One of the more attractive promises of VoIP is the possibilityof a hefty cut in your cost of communication, and in someinstances, a total elimination of cost using Skype. Skype is aprogram that allows you to make free calls over the internet toanyone else who also has Skype. Best of all, it’s free and easyto download and use, and works with most computers, PC or Mac
Once Skype is installed on your computer, you can start voipcalling and talking to friends and family all over the world forfree. And in case you are wondering what they sound like, VoIPcalls using Skype have excellent sound quality and are highlysecure with end-to-end encryption.
There are no configurations necessary. No need to disablefirewalls or configure routers and other networking devices. Itis a simple plug and play routine.
Skype not only works on Windows, but works on other operatingsystem platforms such as Mac OS X, Linux and PDAs using PocketPC, “with a native look and feel for each platform.” Alsotallking, sending instant messages or even file transfers work,between different platforms on skype. But why don't we all haveSkype?
If we lived in a perfect world, everyone would. And we would nothave to pay for calls anymore, local or distant. But we live inan imperfect world where things happen for reasons beyond ourcontrol.
But not to worry though. Skype is made by real people for realpeople in the real world. Because Skype knows that not everyonehas skype or uses VoIP, provisions have been made for skypers tobe able to call their non skype cousins using Skypeout.
SkypeOut is an innovative way for the skpe voip users to talk tofamily, friends and business associates anywhere in the world,who have not yet joined the skype bandwagon, at a substanciallyreduced rate.
Implementing SkypeOut is as easy as hopping over to the skypewebsite, loading up on skype credit with your credit card andsimple. There are no contracts to sign, no complicated bills tofigure out. Call rates are the same for SkypeOut calls to yourneighbor across the street and calls to family and friendsacross the globe in Kualalumpor.
Not being able to call your non Skype friends is not all that iswrong with Skype. Your non skype friends could not call youeither. That was true until the arrival of Skypein.
SkypeIn is billed to be a bridge between users of Skype andtheir non-Skype, non voip POTS (Plain Old Telephone Systems)friends and family or business associates.
Here is how it works. SkypeIn allows you to receive calls fromyour non skype friends and family, just as you would, if youwere on a regular POTS. With SkypeIn, you can get your own,regular phone number. So, when your non Skype contacts call you,by dialing a regular number, you can still receive the call inSkype. This is true regardless of where you are.
For instance, if you have a Dallas-based SkypeIn number, butyou’re living somewhere in Moscow, your Dallas contacts can justdial your SkypeIn number, and your Skype in Moscow will ring asthough you were in Dallas. And the good thing is that yourfriends are only paying whatever their phone company chargesthem for making a phone call to Dallas.
There is no restriction as to where your calls can come from.However, if your SkypeIn number is a United States number, andsomeone calls your SkypeIn from Australia for instance, theywill have to pay for the international nature of the call.
Anothe neat thing about SkypeIn is that if you have friends inmany places, you can get up to 10 SkypeIn numbers in differentplaces and no one would really know where you are unless youtell them.
With SkypeIn you can make it possible for family, friends andbusiness contacts who are not necessarily connected to theInternet or using VoIP to keep in touch with your, withoutbreaking their bank book, but they have to be connected to theirbroadband wired connections. Well not anymore, at least in someplaces.
When two or more join together in a partnership, things canhappen. One of such partner-ships is the marriage betweenBoingo, a giant in the wireless fidelity (WiFi), providingcommunication hotspots, with about 18,000 sites worldwide; andSkype.
Having successfully launched SkypeIn and SkypeOut, Skype is nowpoised to providing its subscribers the freedom they so muchdesire by going into this alliance with Boingo, to providewireless services to its subscribers.
Skype Zones as this WiFi hotspots are now called, will offerdiscounted Wi-Fi access to Skype’s millions of customersworldwide. And to be able to take advantage of Skype Zones,users will have to install the Skype Zones client software. Thiscan be downloaded from the Skype Store.
Reacting to news of this new partner-ship, Mark Blowers, senioranalyst at Butler Group has this to say, “We are going to seemore of this. Skype is very innovative and it is logical thatthey would extend services beyond the desktop like this. “Ithink we will see others do this soon too. It is clearly agrowing threat to mobile and fixed line carriers.”
Article Source: www.ArticlesBase.com
