Any thoughts about Skype?
 

A friend and I were talking about the rapacious charges of verizon. We pay about $70/mo. for local and long distance with no extras at all for our land line. He mentioned switching to Skype for VOIP and for about $150/year you can send and receive calls to and from non skype users. Even after buying a router to be able to use our handsets and buying a wireless skype headset and webcam, we'd still be hundreds of dollars ahead of the game. So it seems...

Anyone have any experience with Skype? I'm not worried about lack of 911 support. I have a cell phone for that and neighbors who are less than 20 feet from my house.

I don't understand why more people (myself included) don't use it. We've just installed it in an office I work in occasionally to keep in touch with our colleagues far far away.

My wife uses it to chat with a GF of hers who moved South. They enjoy staying connected. Her GF uses it to chat with her husband who is stationed in Korea. It seems pretty cool.

We just dont have a home phone, we each have cell phones instead.

yeah, I'd do cell phones in a heartbeat if we had better service. The one we use is really only for when we travel. For regular use it is annoying.

The good thing about Skype is that it doesn't matter where you call to, including places as far away as Korea.

It does matter if you want to call Egypt or Persian Gulf states. Some nations have intentionally blocked or intermittently pervert Skype packets to protect their government owned telephone companies.

i knew you were a camel jockey

Can you upgrade to FIOS? When you start bundling stuff together, it starts getting cheaper. We pay like $70-80 for unlimited phone calls and high speed internet through Verizon FIOS. The calls aren't itemized. It's a flat rate phone service.

You should look at what you pay for internet and phone and tv(if anything) and then look at the offers out there. If you are considering VoIP, you must have something fast, like cable internet. You might be surprised if you shop around for a package deal through FIOS or even the cable company.

Even FIOS has little hidden fees. For example, if you must move (ie a new job), FIOS now has a $500 cancellation fee on that two year contract. Recently increased from $300 to $500.

That was not in the contract I recently signed, In fact I asked about an early termination fee and there was none after 6 months. However, within the first 6 months it was $300.

Yeah, we can't get FIOS here yet. In fact there are alot of people who have either dial up or intermittent satellite. The hills and valleys around here make it rough.

We've got cable and it is pretty good speed most of the time.

Cable is $50 a month and they are the only game in town. Verizon phone is $65-$70/mo. for basic service.

If we switched to Skype and paid to make and receive non Skype calls we'd be saving about $50-60/mo.

Big thumbs up for Skype.

You also do not have Verizon, et al DSL?

Once management was finally shown the threat to landlines from 3G wireless, suddenly Verizon management began a program to have FIOS installed in all regions in four years. Verizon still has no FIOS plans for your region?

Details on these various problems and why service (competition) is so limited is discussed in The internet is over!. A significant reason why the 'Powell created' duopoly and the wireless providers so want to subvert net neutrality is Skype. Skype's service is a wide card that can undermine entrenched businesses by providing using competitive solutions. Entrenched companies fear innovation. Traditionally go running to government (ie FCC Commissioner Powell) for protection rather then innovate.

See? All the more reason to support Skype. I am pro innovation of this stripe, especially if it undermines companies like verizon.

I had verizon dsl for a while and it was more expensive than cable for comparable speed. It was problem prone, verizon customer service was the worst I've ever encountered, and after several hours of speaking with half a dozen minions from all over the world, I finally got them to send a lineman out who told me that they never installed the gazinta into my box, AND because of the way the lines ran to my house, I would never achieve the stated speed, it wasn't possible, he said. And he was right. He tweaked a few things and re-routed my lines somewhat to shave several miles off the trip and it bumped up my speed by a few hundred k.

We are really in East Cornflake out here. IF they are on a 4 year FIOS for All plan, then we'll have it 4 years and a week later.

Verizon techs have incentived to not roll a truck.

In one location, the line had no -48 volts. For all, any line connected to the CO has a constant -48 VDC - a connection to a battery. If not, wires are disconnected somewhere. But Verizon techs (in America) just do not get it. One said, "What does that mean?" Others kept switching me back to the telephone people. I could hear a large hum on that wire which also means a completely defective line that only a lineman can fix. And the DSL light would not light - also means no connection. In 30 seconds, the entire problem identified. Anyone even with 'battery and light bulb' knowledge could understand what was wrong.

Instead, these techs only understood their 'procedure'. Had me change the connection from computer to modem/router to learn if the computer could talk to that modem/router. Obvious: problem was on the other side (telco side) of that router. But the procedure did not understand something simple like "No DSL light". Techs were not taught how to think - could not "follow the evidence".

They only understand a checklist and will do anything to not roll a truck. Even when every fact provided said that only a lineman could fix it.

Five days later, we finally got a truck rolled. I learned to call at 1 AM so as to get someone in Asia. Well, the lineman arrived, located no wire connection in 90 seconds, and eventually found the broken wire inside the CO.

But its not really Verizon. A battery is inside the CO. That battery voltage appears on wires in the house. No voltage? Then the battery is disconnected. But that is too complex for many people when Verizon will not even teach them basics. Phone support get rated on the rediculous - such as less truck rolls.

In Vietnam, those same people measured performance with body counts.

You are preaching to the choir, tw.

I'm convinced that what will bring down this nation is the worship of "the bottom line."

I've seen too many cases a half dozen perfectly good parts are replaced because "the tech" had no analytical abilities what-so-ever.

You may believe that. But my experience; a majority of others remain in denial.

I ask this often. What is the purpose of a company? Something well above 75% of the time - the answer is "profits". A majority are still that deceived.

In another example long before you arrived - I indentified General Motors as a defective and anti-innovation company over a generation ago. Did so by viewing their products. How many knew that buying a GM product 20 years ago only contributed to American economic harm? I believe many today are still in denial.

Hell, GM still does not have a real hybrid yet. Clinton gave them $millions to design one in 1994 - and still they cannot sell one. And still so many have been in denial for so long as to buy GM products.

You would think many finally understood that bottom line accounting is destructive. I believe so many are still in denial. Virtually every Cellar dweller has read my GM criticisms for years if not decades. I don’t see anyone saying, “I did not believe it then. But now I do.”

I like skype - works great for a number of applications - when traveling to see ill relatives is not possible, or for homesick kids away at college, people that moved away from their families. . . Heck its a great way to get in touch with old friends and call them "old" Works for me anyway.

Resurrecting an old thread for all you/us co-conspirators out there...

RedOrbit
Lee Rannals
7/24/12

Did Microsoft Give Skype The Ability To Snoop On Calls?

That's not really surprising. Privacy is long gone for most of us already.

Wait a year or two and someone will invent a better mousetrap via VoIP scrambling software and watch what happens.

It's all moot anyway, if the NSA can do what it is rumoured to be able to do.