Posted by Dlars_FL on 6/1/06 11:15am
Msg #123440
Free Long Distance Calls to any Landline or Cell, US and
Canada.
This is probably for those of you who do not already have a VoiP telephone service like Vonage, etc.
Let me first say that I am not an employee, or affiliated in any way with Skype, eBay, and/or PayPal.
You may have heard that in September of 2005, eBay purchased Skype for $2.6 billion.
I have been using Skype for about 3 years, mostly to communicate peer to peer (PC to PC) with my relatives in British Columbia, Canada. It was free to use and served us well.
About a year ago I became annoyed with the service when it became apparent that anyone could do a search by area code (or whatever) and call your PC, even without knowing you. The solution was to choose the invisible option, so that others did not know you were on line. No more annoying crank calls. Still used the service though as a long distance call to BC was about $12 for a 5 minute call.
Just the other day, Skype notified me of a newer version and upgrade to their software. I proceeded to D/L it as there were newer security enhancements. It was at that time that I discovered that you can now make free calls to any landline or cell phone anywhere in the US or Canada for the balance of this year.
What’s the catch? Well, in order to make the free calls to US and Canada, you must deposit a minimum of $10 (US) into what they call a SkypeOut account. Once you’ve done that you can virtually call anyone-anywhere in the world (landline or cell) for about $ .02/minute. But, the calls to US and Canada are free. Another catch, is that if you don’t use your world/wide minutes within 6 months they expire. And one more thing, you cannot use this service to call any emergency services, like 911, etc.
If you make the $10 deposit using PayPal, you also get an extra $ 2.60 deposited in your account, as well as 3 months of free voice mail.
What kind of equipment do you need? Well obviously a computer with a high speed connection. Probably a computer microphone if your computer does not already have one built-in. A headset is best though since it eliminates any feedback that you might get from your speakers.
The call quality? Nobody that I’ve called (even locally) has noticed any difference from that of a conventional landline. The recipient of the call will not see a caller ID (other than a bunch of undistinguishable numbers). How useful is that for those collection calls to a long distance number? Calling from your computer to cumbersome? They do have a wireless Skype phone (costly) where the base station plugs directly in to your USB port.
There is also a SkypeIn service that I am not using. With that you could have a local number in (let’s say Los Angeles) that would ring you in (let’s say New York City) so that anyone in LA could call you toll-free from their landline (or cell).
To date I’ve probably made about 5 hours worth of free calls to US and Canada. One to my daughter (a signing agent in another state), for well over an hour. My account still shows a $12.60 credit balance!
You can find out more here: http://www.skype.com
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