Can anyone fill me in on Skype, or cheapest cellphone possibility?

[wakemewhenitsover]

Thanks in advance!

[BigMcLargehuge]

1. I'll take a whack at it -

Skype is a Voice over IP (VoIP) protocol based packet voice phone system that uses a system of nodes akin to a peer-to-peer network to carry calls from one computer, through the network, to another computer. Skype uses a a few features found in the more well known and more often used Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) VoIP Systems to set up and tear down calls between users. This allows the user to maintain their identity and status via a user@ address rather than a traditional telephone call. When a user initiates a SIP call to someone on their buddy list, that buddy has already started the program and logged into the Skype network. That login creates a "where is" record for that specific user@ account and matches it with the current IP address of that computer. Incoming setup messages first check availability then begin a three-way negotiation between the sending computer and the receiving computer using a Skype server in the middle to handle user to network and network to user signaling.

Skype's main selling point is the robustness and relative inexpensive nature of it's peer-to-peer network where the duties of specific servers, such as in Q.931 and SIP networks, are handled by the consumer peers logged into the service. Skype offers better than land line voice quality because it does not filter the voice at 4Khz as in traditional analog telephony and samples at a fill 64 kilobits per second, a full 100% better than typical digital telephony.

Skype users can call outside the Skype network (for a fee). Customers of this service initiate a call to a landline user, the server does an address lookup based on dialed number, then routes the call information to the nearest Skype server connected to a tranditional central office. This server sets up a typical call with the central office switch in the receiving caller's area, and handles the analog/digital conversion at the edge of the network. What makes Skype's out of network calling is the same feature that makes all VoIP calling relative inexpensive. The access charge for the Skype servers can be as low as the access charges of a single local phone.

Cellular telephony resembles Skype only in that it is a separate network from the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). However, cellular carriers rely on PSTN backbone infrastructure to move digitized voice signals from the tower into the regular phone system and back out of the tower. Price wise, digital telephone can be as low as a $.15 a minute for pre-paid and low usage plans lacking features such as text messaging, multimedia messaging, and other popular services that come at additional cost.

Cellular phones in the US operate on one of three possible digital access schemes, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Global System for Mobile Telecommunications (GSM) and Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA). Of these three systems, CDMA offers the most effient use of nearly unlimited bandwidth, while GSM and TDMA offer finite usage limits with regard to call carrying capacity within any given cell.

I hope this helps get you started. Please ask further questions and I will try to help as the evening goes on.

[DainBramaged]

3. So, Skype can't be carried in your pocket, and isn't self reliant?

Hmmmm.

I Bought my daughter an AT&T 600 minute card for $16.00 this summer. No fees no extra nothing. Just dial a number across the amazing AT&T network and she can yak her butt off, 2.6 cents a minute. And only because where she was she couldn't use a cell phone. Then I gave her a Cingular cell phone of her own for her 16th birthday. $24.95 a month piggybacking on my account. 600 anytime minutes of her own, 3000 nights and weekends free minutes, freebie to anyone with a Cingular phone, and the anytime minutes ROLLOVER for a year, month after month after month.

I know it doesn't use string and tin cans, but they offer plans as low as $30 a month for individuals.

PS.

I dropped my land line. I only have a cell phone now. I saved $17.00 just like that. Look Ma, no hands, magic.


Cell phones will soon be cheaper than land lines or any other protocol, simply because it WILL be the primary means of personal communication for many years to come. Wires and cable modem/optical still tie you to your nest, and the next generation refuses to nest.

[BigMcLargehuge]

4. I agree that cell use will ecplispe landline in the near future

However, one of the way that the traditional Telco's are adapting to that eventual market change is expanding into other services. Fiber To The Premises (FTTP) will carry both traditional phone, 30 Meg down/3 Meg up Internet connectivity, and all of the on-demand type services offered over modern hybrid fiber coax networks such as movies and TV shows available for instantaneous download/streaming.

Cell on the other hand will expand more in mobility for packet data with 802.16 WI-FI Metro Area Networking allowing seamless Internet connectivity with download rates approaching 1 Meg and uploads approaching 256 k with virtual anywhere connection within a geographic location.

[wakemewhenitsover]

5. Thanks so much! This is fantastically helpful. I haven't had...

...a chance to check in until two minutes ago, so as soon as I've digested this information, and my very late Halloween dinner, I'll undoubtedly have more questions. One comes to mind immediately... read Skype can cause computer problems. Fact or fiction?

So nice of you to share this info...

[kwassa]

2. We used it while my wife was in Swedan/Finland and I was here

We had hour-long free phone calls everynight. It simply requires a microphone at each end to hook up to the computers involved, having the computer on, and being within earshot in order to hear the "phone ring".
My wife had previously downloaded the free software on both our machines, my desktop and her laptop.

It worked pretty well, though there were occasional sound dropouts, much like you can get with a cell phone. Sometimes the audio was live-time, sometimes it phased out of sync a few seconds between the time I spoke and the time she heard, and vice versa. For the absolutely free price, it was great. Sound quality was good.

My wife has since done a very cheap Skype calling plan to call a friend in Switzerland at her phone, from our home computers. I think it is like $.02 a minute.