How to Save $$$ on Long Distance and Local Minutes Using Skype

Skype is used by tens of millions of people all over the globe to make free Internet calls from their computers. Responsible for the largest percentage of international calls in the world, the Luxembourg-based company is currently serving up an estimated 12 percent of the world's international calls, as measured in calling minutes.

Installation and Usage

Skype is a free application anyone can download. It is easy to install and versions are available for all major computer and phone operating systems. You can also install a Skype Toolbar, which allows you to make calls from within a web browser.

A Skype account can be set up using the application or online at their website. A minimum of 10 kbps is required for voice calls, which even dialup lines will support. Most Skype calls involve a computer on at least one end of a call but with enough Skype services added, you can accomplish almost everything you can with a regular phone.

Free and Almost Free Calls

Probably the most common usage is Skype-to-Skype: one Skype user calling another from computer to computer. These are free, regardless of where the two users are on the planet.

Other calls require additional paid services or features. All such Skype calls are essentially prepaid; you can buy Skype credits and use them for calls. You can see their rates here, in Canadian dollars. Calls to Canada and the U.S. are 2.7 cents per minute, which is 3.1 cents when you include GST (called VAT on the rate chart).

Like prepaid cards, you can purchase bundles of minutes but the best deal is "unlimited" subscriptions that are available for a month, three months or a year. The Unlimited North American subscription, for example, is $2.99 per month: try to beat $36 a year for unlimited long distance on the continent. Unlimited Europe and unlimited World subscriptions are also available. The "unlimited" plans do have restrictions – their "Fair Use" policy allows 10,000 minutes per month, or six hours per day. But I think most of us can live with a six-hour-a-day limit.

And if you sign up for a year, you get a 15-percent discount. Be careful to note whether you can call mostly mobiles in a particular country; often only landlines are included in these plans.

Available Services

There are a variety of services and features for customizing your Skype services. Skype-to-Go allows you to call a Skype number and use your subscription from a cell phone or land line. You can use their call forwarding to forward calls to your Skype account to a phone number you set up. These will use up any minutes you have bought and will be free if the number falls within your unlimited subscription service.

You can also set Skype calls to display your Caller ID, if it is a mobile number. Oddly, they do not support this for landlines. You need Skype credits to set this up and two SMS messages will be sent to your phone for verification.

Sadly, the most interesting service, Online Number (formerly Skype-In) is still unavailable for Canadian phone numbers. This allows a phone number to be assigned to your Skype account, and would allow someone on the public switched telephone network (PSTN) to ring your account. This does not prevent you from getting a number in one of the 25 countries this service is offered, including the U.S., the U.K. and Australia. The lack of Canadian availability may be due to E911 (Enhanced 911) service requirements for mobile numbers.

Non-voice services

• Skype chat: You can use the Skype application for instant messages, and it keeps a history of them. One downside: you can only chat with other Skype clients; unlike all of the other major chat clients, Skype has not reached out to other IM networks to allow cross-network messaging.
• Conference calls: These are simple to set up; you can use the Add People menu option at any point in the conversation or call.
• Video calls: You'll need a video camera for this, along with a reasonably speedy broadband connection.

Call quality

Call quality was once a problem and you will still encounter dropped calls and echoes, but not much more so than on cell phone calls placed from areas with spotty reception.

Calls are best placed with a headset. Using the microphone and speakers built into most laptops will work, but will pick up distracting extraneous noise.