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Calling By Computer; Internet Phone Service is Easy, Inexpensive

Posted on: Tuesday, 27 September 2005, 00:00 CDT

By Leigh Dyer

FRANKFURT, Germany - If your eyes glaze over when you see the term VoIP or hear about Internet phone service, fear not.

Experience has taught me that even those who haven't figured out how to program their VCRs can make phone calls using their computers.

The best part? You can call from anywhere, even overseas, and it's either free or a couple of pennies a minute. (That's on top of whatever your Internet service costs.)

I'm in Germany on a two-month fellowship. As I was preparing to leave, I researched ways to stay in touch with everyone back home.

Enter Skype - a free, but not trouble-free Internet phone service.

It is one of many such VoIP providers rapidly gaining popularity in the United States and abroad. Others include Vonage, AT&T CallVantage and BroadVoice.

VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol, transforms voice into 1's and 0's and transmits the data over Internet lines.

You need a microphone and speakers to hear and be heard; most computers come with them built in. But it's easier to use a headset.

I started by downloading the software from www.skype.com. It's free, self-explanatory and only took minutes. After downloading, click on your Skype icon and follow the instructions to install.

From there, you can talk to anyone who has Skype installed on their computers, for free, no matter where they are. You can also exchange instant messages. And for about $6 for three months, you can sign up for voicemail.

I also needed to call people on their phones, instead of at their computers. For that, I needed SkypeOut. The service connects my Internet phone call to the regular phone system.

(Another feature, SkypeIn, allows people to call me from their regular phones. But I haven't purchased that because callers would have no way of knowing when I'm at my laptop and I didn't want to constantly check for voicemails.)

All I needed was to click the SkypeOut link on the Web site. The service cost about $12, billed to my credit card. I can use SkypeOut at the rate of about 2 cents per minute to call anyone in the U.S. and much of the world. The service deducts from my balance each time I call.

I love how Skype automatically saves the phone numbers I dial frequently, so it's just one click to call them again.

Yet Skype is only as reliable as your Internet service. I initially had trouble getting my wireless service to work. It turns out I was trying to log into a defective T-Mobile hotspot. When I went to another hotspot I had no problems. But T-Mobile international roaming costs 18 cents a minute. Luckily, I've found a friend who lets me use his wireless service for free.

And the sound quality has had its ups and downs. Usually people tell me I sound as if I'm in the room with them. However, sometimes there's a voice delay. A few weeks ago when an Internet worm wrecked online access for many, the voice delay rendered the service unusable.

In the end, however, you can't beat the price.

Source: Sunday Gazette - Mail; Charleston, W.V.

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