Tip for Cell Phone as Only Phone - Skype!
We got rid of our home phone (landline) about 4 years ago now. We just decided the cell phones were more convenient and if we applied the cost of the landline towards the cell phone bill, we could make everything work out.
Anyway, now that I am self-employed and doing some technical support for my clients, I find one issue with the cell phone. Several times a month I need to talk to a technical support, sales, or customer service department. This can use up cell minutes quickly as they are usually during prime time and usually last 30 or more minutes.
A neat solution to this issue is SKYPE. What I learned recently is that even without a SKYPE-OUT account, you can make FREE! 1-800 (or other toll free 1-888 or 1-877, etc) calls. I don’t know why this is, but it is free. Since most of these calls are toll free numbers, using SKYPE means I don’t have to worry about eating away my minutes.
I also have a “pay as you go” SKYPE-OUT account which I use to pay for non-toll free calls. Some tech support is not a free call and SKYPE-OUT is very inexpensive at 4 cents for the call connection and just 2 cents per minute. Compared to my overage per minute fee on my cell (likely around 35-40 cents/min), this is attractive.
Of course you can also just do SKYPE PRO and get unlimited calls and no connection fee per call for just $3 a month. That is likely a good choice. But for now, I am just experimenting with the pay as I go plan.
Lastly….I also have a Phone as a Modem (PAM) plan with Sprint for an extra $40 a month. I use it to get on the Internet whenever I need to. But I also find that it is a very good connection for doing SKYPE as well. Even an older 1xRTT connection is plenty fast enough for SKYPE which only needs about 3-4 KBps. So I sometimes even use that instead of my minutes. Someday they may make some sort of network device that has SKYPE for calls….someday. I wonder if the software engineers can ever figure out how to do it. Must be hard ;-)
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Hey carl .. you can get windows mobile phones (expensive, but damned useful when you travel a lot - and then sync outlook on your phone and laptop) - and these run skype just fine.
And you get several USB phones that run skype - they hook to your PC, and are far more convenient than a headset + mic (my ears start to hurt if I use those for too long, padded earphones or not).
The USB phone to the PC is not very interesting as I already have a Mic/speakers on my Mac. The only thing I would consider doing is maybe getting a bluetooth/noise canceling headset.
But the Windows Mobile phone is an interesting suggestion. I wonder how many people use just skype with a data plan and nothing else. Wonder how well that works in practice.
Thanks, Suresh
Skype with a data plan and nothing else is impractical, as are other VOIP solutions like Vonage .. because you basically have no E911 access.
Basically, something that doesnt really matter, except in an emergency.
I use skype for all my international calls, wherever I am.. at home or traveling. Works out far cheaper for me than using a cellphone on roaming, or using a hotel phone