Skype and Internet Phone Calls

With a computer and a broadband connection you can go digital with your phone calls and speak to family, friends, and colleagues around the world for free. Voice over IP or VoIP for short the acronym is pronounced as a word is the latest revolution thundering along on the back of the Internet.

There are a number of different VoIP products on the market, but the best known and easiest to use with your computer is Skype. This is a free software, only product available from www.skype.com, and it lets users make calls to other Skype users anywhere in the world for nothing. Better still, you're not limited to talking to Skype users; with a system named SkypeOut you can call any landline phone anywhere and pay local call rates. Simply download and install Skype, pick a username when you first run it, and you're done. To add someone to your contacts list choose Contacts > Add a Contact and type their Skype username. If you don't know that, choose Contacts > Search for People and look them up.

Okay, you may need to get yourself a little more sorted out first: you'll need some kind of speakers and microphone in order to speak to someone and hear their replies. All computers should have speakers and many laptops come with microphones built in, but you'll be better off buying something meant specifically for this task instead. You have two options; either a headset and microphone combination such as the Sennheiser M145 or a regular looking phone that connects to your computer via USB, such as the VolPVoice Cyberphone K. You'll have to hold one of these to your ear like a real phone, but most USB phone handsets have their own ringer and you're less likely to trip over the wires when you have an unexpected incoming call. Do check for compatibility first; not all USB phones work with Skype or even fully with the Mac.

Skype offers two services you can add to your regular Skype account; SkypeOut and Skypeln. SkypeOut allows you to call regular phones in many parts of the world for a local call rate, and other places, even cell phones, for not much more. You'll need to log onto the Skype site and buy some SkypeOut credit in advance, but once done you can make calls to any number you like economically.

Skypeln is the flip side of calling non-Skype users; it lets non-Skype users call you on your Skype phone. For a small fee you can have a regular phone number that connects straight to the Skype setup on your computer. You can even pick the country you want the number to be in, so you can live in the UK but have a phone number in the US, Hong Kong, Brazil, or one of a number of other countries. Anyone living near your number pays local call rates to speak to you on that number. Better still, you get voicemail along with the number, so people can leave messages if your computer happens to be turned off when they call.

Keep your eye on other VoIP products, as this is an area that is going to expand and mature quickly. But for now, Skype is easy and flexible, and it has a lot to offer.

Video calling is the next stage on from voice, and this is something that's been tackled already with some other online communications software. Apple's iChat and some other AIM-compatible instant message text "chat" tools have expanded to include voice and video chat as well, using regular USB or FineWire Web cams to capture the video feed. As long as you're using a compatible chat client program, the end result is the same as Skype and other VoIP products, but you can't use them to make calls to and from telephones. With the next version of its software, Skype is moving toward video calls as well, so you may want to add a webcam to the shopping list too.