Do you Skype?

[sparky9]

We're looking at getting rid of the house phone. We don't have enough minutes on the cell phones to go with them full time. Don't want to up the minutes anyway.
Skype looks interesting. Opinions?

 

[sparky9]

We're looking at getting rid of the house phone. We don't have enough minutes on the cell phones to go with them full time. Don't want to up the minutes anyway.
Skype looks interesting. Opinions?

 

[Erich]

I don't mess with it, but a lot of my <STRIKE>cheap</STRIKE> relatives do!

 

[gaucho1]

Sorry

Personal.

 

[Ogandydancer]

My son has clearwire phone and a friend of mine has windtream phone and they are both crappy . I don't want any part of either one those nor do I want Skype nor vonage. They probably aren't any better. My son's clearwire is prone to outages if your clearwire service is prone to popping in and out and you don't have solid service and my friends windstream audio goes up and down like a rollercoaster. I figure skype and vonage are just as bad because they all work on the same principal.

 

[jackbnymble]

I use Skype quite a bit. I travel often overseas. As long as the place I'm staying has decent broadband, I've got $0.02 a minute to anywhere in the US. Half decent video, too. Gives me a chance to see my grandkids once in awhile.
I'm not sure about using it here in the US as a primary phone. I don't think it handles 911 calls correctly. You might want to check on that.
Jack

 

[jeepjeepwhat]

I used it for a while when I was overseas. It worked great about 80% of the time, the other 20% there was a HUGE delay in it. I'm not sure if it was due to my internet service or actual skype software. When I was using it, I was "borrowing" wireless inside of a tent in the middle of the desert so it could have been a bad internet connection.

 

[Deek]

It is a God-send for my husband and me since he is deployed to Afghanistan, but I don't know about replacing my regular hard line phone with it. It is sometimes unreliable, especially when over a million people are trying to use it at the same time. Problems occur in web-camera chats and computer to hard line phone.

 

[gbrady]

we have had Skype since my son went to Iraq the first time 3 years ago. over time it has gotten better but not enough to drop a land line. the web-cam talks in the states are great.

 

[Polar Boy]

I've been working for the phone company for 40+ years. You guys using Skype are killing my business. I know you're trying to save some cash, but a little loyalty would be nice. Think of it as deciding to give up S&Ws and buy Taurus instead. Not so cool, eh? (End of rant)

 

[Forester]

Originally posted by Polar Boy:
I've been working for the phone company for 40+ years. You guys using Skype are killing my business. I know you're trying to save some cash, but a little loyalty would be nice. Think of it as deciding to give up S&Ws and buy Taurus instead. Not so cool, eh? (End of rant)

That's life. If your product is superior, it will survive.

 

[zercool]

Had Vonage for a while - call quality was generally good. Price was right. I wasn't using it too much so ended up cancelling the service.

At the moment my wife and I use cell phones exclusively.

Polar Boy - While I feel for any worker in a crunch, the phone companies have worked themselves into a poor situation. Mammoth infrastructure that's aging rapidly will have trouble competing with near-universal coverage from cell phones with easily-upgraded equipment. The only saving grace of POTS is that it will work for a while when the power is out, unless a wire is down.

Sadly, the telcos in my area haven't been known for their customer service or ethical business practices (slamming, etc), and they are paying the price in the long run.