Skype!

So, a friend of mine asked me about using Skype and I realized that I have said nothing about our sweet arrangement that is literally saving us hundreds of dollars!  Imagine having using a cordless phone, and having unlimited long distance and local calls for roughly $5 a month!  If you have heard of Vonage- Skype can do this but instead of it costing $25 a month, imagine paying $5!  I don't know about your phone bill, but for us that was 1/10 of the price.  We are saving $45 a month!

So perhaps many of you have heard of Skype, it has been around for a long while and basically gained its popularity from folks "calling" people via their computer to their friends and family overseas.  It can be used to call people computer to computer- but with all the fancy instant messenger programs, that is hardly worth installing a new program.  Being able to call an actual phone in London for pennies a minute though, is well worth the trial of talking via a computer.  The ability to call an actual phone was the big step in technology- this ability (which they refer to as SkypeOut) ends up costing a few bucks a month.  So, if you don't mind talking through your computer, you can pretty much call any phone in the world for practically nothing.  The cooler addition is "SkypeIn" where you can buy a phone number ($30 a year) and anyone can call it on their phone and it goes to your Skype account.  So, this pretty much subverts the need for a phone entirely.  Of course, the big limitation here is you have to talk through your computer or some headset hooked up to your computer.  So, this kills it for most regular folks.  BUT...

You can buy Skype phones!  There are two types- a wireless version that stands completely on its own and runs off of your wireless internet, and a wired version that plugs into your router.  The wireless version is incredibly tempting since it doesn't need to be tied down anywhere.  So theoretically you can take this phone to a coffee shop, get on their wireless network, and BAM you can chat there!  This is pretty cool, and I might get one soon- but since I knew if this experiment didn't work with minimal interruption, my wife would clip it faster than you can say Skype.  So we bought a version that you plug in directly to the router.  The phone itself works like a cordless phone, and has a base station that is wired directly.  I felt like this would be more stable- especially in my house where the wireless connection gets a bit wacky at times. 

So, I plug it in to the wall, plug it into my network, type in my Skype ID and password, and viola it is setup! This might not be for everyone, but if you are thinking of going with Vonage, then you should definately opt for this instead!  Not only is it MUCH cheaper, but if you are away from the house but have access to the internet- you can open up Skype on any computer and check your voice mail, make calls...  I love it.  

I will warn folks that it is not perfect.  

First off, you need to be a little saavy to set this up- it is not too hard, but it takes a few steps (see below).

Secondly, you might not get a "local" number.  (Same issue with Vonage) There are numbers in every area code, but it might end up being a toll call depending on where you are.  This is probably less of a big deal in bigger cities.  But in Pullman, the number was from a town just North of us, and here in Vermillion, our number is actually from Sioux Falls, a town an hour north of us.  I don't think this makes too huge a difference in today's age- but it is something to consider.

Third, there is no 911 service.  Since this is entirely over the internet- there is no way for 911 to locate you.  So, you can program your local police dept in your phone- but really I would use my cell phone in an emergency since it is always in my pocket!

Finally, the service itself is about 95%.  Randomly, the phone acts up and won't dial a number or won't ring when someone calls.  We always get a voice mail if it doesn't ring, so can easily call people back, and can resort to our cell phone if the thing will not complete a call.  I actually have never had this problem, but Rachel has run into it a couple times.  I think a lot of times it might just be that it doesn't like busy signals.  When Rachel calls the same number on her cell we get a busy signal.  So the call might be going, but for some reason the software isn't telling us the line is busy?  

In our situation, the phone is unbelievable.  We share a 400 minute family cell phone plan and so don't have minutes to burn chatting away to someone not on the Verizon network.  With this phone, Rachel can talk forever and it costs us $5 a month.  Totally crazy, but I love it!  So, it might not work for you- but now you know that this option is out there!

Steps for running Skype:

Go to Skype's website, download the software and create an account.  (This is totally free)

You then sign up for a couple plans- Unlimited calls to US and Canada- $2.95 a month (this is the SkypeOut), once you do this you will get 50% off a SkypeIn number.  

You can then try this out on your computer.  Call the number and watch your computer ring!

Finally order a phone- there are phones on the Skype website, but I found mine for cheaper on Amazon.com.  Ours is no longer sold on it, but there are plenty to select from ranging from $60-$450.  Which, $450 sounds like a ton of money- but think about it, that is how much you can be saving in 10 months!