Skype: Save on calls

By Adelaide Kwaning

When I first decided to work from home I noticed that most of the businesses required you to make long distance calls to their clients or list. I thought there was no way I could afford this (even though the pay for many was great), so I passed.

Luckily, I found a way to work from home without making long distance calls thanks to some searching and a great business coach. One day I got a call from one of my business coaches.

He would call me weekly, sometimes three times a week, and we would talk for at least an hour each time. Now, he lives in Toronto and I’m all the way in Calgary so I was wondering, “how can he afford to keep calling me with long distance rates being the way they are--must some sort of business deal.” When I asked he simply said, “I use Skype .” I didn’t really give it too much thought but the name was in the back of my mind.

Then, one of my good friends moved away to the States a few months later. Now seeing as how she wasn’t big on email and loved to talk, I immediately thought “my phone bill is going to be outrageous.” But she would call me at least every two weeks to let me know how life was in sunny California. I felt so guilty because she was always calling me and the length of the calls would go way over half an hour. One day I told her if it was costing her too much to call we can cut back on the phone calls. She said, “don’t worry, I use Skype ”

There was that word again. Suddenly I wanted to know “what was Skype, and why was everyone but me using it.” When my business coach called the week after I asked, “what is Skype ?”

Turns out Skype is piece of software you can download to call other people using Skype over the internet for free and make cheap calls to phones and mobiles world wide.

You need some kind of microphone and sound system for voice calls. For video calls just use a webcam. The tabbed interface offers easy access to Skype features. Another thing I like about Skype is you get public access to chat environments and Extras Manager for third-party add ons such as games, personalization features, and business-oriented tools. Optional toolbars for Firefox, Google, Outlook, and Office users make it possible to directly dial numbers in Web pages and e-mail with a click.

What’s also great about Skype is that even if you don’t know anyone who uses it, the service still offers significant cost benefits over traditional long distance services. The SkypeOut feature lets you make calls to regular landline or mobile phones for far less than a typical phone company charges. Currently, Skype offers a SkypeOut Global Rate of 2.1 cents per minute for calls to landlines in approximately 30 of its most popular calling destinations worldwide, and even to mobile phones in several of these locations, though mobile calls are typically more expensive. To fund SkypeOut calls, you buy credit in advance. The minimum purchase is $10.