With the use of the Internet reaching almost every country and economic class, and with its penetration throughout the Western world, applications designed to harness its potential in increasingly practical ways are constantly emerging. One such application is Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), which continues to defy its own limitations. There are some leading players fighting for supremacy, including Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, Skype and Vonage.
There have been many conversions to Skype recently, including this reviewer. There are several factors that have influenced my personal movement, but my main motivations were innovation, quality and commercialization. VoIP has always been an easy marketable application, and Skype has added innovative features that are rich in quality:
or SkypeOut, where you can use your computer to call ordinary phone numbers around the world. SkypeOut’s global rate is currently 1.7 Euro cents (about 2 US cents or 1.1 pence) per minute to more than 20 countries.
or SkypeIn, which is a virtual phone number that your friends can call. This is in beta testing at the time of writing this review, but 12 months subscription is available for 30 EUR and 3 months for 10 EUR.
o Skype Voicemail, which allows you to redirect calls to your voicemail, is available at EUR 5 for 3 months or EUR 15 per year.
However, the most widespread application of Skype is PC to PC calling. Any user can make free calls over the Internet to anyone else who also has Skype. It’s a simple wizard-based process to download and use the app, and it works over your broadband connection with Microsoft Windows, Mac, Linux, and Pocket PC-based operating systems. All you need is a PC microphone and speakers or a basic USB headset, and what you get is real-time, phone-quality voice conversation with any PC end user in the world. I found the download to be extremely simple and straightforward and I imagine that anyone, no matter how fluent their computer, will find it easy too.
In addition to its ease of setup, Skype’s features are truly impressive. There is a feature to search the Skype database so you can create a list of contacts. We used Skype for Windows 1.4 for a PC-to-PC conversation between Los Angeles and Mumbai, India, and there were no interruptions recorded in the half-hour call. Clarity was definitely on par with a regular phone, maybe even better, with no noticeable lag. On subsequent calls between these destinations and other US cities, including Chicago, the quality continues to amaze us, and the fact that Skype works in most environments, regardless of firewalls or NAT, extends its reach.
So what’s the downside? A comparative analysis will help clarify the situation. For starters, Skype doesn’t offer as many calling features as other service providers like Vonage. Then there have been question marks about the technical/customer support offered by Skype. Another point where Skype loses is in the quality of the SkypeOut package, where calls made to landlines have inconsistent quality. One hopes that Skype will be able to add video chat to its repertoire in the near future, putting Skype on a level playing field with other free VoIP providers like Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger, which already have video capabilities. Without a doubt, Skype is ahead of MSN and Yahoo in terms of voice quality and real-time chat experience. On the other end of the spectrum, Vonage offers feature-rich services and better customer service, though all of this comes at a price.
My overall assessment: Vonage is a better option than Skype for traditional phone users because Skype is totally computer-dependent and caters to consumers who “live off their computers.”
The future has a lot to offer and no doubt Skype will move forward in its evolutionary process and hopefully improve SkypeOut and successfully come out of SkypeIn beta testing. However, at the moment, Skype can be said to be the best option for free PC to PC calls. Skype says “the current focus is to make the best voice app on the planet”; judging by the feedback from users around the world, Skype has already come a long way towards that goal.