Skype phone book8/30/2023 ![]() ![]() When you install it for the first time on your smartphone, it automatically adds people from your friend list to the Skype contacts list. The same issues goes for its Android app. The problem is that Skype merges newly added contacts without overwriting or ignoring the duplicate ones, or even prompting the user action. It will be interesting to see if Microsoft Corp., which is planning to buy Skype for $8.5 billion, will take it in a different direction.Skype desktop application might automatically retrieve contacts from your Windows OS based computer. ![]() It wants to be an Internet phone company, but doesn’t want to bother with all the regulation and nitty-gritty details that come with the “phone company” part. Skype is a victim of its limited ambitions when it comes to home phone service. ![]() Ooma’s sound quality is practically indistinguishable from a regular landline. Both support 911 calls, and let you move over your phone number. To really break free from the phone or cable company, you need a full-service Internet calling product, like those sold by Vonage Holdings Corp. See what I mean about a piecemeal solution? It’s like you have to pay for every little piece of the puzzle. Try giving that to the doctor’s office! And even if you pay for a phone number, it will be a new one - you can’t move your existing home number over to Skype. The exception would be any Skype call routed to your username. Without a phone number, you can make outgoing calls, but you can’t receive them. Also, Skype doesn’t give you a phone number, unless you pay another $18 per three-month period. After all, Skype charges about as much for a year’s worth of service as a phone or cable company does for a month.īut Skype isn’t set up as a replacement for a landline, and points this out at every opportunity. Now, it looks like you could reap some really big savings by eliminating your home phone service altogether in favor of the Skype phone or adapter. The drawback to Skype To Go is that you can only call phone numbers - it won’t connect you to Skype users for free. (A competitor called Rebtel has a similar service.) It’s like a calling card, but without the hassle of entering a bunch of numbers on the phone. Call that number from your home phone, and Skype connects your international call at its rates, rather than the phone company’s. If you give it an international number that you like to call, it will give you a local number back. You can sign up for the To Go service on Skype’s website. And of course, calls to Skype contacts are free.īut if you call the same few people overseas over and over again, and they’re not big Skype users, there’s another way of making cheap Skype calls from your home phone, without the use of an adapter or special phone. Their international rates, though, are good. Most plans from phone and cable companies already include unlimited domestic calling, so there isn’t much point to running those over Skype. But how much money will that really save you? It sounds good to be able to choose between the boring old phone company and the jazzy new Internet guerrilla for every call. The phone shows you which of your Skype contacts are online, and when you dial a number, you can choose whether to route it through Skype or the phone company. It can make and receive regular phone calls, and the buttons and screen make it a lot easier to make Skype calls than it is with the adapter. It looks like any cordless phone, except it has a prominent “Skype” button. and Canada and 200 minutes of calls to international phones. For another $20, you get a year of calls to the U.S. It costs $70 with 400 minutes of calls thrown in. The audio improved greatly, to the level of a good cellphone call, when I ditched the adapter for the other recent Skype release, the GE Digital Cordless Expandable phone. One person I called heard her own echo, a common phenomenon on poorly configured Internet phone systems. On calls to international and domestic phones, there were odd hissing noises in the background and voices were muffled. On the plus side, the phone lets you receive Skype calls at any time, without having your computer on.īut what really sinks the Skype adapter in my esteem is the sound quality. Since home phones don’t have cameras, you won’t be able to do video calls. Because your phone isn’t designed to work with Skype, you can’t access your Skype address book directly on the handset, or see who’s online to take your calls. This clunky setup prevents you from making impromptu Skype calls. ![]()
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