Skype, computer phone

[computerworks]

Originally Posted by Gunner

You want to talk to ...

Also good for Grannies to see their grandkids across the miles...free version also supports duplex webcam calls.

Bobcat....the Skype technology will work just fine... BUT, there are many instances where the ISP blocks the ports used by services like these...and makes them not connect. It'll cost your buddy zero to try it, though.

[48ford]

Got a magicjack for $19.95 a year and it works good. In the news today, they said in three months they are releasing a new jack for you're cell phone. It has the cell phone providers in a huff because it uses broadband and does not count on you're minutes used. The signal goes over the net verse their towers.
Magicjack has a 6% market share in only 3 to 4 months of operation.
Some of you may want to check them out. If you sign up for the second year when you first start the second year is $9.00.

[Gunner]

Originally Posted by 48ford

Magicjack has a 6% market share in only 3 to 4 months of operation.

Just like, say, Napster did. One regulation change and they're history.

[Gunner]

Internet phone service costs the "provider" like Skype or MagicJack (or the many others who have come and gone) absolutely nothing. The connection between one proprietary phone widget and a matching one is taken care of the same way every other connection on the Internet is - by the shared support of all users and some large subsidized switching networks.

What Skype, MJ etc. provide is the essential connection and addressing service: their server lets you click on JoeShmoe in your address book and connect to Joe's phone widget, without having to manually dial in connection info like Joe's IP address.

As this service is also next to costless, ANY charge for the ongoing service is questionable; would you pay someone to tell you what exit to take at the end of a 1,000 mile interstate drive? The only legitimate basis for fees and costs is in the engineering and support of the phone widget, be it a magic box or a magic applet. Otherwise, the company is charging you to use a public road already paid for by taxes, tariffs and your ISP subscription.

[Ronbo]

Originally Posted by Gunner

Internet phone service costs the "provider" like Skype or MagicJack (or the many others who have come and gone) absolutely nothing. The connection between one proprietary phone widget and a matching one is taken care of the same way every other connection on the Internet is - by the shared support of all users and some large subsidized switching networks.

What Skype, MJ etc. provide is the essential connection and addressing service: their server lets you click on JoeShmoe in your address book and connect to Joe's phone widget, without having to manually dial in connection info like Joe's IP address.

As this service is also next to costless, ANY charge for the ongoing service is questionable; would you pay someone to tell you what exit to take at the end of a 1,000 mile interstate drive? The only legitimate basis for fees and costs is in the engineering and support of the phone widget, be it a magic box or a magic applet. Otherwise, the company is charging you to use a public road already paid for by taxes, tariffs and your ISP subscription.

If you call another Skype user, yes...

Calling outside of the "network" requires PSTN access (public switched telephone network), so no it's not nothing to run.

Another option is a cell phone that can work over WIFI in poor coverage areas (Sprint and T-Mobile offer this on some of the phones).

I'm also not sure how these guys are skirting all the tolls and taxes imposed on a phone number. (E-911 alone is $1.25/mo.) I'm suspecting it's the same subsidy that these "free cell phone" providers are offering.

AT&T is currently asking the FCC to let them out of the land line provisioning mandates (basically "POTS" is all but gone).

[Gunner]

Originally Posted by Ronbo

If you call another Skype user, yes...

Calling outside of the "network" requires PSTN access (public switched telephone network), so no it's not nothing to run.

Which is why Skype has never been free to call landlines (or accept calls from landlines) - we had to pay some token balance to bring one user into our conference calls.

I'm also not sure how these guys are skirting all the tolls and taxes imposed on a phone number. (E-911 alone is $1.25/mo.)

Because although they provide what is nominally the same service, the method and transport puts it outside the dense regulatory and tax arena generally known as tariffs. Tariff rules are so tightly written that sending a voice call over a data connection is simply not addressed, therefore does not exist.

This will all change in the near future.

[Excaliber]

Good phone thread in general. One of the problems I experienced in California (waiting for my house in Oregon) was erratic cell phone service. You get out in the sticks (like in a blzzard?) and the cell phone may or may not get service. Same thing here, apparently AT&T and US Cellular have the best coverage for MY area, other providers, eh, depends on how far out of town you get.

Lot's of folks use DSL lines here for internet, my experience with that is "rain" will often degrade the signal. I went with a cable provider myself, a real cable, not some DSL or satellite connection.

"Pay as you go" cell phone plan might be a good option for me, basically an emergency phone kind of thing. I also considered just a Trac phone, again, worried about connecting in the "sticks" with that option though. A cell phone is no better than Skype when it comes to the service provider being able to make the call or not.

[Excaliber]

Magic Jack has a new gig with internet now. You plug the new Magic Jack into your USB computer port, dial it with your cell and it "connects". Then around the house you use your cell which actually calls the Magic Jack which then forwards the call via the internet and there are no charges for the cell phone useage!

A bit controversial because it skirts the cell phone company infrastructure. No doubt it will face some legal challenges but appears to be legal for the time being.

[Joe Wicked]

Originally Posted by Excaliber

Magic Jack has a new gig with internet now. You plug the new Magic Jack into your USB computer port, dial it with your cell and it "connects". Then around the house you use your cell which actually calls the Magic Jack which then forwards the call via the internet and there are no charges for the cell phone useage!

A bit controversial because it skirts the cell phone company infrastructure. No doubt it will face some legal challenges but appears to be legal for the time being.

Just an FYI for you TracFone uses both GSM and CDMA phones. They do not have their own network. They buy airtime from the carriers and resell it back to you. CDMA uses Verizon GSM uses AT&T. If you have good AT&T 2G coverage you should get the same on TracFone.

[4RE KLR]

Land lines will soon be a thing of the past.

[Gunner]

Originally Posted by 4RE KLR

Land lines will soon be a thing of the past.

Thereby finally eliminating the crisis, ca. 1955-60, of the global copper shortage, one of my favorite Doom scenarios.

(In about that time someone projected the rise in telephone usage and the corresponding number of phone trunk lines needed to carry the calls. Very shortly on the curve, around 1970, there was not enough copper on earth to provide enough lines. It was a major panic in the right circles for several years as usage grew and the limits were approached...

...and then techniques for multiplexing call volume were developed. Even the first-generation 12 calls on a single line all but eliminated the crisis forever; now, of course, optical and other high-speed digital trunks carry millions of simultaneous calls. As Supertramp put it, "Crisis? What crisis?" It's amazing how many such insoluble, immediate catastrophes just sort of never happen, for reasons no one quite foresaw. History and social movement is never linear.)

[LoBelly]

Originally Posted by Gunner

Thereby finally eliminating the crisis, ca. 1955-60, of the global copper shortage, one of my favorite Doom scenarios.

(In about that time someone projected the rise in telephone usage and the corresponding number of phone trunk lines needed to carry the calls. ...etc )

I was reading this thread and just had to say that this post was excellent -

Great allusion to past panics and tendancy to hyperbole. 10/10

[Also I use skype at work but only on our VPN so I can see other peoples screens and to do instant messaging - considering exending to home for the son to see his distant relatives]

Back to regular programing

LoBelly

[tcrist]

Do you guys remember when there were party lines? You had to count the number of rings to see if it was for you or your neighbor.

[Dan40]

Originally Posted by tcrist

Do you guys remember when there were party lines? You had to count the number of rings to see if it was for you or your neighbor.

Man you're OLD!!! I remember when our phone (1)[one only] only had 5 numbers, no Prefix. There was a phone stand and a phone chair and the cloth covered cord was just long enough for the phone to sit on the phone stand.

[Excaliber]

Sure do Terry, grew up with one. I understand the new Magic Jack (USB, internet cell connection) will only work with GSM technology? Sprint, Verizion, therefore won't.

[tcrist]

Yep,I am old.
Remember when you wanted to make a call you picked op the phone, turned the handle and told the operator the number you wanted. Some of the rural aras where you just said who you wanted and they would just ring them for you.

[Ron61]

Terry,

Welcome to the Senior group. I remember when small towns had one phone and like you said, you just picked it up and an operator, usually working at her own home, asked you what number you wanted. I also remember when we put the computers in all of the screaming when we did away with the so called Farmer lines, 10 people on a line. The number of rings didn't amount to anything as every time a phone rang everyone on the line would grab theirs to listen in. We have some small towns scattered around up here that used those type lines only until we put the computers in and made everything private lines.

I remember telling a person once that you couldn't wire money because it got hung where the wires were attached to poles and such and they believed it.

Ron

[tcrist]

"I remember telling a person once that you couldn't wire money because it got hung where the wires were attached to poles and such and they believed it."


Good one Ron.

[Got the Bug]

I liked the old "named prefixes" that they used to have. When I was kid, our prefix was DA (Davenport).

BTW - I've used Skype (and Skype-out for land-line calls) for a while and for the most part, the service is great. Sure, you get a crappy connection from time to time, but you just hang up and try again. What really bothers me is most cell to cell conversations. The quality (yes even with Verizon) can be horrible and the delay is a pain.

[1ntCobra]

Another annoying Skype experience. Free computer to computer call with a coworker in India again today. About 30 minutes in duration, but I had to disconnect and reconnect 16 times during the conversation... In each case the call started out fine, but after a while we could no longer hear each other. Sometimes we could talk for several minutes. Sometimes we could talk for only 15 seconds.

The quality of the call depends on the network connection. Hmm, maybe our internet connection from the US to India goes thru Haiti?