Free "Skype" via 3 network from 1st.

robt_2

dori2o wrote: »

Yes I have, but as I'm dyslexic I find it hard to read through complicated websites and 3's is quite hard for me.

Fair enough

Yes, it is free, no data costs. No topups if you are on PAYG. Hope that clarifies.

wendy05

according to their terms and conditions you have to top up every 90 days for free skype calling, you are limited to 4000 minutes per top up. you can receive if you go over the limit. if you dont top up after 90 days your skype gets blocked.

however it does say that on payg you never top up for skype .. so its a bit confusing to me at least.. if you use their version of skype

http://www.three.co.uk/personal/help_support_/terms_conditions.omp?cid=1176726871065

wendy05

according to their terms and conditions you have to top up every 90 days for free skype calling, you are limited to 4000 minutes per top up. you can receive if you go over the limit. if you dont top up after 90 days your skype gets blocked.

however it does say that on payg you never top up for skype .. so its a bit confusing to me at least.. if you use their version of skype

http://www.three.co.uk/personal/help_support_/terms_conditions.omp?cid=1176726871065

Sol00

That's pretty good!

kondormid

according to their terms and conditions you have to top up every 90 days for free skype calling, you are limited to 4000 minutes per top up. you can receive if you go over the limit. if you dont top up after 90 days your skype gets blocked.

I think you will find this has changed and now there is no 90 day limit as of May 1st (hence the hype). My phones "accounts" section said my skype free calls were due to run out 21st May, now there is no information on it telling me when skype calls run out so my guess is they are doing exactly what they are saying they are doing, and giving us free skype to skype calls with no date limit. They announced that they were doing a big upgrade to the accounts section last Sunday and my guess is they removed the bit about when your skype calls run out with that upgrade.

Now a bit of info on the service as I have been using it for quite a while.

When I first got my 3 skype phone almost 18 months ago it was 30 days free skype if you topped up by £10 (bargain if you ask me). A few months or so ago they changed it to 90 days free skype with any top up (even better bargain!). Now it is just free skype (amazing! beyond the word bargain! free mobile phone calls for no money if it is skype to skype!).

My £10 top up currently lasts for over 3 months at the moment, even though I am often calling friends for around an hour in the USA who are using PCs a few times a week, a few texts and normal calls to UK mobiles and landlines, and also the odd 50p for a days web surfing when I am away from the PC and a bit bored (can get it for £5 for 30 days if your going to mobile surf a lot). The call quality is not as good as a PC to PC skype call. So do not expect a great call quality using skype via a mobile phone. It sort of resembles the first generation of mobile phone call quality, back in the days of "sorry can you repeat that, I think I lost you" era. My guess is that 3 have realised that their skype using PAYG phone customers do not leave the network as often as other PAYG and contract customers. Why would we when we get free calls on PAYG? And yes we still spend some money on calls and texts now and again, so it is money 3 will get from us rather than another network. Customer churn is a major cost to mobile companies, so this really could be an "everyone is happy scenario".

So for value, its great and there is a certain cool gadget feeling about the fact your talking for free to your mate in the USA who is using his PC (also for free) using a mobile phone whilst your in Asda picking up a tin of beans and some cheap bread.

The best thing a lot of people might not realise, is texting (well its actually msg'ing) . Skype, as those who use it on their PC will know, is a sort of mixture between a voip phone service and a instant messenger chat service. Skype on a 3 mobile phone allows you to use the messenger element just like sending a text message. Two big differences though! The message can be longer, and they are FREE!
They can of course be sent to anyone of your skype friends no matter where they live. As long as it is skype to skype it is free.

I was supprised the other day to find my 3 phone answering machine service had caught some of my skype missed calls too. I am not sure exactly how this works, it might be any call I miss or it might only happen when my PC is off. All good stuff though.

ellielovesem

Thanks to S0litaire for breaking it down for us 'simpletons'!!

So, at the risk of being shouted at, can I check the following: If I get a 3 mobile (PAYG) and sign up to to skype on it and my sister who is in Australia signs up to Skype on her computer we can call eachother skype to skype for free?

Thanks guys, please be gentle!

[Deleted User]

Ellie - that's exactly it.. .free calls to Oz

camaj

Does anyone have a list of compatible phones? There's a checker on the website but you have to have to check one by one to get a list.

Am I right in thinking that when they get everything working it'll work on any 3G phone or will it be the same handsets?

Maybe we can have a group effort to copy the list from three.co.uk phone checker to here? I'll start off:

3 Skypephone
3 Skypephone S2
INQ 1
Samsung Tocco Ultra
Samsung i8510

Need to check:
LG phones
Sony Errickson
Motorola
Nokia

All other phones have been checked and aren't compatible.

Hamleteer

They have a 'list' on their website on http://threestore.three.co.uk/handsets.aspx. Any phone with the skype symbol next to it is compatible - there are a few to chose form...

drbob

camaj wrote: »

Am I right in thinking that when they get everything working it'll work on any 3G phone or will it be the same handsets?

Nope. On most phones "skype for 3" is a separate java program that needs to be launched manually each time you switch your phone on. Some phones can't have a program running all the time in the background so are not compatible.

There are a couple of phones - the inq1 and the 3 skypephone which are designed specifically for 3 and have skype better integrated (i.e it launches on phone boot up, skype contacts and normal contacts appear in one list).

On Nokia phones caller id does not work for skype so you can't see who is calling when the phone rings with an incoming skype call.

In all, I found Skype on 3 to be pretty unusable. It's a nice idea but on many of my calls the sound quality was so bad I couldn't hold a conversation. I also frequently found that skype calls between two 3 mobile phones would fail to connect, despite being able to make a normal call to the other persons mobile number with no problem. Calls to/from people using skype on a PC seemed a bit more reliable though. I gave up using the "skype on 3" service about 6 months ago.