Totally free worldwide Skype calls with Three

Steve_xx

I take it that in order to get the free Skype to Skype calls you have to know that the person you are calling also has Skype?

And is it so that you can get the PAYG SIM card from 3 and begin using Skype without having any credit on it?

I note on the Skype tariff page that there is a section that mentions "toll free" calls. I am assuming that "toll free" means no charges to calls to numbers starting 0500, 0800 and 0808? If these calls are not charged for I'm wondering about the possibility of using the Skype service in conjunction with an onward carrier like 1899.co or 18866.co.uk? Has anyone actually tried this?

By the way I have located a 3 Skype Phone Black/Silver at Argos for £38.99. Here's a link:

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5180808/c_1/1%7Ccategory_root%7COffice%2C+PCs+and+phones%7C12108795/c_2/2%7Ccat_12108629%7CPay+as+you+go+mobiles%7C12108795/c_3/3%7Ccat_12108795%7C3+mobile+phones%7C12108807.htm

girona002

HI!

I work for Direct Sales in 3 and am going to give the same advice I legally have to give to my customers. Please remember that to get free Skype to Skype calls, you NEED A 3 NETWORK PHONE. Skype is (not currently) available on 3G phones which are not 3 branded with 3 software. However, the Sales Director did tell us in the presentation we were given before the launch that the Technical people are working on making it available to generic and unlocked 3G phones which were not originally on 3.

Hope this helps.

ee9clh

I got an unlocked Nokia phone which works with Skype, call quality not as good as a normal mobile to mobile call, but for the price can't complain too much about it. For non-3 branded phone you can get the link for download (free of charge on a free 3-PAYG sim with no credit) send to your phone via sms here at the official three's website help "Can I get Skype on my mobile? "

SALOPMAN

My wife and i both have INQ1 phones with free skype. Outside the skype works well and the skype chat - indoors its a bit more tricky, however I have found that the 3pay PAYG service now gives 10p texts,20p min to calls, free skype,free 3 to 3 , when you top up by 10 quid you get 600 free texts for 3 months, and 150mb internet free usage for 3 months - i have changed my wife to PAYG and its brill:beer:

metronome

I tried thr inq1 and i found it to be a very nice phone however i couldn't figure out how to disable the t9 dictionary you can turn it off for that window but then we you go back into the chat message it turns back on again.

The phone restarted itself every now and then however i think it was because of software updates as skype started giving me notifications when it didnt previously.

The online status of your skype contacts is rubbish,it can take 20 mins for it realise when someone is online or not even if you tell it to sync. Ive had my pc account showing as online 12 hours after I have switched it off, and even had 3 online contacts when underground on the tube with no service!

So I took the phone back to the store as it wasn't fit for purpose.

Does anyone know if I will be able to get skype to work for free on an unlocked iPhone 3G?

Hauptmann

We have two '3' phones in the family - Nokia E71 and E63. They are great phones, but the '3' experience is not so great. Signal is definitely patchy and comes and goes when you are on the move (in a car, bus etc) - not nearly as reliable as other networks.
Skype, in our experience, is a useful novelty. I use Skype on my PC and its great, but on the phones its very hit and miss and often call quality is so poor you have to give up and dial conventionally.
'3' customer service is based in India and it can be very difficult to resolve even minor problems because they seem not to listen properly to what you tell them - they just repeat questions (presumably off a screen). The E71 has problems with its camera (well documented on the web) but if you call 3 CS they always say to restart the phone and deny there is a problem!

dominiquereynolds

girona002 wrote: »

HI!

I work for Direct Sales in 3 and am going to give the same advice I legally have to give to my customers. Please remember that to get free Skype to Skype calls, you NEED A 3 NETWORK PHONE. Skype is (not currently) available on 3G phones which are not 3 branded with 3 software. However, the Sales Director did tell us in the presentation we were given before the launch that the Technical people are working on making it available to generic and unlocked 3G phones which were not originally on 3.

Hope this helps.

I have an unbranded and hence unlocked Nokia n79. I found the 3 skype sis file on line and it installs and I can use Skype on 3 for FREE.

I did try and get 3 Skype from Planet 3 but it said my phone was unsupported.

Just checked again and I can now download from Three
http://mobile.three.co.uk/sdf/skypeupdate
So looks like 3 are now making it available :-) to generic and unlocked 3g phones who not originally on 3.:T

dominiquereynolds

slewis1972 wrote: »

Has anyone got one of these 3 PAYG skype sims and put it in an unlocked phone and got skype and msn to work for free?

Also - how much internet access do you get for free?

I have a unlocked N96 and before I even contemplate moving my number to 3, I want to test a PAYG sim in my N96 to see if I can get it to work.

Any advice appreciated as it does seem a great deal but again, you need to consider customer support vs deal hence my test first.

Scott

The Free internet access is 150mb for 90 days. You can pay £5 and have unlimited (or 1g).

I've got a Nokia 3g sim free phone. I have a 3 contract sim in it and installed all the software that I needed. You can get Skype from Plant3 Have put a new sim in phone with zero credit and skype to skype works fine and MSN. Accessing plant 3 works fine with Zero credit.

When I have out other network sims in my phone the phone has got the settings needed automatically. If your phone does not then:
http://www.three.co.uk/Help_Support/About_my_mobile/Software_settings
choose over the air on the far right and it will send the setings to your phone.

Happy_Shrimper

l33tsp33k wrote: »

There are some misconceptions and misinformation in the top post in this thread that need correcting.

There are two ways of accessing Skype on a mobile phone. On most mobile networks (if it's not blocked) you can use the standard Skype mobile software either via wifi (if your phone has it) or 3G UTMS data. This is what is likely to cause the 3 second delay etc that people have noticed, 3G data is often not good enough for Voice over IP calls like Skype. If you do it this way then you can make calls to other people on Skype, all other numbers worldwide (and get charged by Skype for this) and if you have a Skype unlimited calling subscription the calls are free.

However, if you download the special Skype software for 3 (this is NOT the software you get from Skype.com, it's only available on Three's customer web site only accessible from Three phones), then Skype works in a different way. What happens is, when you want to make a call, the Skype client calls a special number on the Three network (this is a free call, you don't get charged for this), then the call goes over the Internet to the other person as usual. This results in a much better call quality and lower delay than the call going over 3G data or wifi. The 3G data channel is only used for your Skype status and any online "chats" you are having. This method is basically an admission by Three that their 3G data network isn't really up to VoIP but there you go...

So you can call:
- other people on Skype for free
- people on ordinary phone lines in other countries (and get charged by Skype, or get it free if you have an unlimited call subscription with Skype).
- what you CANNOT do is call UK landlines and mobiles from Skype on 3. Why would Three do this, they would never get any more revenue from you?!

There is a workaround to the last point however I won't complicate matters by describing it here right now.

And regarding the call and data quality, I've been on Three for a couple of years and found it perfectly acceptable. Coverage is perhaps not quite as good as some of the other networks, but in terms of value for money for both calls and data it's pretty good. In particular Three don't try and take your eyes out for data charges like most other networks.

Hope this helps,

Mike

Totally with the praises for 3 on here. Been with them for 18 months on PAYG. Use Skype all the time (using the trick eluded to above :rolleyes:) and data is excellent for me. Coverage has always been good for me.

Happy_Shrimper

l33tsp33k wrote: »

Hiya

You need Skype for Windows Mobile ( http://www.skype.com/download/skype/windowsmobile/ ). Your mobile has Windows Mobile v6.1 on it and that should work with the above version of Skype.

For those who have older Windows Mobile PDAs and phones, there are versions of Skype floating around the internet that support your operating system, but I don't think they're on the Skype site. Note that you need a reasonably powerful processor chip to be able to use Skype over wifi.

Mike

Is this not just the regular skype client rather than 3s implementation? I have a windows mobile and have ISkoot client installed and configured to 3s settings. Uses free call to 3 and then uses 3s skype to connect call i.e. not a pure data connection, but using 3s skype service as it should be used.
Google for iSkoot PPC app and then head over to 3gforums for how to set it up.