Anyone heard of SKYPE?

Legacy_user

Someone told me this would be a cheap way of contacting my daughter in China using the computer.

Does anyone have any experience of this?

dagger_meerkat

I am assuming your daughter has a computer in China she has access to? If yes, then, its quite simple to use and beats most other VOIP programmes out there and costs nothing. Used it plenty of times before, and its worthwhile if only to avoid long distance telephone calls.

But on the other hand, there's providers like simply-fone who cost zero if you have got an o2 contract and use their 0870 number to dial-in OR a t-mobile contract and use their 07744 no {although the latter seems to have been down for the past few days}

macgyver

Yes, Skype is a very good option for free computer to computer calls. The thing is that you n your daughter to be online n logged in to skype. The voice quality is very clear.
You can call Landlines as well from skype but its not free n you have to buy credit for it
Hope it helps

Mr_Meanie

Yes, I use it a lot to talk to people in the USA and it works well, for you to use it free both people must have an internet connection preferably broadband, it doesn't really work well on dialup, if the person in China is not on the internet you will have to use Skypeout which you have to buy credit for.
There are other providers of this service (VOIP), Tesco, Vonage, just to name two, I also use Google Talk which I find is very good but it’s only works from computer to computer.

heppy23

We use it to keep in touch with several people, mostly in the UK but also my sister in Dubai.

System

Thanks to you all. We had never heard of this before and it will certainly save some money when our daughter gets her internet connection set up in her dorm.

peege

Re. SKYPE,
I have just purchased an adaptor which I can use my normal home cordless phone (DECT) to access SKYPE. It also works as a normal phone when either the computer is switched off or I dial out normally.
It is a U-Connect V-901, which cost about £25. I got mine from DSTele.com, they also answer queries by phone.

hurrah

If all you wonna do is talk to your daughter in China a couple of Tesco Internet phones will do £9.95 a phone at mo.No call Charges for talking to each other.They can deliver Internationally.
http://www.tescointernetphone.com/

arnie&caseysma!

I use skype to talk to my uncle occasionally - found we got cut off a lot but then he is in the Solomon Islands at the moment and connection sometimes not great for him.....oh how I would love to be there......

mrJ_5

skype is great... and more people use it than tesco's internet service - so there is more chance that someone else will be using it too

i would recommend your daughter to get skype out as well, that way she could phone a landline or mobile if you are not online, if there is something important that she needs to tell you

Skype Out if only £20+VAT for 12 months, plus your call credit on top - but to uk landlines this is just 1.2p a minute.... skype out will also let you call her, belongs as she is on the internet.... otherwise it will just divert to voicemail

i myself am in china, and find it a great way to communicate home - when i can find an internet connection

littlereddevil

I talk to my daughter in Hong Kong all the time with skype for free and very good reception