SKYPE

ASK THE EXPERTS COMPUTER,TRANSPORT SOFTWARE AND TECHNOLOGY FORUM
21

welshboyinspain:
so do you get a phone number then? can people contact a skype phone from other networks?
sorry to ask just being cautious before installing

The standard number you get is a VOIP one - it’ll start 055/056. To get a normal style landline number you have to buy what’s called a SkypeIn number. If you go into your Skype profile you’ll see the option ‘online number’ but be aware that there are only certain countries available to get a ‘local’ number so you need to check that first before you buy (Spain is not available, by the way). Also, Skype charge a subscription for landline-style numbers at £11.50 per 3 months or £40.25 per year. :open_mouth:

As far as calling Skype from a normal phone goes, you need to be careful. I know from (bad) experience that the UK mobile networks charge extortionate rates for calling VOIP numbers (anything that starts 055/056 and this includes Skype of course) although you’ll have a hard time finding the info from the various mobile operator websites (the best you’ll find is something like ‘higher charges may apply’) and customer services won’t have a clue either. The first you will know about the call charges is when your bill lands at the end of the month. From what I can remember when I divided the call charge by the call time, it worked out around 20-25p per minute to call a friend on his Skype 055/056 number.

Calls to 056 numbers from landlines (BT) are either free or up to 5.5ppm, depending on what tariff you’re on, so if you have a friend in Australia who is on Skype then it’s not going to break the bank calling them on their 056 number.

Jimti mentions you can buy a local number for the area you want to be in (eg. you could live in Australia but could want a UK landline number). This is true, you can do this, but the same charges apply as detailed in my first paragraph above, which makes it rather expensive overall. For friends and family who have access to a landline then you’re best staying with your Skype 056 number as the call costs to it are negligible. If most of your incoming calls are coming from mobiles or you need a landline-style number for business purposes then you’d be better using a VOIP provider such as draytel.org who will give you a free UK landline number once you put £10 of calling credit in your account - the number never expires nor requires renewing like Skype numbers do.

I’ve used Draytel for over 6 years and imho they are the best VOIP provider by far. Their call rates are cheaper than Skype, the call quality is better and over the time I’ve been a customer I can count on one hand the number of outages (which were all advised by email beforehand). Skype regularly goes down and call quality can be patchy. I use one of these as my phone - it can handle 4 separate lines and doesn’t need the PC to be on. I have 3 PSTN (UK landline) numbers with draytel, 1 for my personal line (eg. normal house number), 1 local number for a local business I run and 1 London number for my main business. This phone is obviously geared up for business use, but you can buy little cordless IP phones that do exactly the same job but just for 1 number. :smiley:

22

Rob K:
Jimti mentions you can buy a local number for the area you want to be in (eg. you could live in Australia but could want a UK landline number). This is true, you can do this, but the same charges apply as detailed in my first paragraph above, which makes it rather expensive overall. For friends and family who have access to a landline then you’re best staying with your Skype 056 number as the call costs to it are negligible. If most of your incoming calls are coming from mobiles or you need a landline-style number for business purposes then you’d be better using a VOIP provider such as draytel.org who will give you a free UK landline number once you put £10 of calling credit in your account - the number never expires nor requires renewing like Skype numbers do.

I think you misunderstood me, I set a country as my home and call out, so if I set my home as Belize, even though I am in the UK I can call Belize land lines (or mobile) as a local call. you can only change your home country every so often to stop you changing it for each call you make.
I don’t have a Skype number for people to call me on as they can call me on my mobile for less and I’m not often on line anyway.

23

jimti:

Rob K:
Jimti mentions you can buy a local number for the area you want to be in (eg. you could live in Australia but could want a UK landline number). This is true, you can do this, but the same charges apply as detailed in my first paragraph above, which makes it rather expensive overall. For friends and family who have access to a landline then you’re best staying with your Skype 056 number as the call costs to it are negligible. If most of your incoming calls are coming from mobiles or you need a landline-style number for business purposes then you’d be better using a VOIP provider such as draytel.org who will give you a free UK landline number once you put £10 of calling credit in your account - the number never expires nor requires renewing like Skype numbers do.

I think you misunderstood me, I set a country as my home and call out, so if I set my home as Belize, even though I am in the UK I can call Belize land lines (or mobile) as a local call. you can only change your home country every so often to stop you changing it for each call you make.
I don’t have a Skype number for people to call me on as they can call me on my mobile for less and I’m not often on line anyway.

Yes, apologies as you didn’t say what I’d quoted at all. Not sure where I got that from :confused: Belize only costs 1.5ppm from your normal Skype number anyway so I’m puzzled as to what setting your location as Belize actually achieves here? :confused: