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Skype Offering SkypeOut Service for Free
Skudd writes "In an effort to boost new customer acquisition, Skype has begun offering its 'SkypeOut' service for free. The free service is slated to last until December 31, 2006." From the article: "While the SkypeOut service will allow free calling to regular phones, the company will continue to charge people to get calls using a service it calls SkypeIn, which costs about $38 for an unlimited 12-month subscription. Consumers can get the service for three months for about $12.80."
I'm looking forward to calling my current land line provider, AT&T, and tell them I'm switching because of their choice to hand over phone records to the NSA. I'm sure VoIP won't be much more secure, but I hope if enough people do this they get the message.
Sadly, PS/2 was yet another victim of USB, which doesn't care what you plug into it, the electrical slut.
Did Skype suddenly form a new partnership with someone to handle these calls?
Or is this some sort of grab for customers so that they can have more P2P nodes?
Just some initial thoughts.
Please name this magical service that we in the unwashed masses may also benefit.
(202) 775-0101
Almost everyone who has a cell phone has free domestic long distance. This sounds like an amazing offer, but it's giving people nothing they didn't have before. It might get a few more people to actually try Skype, but the practical uses of this offer are almost nonexistent.
Also this is a good way to compete with Yahoo! Messenger, which was recently upgraded to use the same voice codec as skype.
Slashdot is a global community and Skype is a product that has been released globally so in this case it should be made clear. If it was talking about some new Taco Bell sauce then no one outside the US would even stop to read it and it would not matter.
I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
You know, it's great that I find out when I spend money on Skype, doesn't benefit me, but rather, a nation far away that already has a lot of their telecommunications provided for free.
Yeah, maybe I shouldn't be so selfish, but then again, when a good paying wage for a fulltime job is 200USD, here. Not even enough to pay for a small apartment a month, in this country, I'm thinking more in terms of self preservation.
If connection costs to other telecommunication systems were really the issue, then they would allow people to call US numbers from Europe (and other places) for free.
A thought occured to me, I some how doubt AOL users will have problems placing calls to the US for free, since the IP ranges used in AOL ISPs are shared internationally.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
http://slashdot.org/faq/editorial.shtml#ed850
Slashdot seems to be very U.S.-centric. Do you have any plans to be more international in your scope?
Slashdot is U.S.-centric. We readily admit this, and really don't see it as a problem. Slashdot is run by Americans, after all, and the vast majority of our readership is in the U.S. We're certainly not opposed to doing more international stories, but we don't have any formal plans for making that happen. All we can really tell you is that if you're outside the U.S. and you have news, submit it, and if it looks interesting, we'll post it.
It is worth noting that there is a Japanese Slashdot run by VA Japan. While we helped them a little in their early days, they essentially run their own content without any real involvement from us... none of us can read Kanji! There are currently no plans to do other language or nation specific Slashdot sites.
Answered by: CmdrTaco
Last Modified: 10/3/04
Based on the last location poll, only around 50% are from North America. As that includes Canadians and Mexicans, there are more non-Americans then Americans. It is of course run by Americans and they can do whatever they want.
Seems this is only for the US and Canada. Maybe Slashdot needs to orient it's writing more to its global audience? (:
On a side note, VOIP (Skype) and Ryanair (low cost airline in Europe) is the very reason me (in Norway) and my girl (in Portugal) manages to keep together even tho the distance is enormous. Being able to go to Portgal for the price of an expensive bus ticket + almost free comunications = truly united Europe.
With a true SIP provider you can call any other SIP phone regardless of physical location on the planet. The SIP protocol allows you to simply dial a SIP address and talk to that person. The quality of service is down to your provider and just like AOL, Skype do tend to provide a reasonable service. The problem is that with Skype you can only talk to other Skype phones, it is not open, just like AOL was not open. If you go to a good SIP povider you can have a good clear call and have a better breakout deal and talk to anyone on any other SIP service for free. VOIP should not be hamstrung by some startup trying to claim the territory as their own.
I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
Most of the rest of us have to pay a high monthly fee, or alternatively, do what I do - use prepaid, so I pay $100 a year for my cellphone (still a lot more than free, but it's the best I can get), which gives me over 1000 minutes. 100 minutes a month is more than I need, because I use Skype for my longer "chat" calls to people in the US and abroad.
So, for those of us who can't get free cellphones, Skype already helped make telephony very cheap, and has now made it even cheaper.
On the downside, I use T-Mobile for my prepaid, because it's one of the better prepaid deals, but while its coverage is great where I spend 99% of my time, I usually lose it when I go on a trip. On the upside, when I go to the rest of the world, I just plug in a GSM SIM card and have a local cellphone for very little money.