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Stop knocking Skype
Alan Stevens’s article about VoIP phones for small business barely mentioned Skype other than to damn it as being ideal for home use.
The accompanying review of IP phones by Terry Relph-Knight concentrated on IP phones with only small section on so-called alternative phones including a paragraph on Skype.
An earlier article by Alan Stevens did cover Skype, however it concentrated on the drawbacks, these being; that the phone handset or adapter must be connected to a PC and the service is proprietary. Aren’t they all once you sign the contract?
Skype is arguably the largest and most successful internet phone service and is now owned by eBay. Connection and call quality in the UK is acceptable. Add to this the very significant cost savings which has enabled us to conduct business with clients around the world at a similar cost to UK.
Skype is well suited to business use with group billing, regional telephone numbers, WiFi connections for travellers, voicemail and a wide range of handsets and adapters for PSTN telephones.
New handsets are coming along that will travel with the user and software is available to enable PDA’s to work as standalone phones through WiFi connections. Skype also provides good video connections which have enabled me to have face to face conversations with my family when I am overseas.
Perhaps PCW could do a balanced article on getting started with Skype that will help rather than confuse your readers.
Skype is a great VoIP package and we have said so many times in PCW - both in reviews and a workshop on getting started with the software, which we published some time ago now.
While I may not agree with everything Alan Stevens says about Skype, he is entitled to his opinion.
And he is right - Skype is a proprietary package.
Alternative SIP VoIP services allow you to phone people or rival services for free, which you cannot do on Skype. With Skype, only calls to another Skype user is free.
Also, it does need a PC to be on. No matter how good some of the handsets now are, those currently on the market in the UK require the PC to be switched on. That should change very soon, once WiFi Skype phones are available
Posted by Rob Jones | July 18, 2006 3:09 PM
I have to say I'm a little taken aback by this post. My editorial brief was to write a group review of six hardware VoIP telephones. So naturally Skype, as a software based product, was only mentioned in passing. I could have not mentioned it at all. I think Skype is a fine service, but it does have its limitations. The main one being, as Rob says, it's only available while your PC is switched on. This is not the case for a hardware VoIP telephone.
Posted by Terry Relph-Knight | July 24, 2006 3:34 AM