[Carl n Susan]

Phil: I started playing with Skype 4-5 years ago before E-Bay bought them. Originally it was computer to computer voice only. Then they offered computer to land line for a nominal charge (something in the range of 2 cents/min). Since voice communication doesn't utilize much bandwidth this always worked reasonably well if you had something faster than a dial-up. Just after being acquired by E-Bay, they offered free long distance calling to any land line in the US and Canada. I used this extensively while traveling for work and play (a headset with a microphone is essential) in order to save cell phone charges. Most people could not tell I was using Skype v. a regular phone. This was before Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) became the rage. Now there are lots of phone services using VOIP as the transport mechanism.

I got sucked into using the video piece of Skype this winter in Quartzsite (these Montana owners love their technology toys). I haven't used it a lot but my experience, using an Air Card connection on my end, was the picture was slow and jumpy. I tried it again recently here at home with a high speed (16 MB) cable connection and the picture wasn't much better. But I have to admit I was talking to Hamrad and his DSL connection was a little flaky (died three times).

Some of my friends travel abroad frequently and use Skype to communicate (voice not video) back home. The Skype charges are much cheaper than international calls (and you don't have to buy/rent a different phone).