I am sure some of you use Skype here for business. How does it work? I know that it's just $9.95/mo for their world plan which is what we would be looking at. If you forward it to a phone, does it use the phone's voicemail or the preset one in Skype? How is the conversation quality?

I don't use it much unless I'm on the road.
Last year I was in China and used Skype at 3 cents a minute to call home. Worked out very well.
I called from my computer to telephone and had no issues at all with quality.

That seems like a decent price, but where were you called to from China? I have used it a couple of times just to test it out but thats about all.

Skype is actually a really good service for people on the run.
Its economical too,Im going to give the Paid service a shot some time in the future.

On the same note, have you used the phones that are listed in websites (craigslist, ebay) that are called Sykpe phones? Well maybe not called that, but they are marketed towards skype users.

A year or two ago, I used Yahoo Messenger to call overseas clients. The idea of internet telephony to reach global clients is a great one.

I've only used the free version of this, and I wasn't too impressed with the call quality. It was hard to understand the speaker, and so I gave up and opened a text IM service instead. Maybe its come on somewhat-I haven't used it for a while.

I have been using Skype for a long time.This is the best Internnet software for communication I have ever used, especially if you have a good web-camera.

Moreover, if you are planning to make calls to other countries and to the places where there is no access to skype, the prices are quite affordible and it is even cheaper to make calls using skype than using a mobile phone.

Thanks for everyone's response. I may have to give it a shot sometime.

I am testing their pay as you go plan (to call landlines to Europe), and the quality is decent (at least better than few long-distance carriers I tried), so most likely I will be signing up for their $9.95/mo world plan when I deplete the initial $15 left.

Then this beggers the question-what hardware are you using to make the calls? Do you have a proper VOIP phone handset for it? Does that significantly improve the quality of the calls that you make and recieve?

Well, I use Skype on my laptop and its relatively fast.
I also have a USB connected phone Skytone and its working just as well.

I use to use skype. Worked well when I had to move around a bit. At times I had issues connecting. For overseas calling it can save you a ton of money.

Right now I use reachme.com for one of my side projects. Forward an 888 number to my cell phone so I can assist customers where ever I am at.

Jarrod

I can't believe that they're charging to use this service now...

A couple of years ago I used it a bit, but when I used it was free to download and use overall. Or am I just being misslead (Do they still have a free service to use)?

First Timer, the PC to PC calling has always been free and it still is.
What they charge for are calls from Skype to Landline (traditional number).

I've already signed up for world unlimited plan and really enjoy the quality of service.