Metropol

This is the new Big Thing. http://www.skype.com.

Been trying it out, and the sound quality is very good. Have a go. It's free.

Where do you get contacts from, How do you add them etc.

You have to get your mates to use it too, as long as they're also using Skype it's free to chat online. You can also use it to call most landlines for just over 1p per minute, and that rate applies to many international destinations too.

Have you seen the USB phones for skype? they are sold on ebay for about 30 pounds.

I wonder if they are actually worth it...

You can buy them in the shops for about that. Mate has one, seems happy with it.

Just dragging this topic out of the depths...

I downloaded Skype a few days ago and have had no end of success with it! I'm only on 56k but the sound quality has been fantastic and it's such a nifty program! Yay!

Yes it is fab. Search and add "lazyorange" It's me!

Cheese Head wrote:Have you seen the USB phones for skype? they are sold on ebay for about 30 pounds.

I wonder if they are actually worth it...

Hmm. Think I'll try this. The free talktime on my mobile network never lasts long enough.

The thing about these USB phones is I don't recognise any brands or know if there's any known 'good ones' to go for. Anyone got any experience or got one that they can recommend?

Even at 1.1p during the day to landline phones, Skype looks like it would save me a lot of money!

My friends and family all have Skype - I have a handset, so do my brother and parents - which means that we can all phone each other free. And I use it all the time for calling landlines, too - saves a lot of money compared to using my mobile constantly. I also have the program from Sipgate (http://www.sipgate.co.uk/), which assigns you a free landline number for your PC, which is more useful for me than most, since my student house doesn't have a landline - just a broadband conneciton. Skype has a similar service, but it's not free. So I just use both - using Sipgate only for incoming calls (and freephone calls, which are actually free, unlike on Skype).

tillyoshea wrote:My friends and family all have Skype - I have a handset, so do my brother and parents - which means that we can all phone each other free. And I use it all the time for calling landlines, too - saves a lot of money compared to using my mobile constantly. I also have the program from Sipgate (http://www.sipgate.co.uk/), which assigns you a free landline number for your PC, which is more useful for me than most, since my student house doesn't have a landline - just a broadband conneciton. Skype has a similar service, but it's not free. So I just use both - using Sipgate only for incoming calls (and freephone calls, which are actually free, unlike on Skype).

Exactly the same setup here! My house at Uni only has broadband so I use Skype for outgoing and Sipgate for incoming - got myself a number in the same area code as home which means it's only a local call for my parents!

DJF wrote:I use... Sipgate for incoming [calls] - got myself a number in the same area code as home which means it's only a local call for my parents!

Thanks for the link. I've been looking into Sipgate now too. I've noticed that they also offer an 0845 number service too - I know people can sometimes be a bit 'huh?' when you give them an non-geographical number, but it might be good for me as I plan to move home within the next few months and it could well be outwith this phone code area.

I can't believe quite so much is offered for free!