Re: [Evolution] using skype

[Jo-Erlend Schinstad <joerlend schinstad gmail com>]

2009/5/25 Simon Roberts <thorpflyer yahoo com>:
> Can I dial ordinary phones using Ekiga? What does it cost, and whom do I pay? Does Ekiga connect to skype 
> users (most of my contacts are already there and won't be moving).

Yes, Ekiga uses real voip protocols, used by all normal telephony
service providers in all countries. Skype, on the other hand, cannot
be used by real telephony service providers. Using normal VoIP instead
of Skype, means competition, which means lower prices and higher
availability. You can also purchase VoIP hardware that works with SIP
and H.323, like Ekiga uses.

There are many telephony service providers around the world and it's
quite common for businesses to have their own telephony service. You
can use Ekiga with that, but you cannot use Skype, since it doesn't
use real VoIP protocols, but something proprietary to Skype only.

However, if you use Ekiga, you're not depending on Ekiga in any way.
All compliant VoIP solutions can work with public protocols. There are
many, many different softphone solutions for Windows, almost all of
which are compatible with Ekiga. There are also many manufacturers of
compliant hardware phones, like Cisco, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola
and Siemens (of the top of my head). All major manufaturers support
SIP.

Would you buy a phone from Nokia if you could only call other Nokia
phone owners?