Re: [Evolution] using skype

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

2009/5/25 Simon Roberts <thorpflyer yahoo com>:
> Thanks for the enthusiastic and detailed reply. That answers the first question, but not the second, third, 
> and fourth:

You're welcome.

> 2) Whom do I pay for service that allows me to call ordinary phones, and 3) how much does it cost?

Your telephony service provider. I don't know which TSP you're using,
so I cannot tell you what their name is. I've never heard of a normal
TSP that still doesn't support standard voip. The prices depend on the
service provider.

> 4) Can I call other skype users from Ekiga

No, as I've said before, Skype prevents that. Well, that's not
entirely true. You can, of course, call them via their Skype-In
number, but then you're really loosing the advantage of the internet,
at least as long as your TSP charges you by the minute. Skype users
are only allowed to call other Skype users and you're not allowed to
switch to another telephone service provider as long as you're using
Skype.

> BTW, I'm not sure what you're getting at in your final point, but I most certainly can call ordinary phones 
> from Skype. I don't particularly care how they do it, just that the cost is reasonable (which it certainly 
> is--I just spent two weeks in Poland, calling my girlfriend's cell phone in the US, for 2cents per minute).

You can call PSTN numbers (normal phone numbers) using Skype, yes, but
not ordinary VoIP users. Skypes prices varies and the prices of real
VoIP-services varies too. I have a few different phone numbers on VoIP
providers in Norway. For one of them, I get a phone number which can
be used to dial in and out without any monthly fee, and it costs
0.14NOK/minute. The other costs about 100NOK/month, and I can call as
much as I like to all phones in Norway, where I get two lines of which
one is for fax. I don't know if Skype supports faxing. Of course, pure
VoIP traffic is free of charge. And since this is VoIP, if I travel to
hong kong or usa, I'll still pay the same.

Jo-Erlend