Before I cut the cord of a landline telephone, I needed to do a little thinking about the replacement for my regular phone. Should I go cell only or go VOIP? If going VOIP, which service? Finally, I decided to use Skype.

The reasons I decided to use Skype were:

• I’ve already used a free Skype service and was satisfied.
• International calls to certain countries are unlimited for a low fixed rate. The price was $9.95/month when I signed up. They raised a price a few days ago, so now it’s $12.95/month. I make international calls to 2 countries. Even though I use discount phone cards and I don’t call often, it still adds up.
• There is no long term contract. You can choose pay as you go or monthly subsription.

The reason I chose to get a paid service, monthly subscription, is that not everyone I call is capable of computer-to-computer calls. With a flat monthly subscription fees and no hidden/additional taxes and fees, I still save some money since my monthly landphone bills were around $50/month.

Skype to Go
In addition, a “Skype to Go” number comes with a monthly subscription. Essentially, a “Skype to Go” number allows you to make international call from any phone including cell phones. So, I can use my cell phone, my work phone, or my friend’s phone to make international calls by calling a local “Skype to Go” number. I tested it. It works fine and the sound quality is excellent.

Online Number
A “Skype to Go” number comes with a monthly subscription but you need to purchase “online number” if you want a number where other people can call. Since I have a cell phone and a cell phone plan with a plenty of minuites, I didn’t have to buy an online number. But I wanted to have a landphone equivalent for some reason (probably sentimental reasons). The big advantage of having an online number is for frequent international travelers. I purchased an online number that has the local area code. So, as long as I have a computer with Skype installed (my laptop) with me and as long as my laptop is connected to the internet regardless of my location in the world, my friends here can call me by dialing a local number and talk with me. That’s pretty neat.

As a subscriber, I got 50% off of a purchase of an online number, so I paid $30 for a number I can use for a year. That’s $2.5/month. Not bad at all. By purchasing the number for a year, I may have committed myself for a year. But I can cancell my subsription without a penalty and not using the online number I bought fully. This is just so different from cell phone companies’ 2 year contract deal. I think most of cell phone providers charge $175 or so for an early termination of the contract.

Technical Glitch about Sound Card — Solved quickly
After a few days of use, I noticed one very annoying glitch about Skype. If I watch Youtube videos or listen to music on my computer, Skype software stopped responding to calls or could not make outgoing calls saying that “No sound. There’s a problem with the sound card inside your computer.” Every time it happened, I needed to reboot my computer to fix it. It was quite irritating. Then, I checked the audio setting in Control Panel. The default device was set to Total Recorder (software to record sound), so I changed it back to my computer’s audio card. That fixed the problem quickly.

Overall
I am very pleased with Skype. I recommend it for anyone who makes international calls or anyone who goes abroad often.