Super Cheap Phone Service

[Wewus432]

Skype started out as a... user to user... free phone service, and it does in fact use P2P technology, and was started by the same company that developed KaZaa. But ....here's the beauty part, you can now call out to regular phones, and people can call into your Skype number, for a fraction of what it costs for regular phone service, and it's mobile.

 

The Telcos are dead. They might not know it yet, but they are. All this charging by the minute bullshit is dead. What you're going to see in the next 4 years, is paying a fee for access to a network, and then you can do with it, whatever you want. Voice, Data, Audio/Video have become ONE THING. You will of course have to pay for content, and that's where all the big money is going to be, AND THAT'S GOOD, for you and me.

 

The content providers, artists, musicians, producers, arrangers, etc., etc,, are IMO the people who should be making the most money, in the the entertainment business.

 

The times they are a.....changin', faster than you can believe.

[Phait]

VOIP is awesome. I intend to get a VOIP phone service instead of standard phone service.

 

It really is the future. I still want my own Dick Tracy watch though.

[RaGe]

I've been a http://www.stanaphone.com user for a little over 1 year and I only have good things to say about them.

[GY]

Problem is... most content providers are either giving it away or it's worthless in the first place.

 

Where have all the real creative people gone?

[theblue1]

I use Skype on those occasions when some troublesome client (or pal) ends up talking my cell phone tab up near its 1000 minute barrier (no free nights/weekends but 1000 anytime minutes for $40) -- threatening to plunge me into the $.40 a minute "punishing overtime." (To borrow a phrase from the sports guys. Of course, I bear no personal responsibility for those marathon calls. ]

 

Once I got rid of my old Belkin router (which had developed the habit of dropping my net connection for a moment or three ever 10 or 15 seconds making conversation utterly frustrating) -- and got into the habit of always using headphones -- the quality of sound and connection was high...

 

... with one important exception:

 

The latency over most Skype-to-US phones is pretty high. And that means you're reduced to the talk-and-stop conversational rhythms of CB radio. 10-4, Eleanor.

 

Admittedly, there are cell-to-cell cross network connections that approach that kind of latency.

 

But for 2 cents a minute for US-destination calls, it's pretty cheap. And, since the US is, I believe, the highest priced call-destination, it is, ironically, even cheaper to call half-way around the world.

 

 

[PS... for a while I was toying with the idea of holding very small songwriters workshop type conference calls. But I used skype's 'test-recorder' funcion to listen to my attempot to play and sing over the connection. The noise reduction messed with it pretty good, sadly. Some folks from the old mp3.com used to get together using one of the other, earlier online audio chat softares (I forget which one) and, though the sound quality was quite marginal, it was huge fun playing live for a bunch of folks. Under that system, only one person could have 'the mic' at a time -- though everyone could chat via typical chat room typing interface. And that led to some pretty funny stuff, with the audience trying to crack up whoever was playing with what they were typing... Good times.]

[where02190]

I've used Skype, and was completely unimpressed. Poor quality, massive latency. But hey you get what you pay for.

 

VOIP is going to come of age within the next year or so. Comcast and Verizon already are offering it in certain areas. It's still getting it's bugs worked out, but it will be the next big thing, and really drop phone costs to nothing, since it is not subject to FCC line charges and tax, a big chunck of phone costs, especially if you have multiple lines/numbers.

[phaeton]

VOIP is an interesting idea, but it's not there yet.

 

Funny thing is, the technology and hardware has (mostly) been in place since the 1980s, and since the early 1990s most phone systems in the US have been packet-based anyways...maybe earlier than that.

 

"Telcos are dead" isn't really correct, since the telcos are who owns all the bandwidth and interconnects for VOIP to happen

 

Oh, and like anything else, it's bound to get more expensive as it improves.

[Wewus432]

Originally posted by phaeton:

VOIP is an interesting idea, but it's not there yet.

 

Vonage is adding about 15,000 customers a week, and expects to reach a million customers by next year. Is that not there?

 

"Telcos are dead" isn't really correct, since the telcos are who owns all the bandwidth and interconnects for VOIP to happen

 

Maybe I should say they are dead in their present configuration. I'm sure they'll survive in some much smaller, less profitable form, but I think the major players in the Voice/Data/Video business will be The Cable companies, and whoever builds out a WiMax network.

[Wewus432]

Originally posted by where02190:

I've used Skype, and was completely unimpressed. Poor quality, massive latency. But hey you get what you pay for.

 

VOIP is going to come of age within the next year or so. Comcast and Verizon already are offering it in certain areas. It's still getting it's bugs worked out, but it will be the next big thing, and really drop phone costs to nothing, since it is not subject to FCC line charges and tax, a big chunck of phone costs, especially if you have multiple lines/numbers.

How long ago did you try it? I'm reading a lot of good reviews of the sound quality from people using Skype. It's supposedly much better than regular phone quality, and the security encryption on Skype calls is practically unbreakable.

 

There's probably a hundred different VOIP companies at this time, Vonage being the largest.

[LiveMusic]

I was going to create a post last week but I didn't get around to it. About people RAVING about the quality of Skype/DSL conversations. But one of the coolest things I have ever heard (and the reason I was going to post) was their hooking up their keyboards to their computer and playing REAL TIME to the other guy on the other side of the world. USA/ITALY, for instance. And RAVING about the quality. Even singing. It's actually very exciting what can happen with this.

 

And they did this for FREE. Supposedly, quality is much better. I used it over two years ago and it was very good even then over DSL.

[Dak Lander]

I would love to go with one of the VOIPs. Problem is I still have to have a regular phone line so my access keypad will update each night. With Vonage I can get the business package with dedicated fax line and still be essentially at the same costs as what I have now.

The option then would be to keep my land line, switching my existing phone number and acquiring another number so I can update. That would force me to go with the lower level Vonage package to stay the same, price wise.

[Phait]

Here's a question:

 

what potential security risks are there?

[Dak Lander]

Originally posted by Phait:

Here's a question:

 

what potential security risks are there?

I believe the security is much better than land line. From what I gather all use encryption.

[Phait]

Sorry, I didn't mean security conversation wise. Our phones are already being monitored.

 

I mean security like data or account wise, hackers, crackers, etc.

[Dak Lander]

From Vonage:

Vonage employs best of breed security measures. A Vonage customer's account and phone numbers are protected by a unique security key that is used to authenticate phone calls from the customer's account. Therefore, your identity and profile information is secure.

 

Similar to traditional phone calls, Vonages voice packets are not encrypted. However, due to the nature of how data packets are sent over the internet, it is very difficult to reassemble such packets and listen to an actual conversation.

[where02190]

I've used Skype on several different ISP connections, Comcast,

Verizon DSL (personal and business) and through a university server. It sucked pretty equally in all cases, and it had nothing to do with my hardware interface, as it was a Mackie XD-2, very high quality(better than an M-box). It was more consistanly suck on DSL opposed to broadband, probably due to the varying speed of the broadband, and about the same on the university server (MIT).

 

Security, over the internet, forget it, there is none.

[Jimbroni]

I use vonage its cheap, no headaches, no contract. I feel safe with vonage, it provides a router so now my computer is protected by a hardware based firewall. I only been using it 3 months but haven't had an issue, yet so we'll see.

[Wewus432]

Originally posted by where02190:

Security, over the internet, forget it, there is none.

From The Skype FAQ:Why are Skype calls encrypted?

Skype is encrypted end-to-end because it uses the public Internet to transport your voice calls and text messages and sometimes these calls are routed through other peers. Skype encryption ensures that no other party can eavesdrop on your call or read your instant messages.

What type of encryption is used?

Skype uses AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) also known as Rijndael which is also used by U.S. Government organizations to protect sensitive, information. Skype uses 256-bit encryption, which has a total of 1.1 x 10 to the 77th power, possible keys, in order to actively encrypt the data in each Skype call or instant message. Skype uses 1024 bit RSA to negotiate symmetric AES keys. User public keys are certified by the Skype server at login using 1536 or 2048-bit RSA certificates.

...........................

 

encryption in Skype is point to point encrypted with 256bit AES. This is the best published cipher that the world currently has. Although there may be some attacks against the current AES that could reduce its strength, barring new math techniques, a 256bit AES encrypted message is not likely to be broken .. this decade.

 

A practically unbreakable encrypted phone call means that the NSA can be the man in the middle between you talking to your Mom, devote all their resources to cracking the conversation, and never prove in a court of law that you told her you liked the cardigan she knitted you. One cannot underestimate the significance of this: Companies like Vonage and Packet8 have the capability at least in theory of providing the Feds wire-taps of subscriber calls, with Skype, if you believe their software is written correctly, this is impossible. The encryption is arranged by both PCs taking part in the call, and the keys are unique for each call and thrown away after. An electronic wiretap would require corruption/cooperation of the actual PC making the call using Skype.

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