How to make the most of Skype
Skype. I call it “The ultimate calling solution.” Hold on, I need to hang up on my Skype call right now…and…done. So, back to our topic. Skype is, no doubt, the next revolutionary software in the cyberworld. There are tons of features available that’ll get Skype replacing your phone within the next decade, or even sooner. Let’s take a look at them.
1. Skype to Skype
Completely free. You can download Skype for free, set it up, and call anyone else with the software for completely free.
2. SkypeOut
This feature let’s Skype users call ordinary phone numbers, landlines and mobile phones. For about $29.95 a year, you can get unlimited SkypeOut to the United States and Canada. Calling internationally can be very cheap- about 2.1 cents a minute.
3. SkypeIn
The opposite of SkypeOut, with SkypeIn, you get up to 10 phone numbers in different locations. If you live in Plymouth, United Kingdom, you can get a UK phone number to make it cheap on callers. If you have clients for your business in Korea, get a Korean phone number, so it’s cheap for them. You recieve all your calls on Skype, and you also get voicemail, and all of it for about $60 a year.
4. Call Forwarding
Forward all of your calls to your mobile phone or landline, and pay for it with your SkypeOut money. If you keep about a hundred dollars in your SkypeOut credit, you’re good to go.
5. Skype To Go
Call internationally from your mobile phone with a To Go number. It works like this. You get a Skype To Go number and assign it to a location. Then, you call your To Go number from your mobile phone and save on international calls. Two rates apply, however. Your mobile rate to call the To Go number, and the calling rate for the destination, which is usuall about 2.1 cents a minute in 30 locations.
6. SkypePro
A whole package with a discount to SkypeIn, free Skype Voicemail, Skype To Go, Call Transfer, and discounts to buy accesories from the Skype store.
So, you can see that Skype is quite a calling solution. You can combine any of the features to suit your lifestyle, and create your own custom Skype plan. Also, you can put Skype on your USB stick to use it from anywhere (another of my articles).
So, are you ready to go Skype? Visit www.skype.com to get into the hype now!
The benefits of VoIP – Part 2
WI-FI: Cutting the Cord
Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship the act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth.
– Peter Drucker
Wi-fi is everywhere. Well, actually, it’s not. Not even close. But the suggestion that it soon will be is neither speculation nor assertion. It is an immutable fact. The only questions are how long it will take, what format will reign supreme, and who will be the major players.
For those seeking positions of dominance in both hardware and access, the rewards could be enormous. With the convergence of mobile phones, MP3 players, cameras, digital video, PDAs, and computers, the future of Wi-fi will likely see nearly half the world’s population cutting the cord by 2009 (source: Portio Research, 2006).
Though the big guns like Cisco, Palm, Lucent, and Motorola are aggressively pursuing this market, some recent start-ups and micro-caps are jockeying for position with innovative approaches and technologies that could easily propel them to superstar status just as it did for the most innovative dot-coms such as Google and Yahoo. And the key will be connectivity.
Currently, wireless users are either on a fixed LAN at home, at an Internet caf, or driving around looking for hotspots where they can hop on the Net using somebody elses system. All of the foregoing are limited in range, offering decent connectivity for up to about 200 yards.
Enter WiMax, the next generation in wireless connectivity, which extends the range of hotspots from feet to miles. Both of these approaches comprise our immediate future, and both offer opportunities.
WiMax, which has recently completed testing in laboratories in Spain, is just rolling out in a few test markets and really won’t begin to be noticed until the second half of this
year. Having ironed out most of its format problems (at least domestically), the clock has begun ticking on what is likely to be the next revolution in wireless comminication. With the future of electronic media being 100% wireless (no doubt about it) it only remains to be seen how wireless will be delivered to both fixed and mobile devices the world over.
FON, which is less than a year old, is a company with an interesting concept that is attracting considerable attention from industry insiders. The brainchild of Spanish media entrepreneur, Martin Varsavsky, FON is intended to be a sort of wordwide wiresless
Looking For The Right VOIP Phone
The magical VOIP phone can be a novel and stimulating skill for many people, but for others it can be a menacing and baffling undertaking. A VOIP phone might present an arrangement of challenges and issues that you may not be ready to face without learning a whole lot more about what is involved with Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP).
There are easy ways to learn about this VOIP phone system technology, however. You can check out some information on the internet, for example, or talk to a local phone company customer service representative and ask them all of your questions.
Finding a VOIP vendor in your area can be easy, especially now that VOIP phone system technology has an overwhelming amount of influence in the markets. People are getting tired of their conventional phone services and wish to switch to something that makes calling more inexpensive and more convenient.
Whether or not VOIP phone system technology is the right answer to this question is still a little up in the air, but more and more people are willing to try VOIP systems now more than ever.
VOIP has a variety of names. The most commonly referenced name for VOIP is Voice Over Internet Protocol. It is also known by IP Telephony, Internet telephony, Broadband telephony, Broadband phone, and the popular Voice-over-Broadband.
Essentially, all of those names refer to the same basis element of VOIP; it involves the routing of voice conversations over the internet or through any other possible IP-based network capability.
Companies that supply VOIP to customers are called providers. A provider uses a protocol, which is a term that refers to the set of standards that govern communications, to grant their customers the ability to get through on their network. VOIP systems, thus, enable customers the ability to work through networks like the internet to place all of their phone calls.
The cash savings come by way of utilizing a single network to make all of the calls. Many providers have the networks previously in place due to their ordinary telephone services, so hooking up VOIP costs them little to no extra capital.
VOIP phone systems, for many providers, are almost like free money in the bank. They create the possibility of free calling from one VOIP services user to another, enabling long distance calling to become a lot less of a hassle for the average consumer.
VOIP will change the way we talk to one another, once again, if it hasn’t already. The emphasis on VOIP that will really drive a path through the market of telephony will be the cost to the consumer and to the companies involved.
Companies like Vonage VOIP, CISCO VOIP and others hook up VOIP telephony through their existing technology and are enabled an entirely new brand of customer base for little to no cost to them. The customers experience the savings, too, often paying little for a phone plan that enables them to essentially make endless amounts of calls over the VOIP systems.
Voice over IP phone will be the way of the future for many households, especially those that would benefit from having greater long distance telephone possibilities at their fingertips. The world is changing and VOIP phone technology is fast becoming a leader in bringing people closer together without the cost of traditional long-distance telephone systems.
Call Forwarding and Call Transferring: Follows you
The Voice over Internet protocol or VoIP has made the long distance and international calling at significantly lower rates. Besides its cost saving feature, new VoIP technology has enabled IP PBX system to offer easy integration with existing PBX system. The IP PBX system is characterised with low operating cost. In addition, this system allows a user to connect to more than forty extensions packed with all the advanced features of calling like voice mail, call forwarding, auto generated messages and screen calls. This IP PBX phone system is well suited for medium and large scale organisations as it provides cost efficiency, functionality, reliability and security. Moreover, hosted PBX system allows to increase the number of ports by adding new expanding cards.
The VoIP technology of IP PBX system offers high scalability feature. The call forwarding or Find Me or Follow Me is the one of the most important feature of hosted PBX system. The call forwarding is used to route calls to some other destinations or telephone number when user is not at his initial number or busy on his number. To activate this feature, user has to give the list of phone numbers where call can be terminated. While using the VoIP PBX user can choose any incoming phone number i.e. local or international numbers for redirecting a call. This feature allows user to enjoy long distance and international call forwarding at reduced rates. In addition, if user is not available on any number then message will be put on voice mail box.
For availing services of call forwarding, users have to install virtual PBX on Linux operating system. The SIP or Session Initiation Protocol based handset used for availing benefits of IP PBX are known as SIP. The SIP function of PBX system helps to redirect phone calls over the Internet. Call transferring feature is boon for business houses who are looking for a cost efficient telephony solutions.
