In the December 2004 edition of Understand IT, we covered the subject of Internet Telephony – the ability to make free telephone calls via your computer and existing Internet connection. 

Skype Technologies, a small (but fast-growing) company has produced innovative computer software that has now been downloaded by an estimated 24 million users.  The software enables a user to make a free telephone call to another Skype user via their computer, providing it is equipped with sound and a microphone.

Initially, this emerging technology has only been able to connect you to other Skype users who are online simultaneously.  However, this is changing (perhaps predictably), following a deal signed between Skype and Hutchison, a major telecommunications provider based in Hong Kong.  This deal will provide a link between the Internet and the global telephone network via a Hutchison telephone “portal” in Hong Kong.  You can now make calls to any subscriber in the world at an extremely low rate. 

The facility is available by downloading the standard Skype software which allows you to make calls to other Skype users.  To make calls to off-network locations (regular telephone numbers), you need to purchase credit online, which is applied to your existing account (set up when you install Skype). 

The standard top-up is €10, which will provide around 10 hours usage.  For example, calls from the UK to the USA and Australia are a little over 1p per minute.  For a full listing of rates, which are standard and global (they are the same whether you call from the UK to USA or USA to UK, or even UK to UK numbers), go to the following page:

http://www.skype.com/products/skypeout/rates/all_rates.html

If you have not downloaded a copy of Skype software, you can find it here:

http://www.skype.com