Talk is cheap, on the net

THE increasing popularity of talking to friends and family via the internet, either very cheaply or more often for free, has seen services like Skype take off.

Skype allows you to talk to people via Voice over Internet Protocal (VoIP), which is just another way of saying telephone services via the web.

I have been trying out the service and it really has the potential to save you money on your telephone calls especially if you have a broadband connection in your home.

On the Skype site you download a small piece of software, which has already been accessed by around 80 million people, and install it on your computer.

The only piece of equipment you might have to buy is a microphone but many machines come with these now, and they are very cheap to buy. You can easily pick up a bargain on eBay.

Once you have registered then you are ready to make calls and there are two different types.

The first are calls to other Skype members, which are free, and then to normal telephone numbers, which work out at just over 1p a minute at any time of the day.

You can buy call credits either with a credit card or via PayPal and then call the other person’s telephone number – and you can keep an eye on the amount of money you have left.

The only difficulty is when you use the service over a normal dial-up internet connection as it struggles with the transfer of the information. You would have no problems even with a basic broadband package.

There is no need to change your internet service provider or pay a penny if you are likely to be calling other people who have Skype, for example you could ask friends to install it and pay nothing when you want to chat.

And this is just the beginning of what Skype has to offer as they have just made it possible to receive incoming telephone calls via the internet using you own Skype number.

You buy a number for €30 which is valid for a year and then you can receive calls from anyone, which has real potential to save you some money.

Not only is this a very cheap line rental, in time you could have Skype installed on a small hand held computer and receive calls wherever there is WiFi access.

It will be a few years off before people living in the countryside are able to take advantage of this, but in many cities you can obtain WiFi services and you could use Skype as a mobile phone, without paying inflated call charges.

These are interesting times for calls over the internet but for now save yourself some pennies and take a look at Skype, and tell a friend so you can chat to you heart’s content.

If you have a question about Skype just pop a comment in the box below and I’ll do my best to answer you.