Eventually, the next revolution in communication is happening..
While internet connection prices kept going down since it's availability to public market (1994: charge per minute, then packages with X hours of communication, and monthly contracts with unlimited access when xDSL / cable arrived in 2000) in comparison, mobile phones communication prices didn't change much since it massively entered the market in 1996..
Step by step, some calls from mobiles slowly become cheaper or free (calls to landlines, or same network mobiles) but international calls are still incredibly expensive, and even just receiving a call when you travel abroad could be ridiculously expensive.
Special mention to the english phone provider 02 who raped me of hundreds of pounds / month for a couple of hours roaming or just receiving calls and texts. So after this very bad experience (stay away from 02 thieves !) I had to find a cheaper option to give and receive call in England and while touring abroad, and options like check my emails etc.. would be a nice bonus.
The skypephone
Following the Iphone release, all the phone providers have to think about competitive and attractive offers to be not left behind by Apple, and turn up with new products and packages.
This is what the english company 3 (three) comes up with: the Skypephone.
It looks like a regular phone (it does the same really: call and receive calls / texts / mms anywhere, on pay as you go or monthly contract from £12) but..
.. it has a built in skype software, so you can do voice calls over IP and chat with one of the 250 millions skype users around the world, wherever you are in UK (you just need to get the phone network signal, and 3 has a good coverage) and talk forever without any extra charge ! It's also free when you travel to Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Australia and Hong Kong, and hopefully even more countries soon.
It also means that you'll always be connected to skype, so people can skype you at anytime, while you are in the park or at a gig, for free.
As a bonus you also get unlimited msn, ebay, facebook and other popular websites access with no data charge, and the phone has a nice 2.0Mpixels camera, mp3 player etc..
The bad points:
Well, it's not perfect yet, as it's quite a new thing, there are a couple of negative things:
- No skype in / skype out: you can't use these great options to give even cheaper calls to international numbers via voIP.
- No skype video conference yet (I can't wait to get the next firware update, with hopefully free video conference option using the built in camera).
- Usually the signal is fine and good quality, but you can expect a few cuts and voice robots sometimes. Not ideal when you talk to a client, but pretty funny anyway. ;)
- You only get the free skype option when you're in one of these countries which have 3's sisters networks.
So for the time being, I have another phone for the other countries, and I skype (in/out) over Wifi network for free as well, with the good old Belkin phone.
Hope you get as excited as I am by this new revolution !
Edit: This is not why I wrote this post, but I just noticed that 3 offers a voucher to new recommended customers.
