Skype mobile phones

[mainecoon lover]

Can someone pleas explain these to me. If we had a couple of them can you make free calls to them from America. Do they need to be on same network. Carer is worrying about calling home as all her family members only have mobiles. To expensive to phone daily. She has already said she will cry if she can not contact home. This would ruin it for everyone and there is no way i am paying a hugh phone bill just so she can chat to her mates daily. Any ideas.

[Keith]

Far as I know, they work using cell data and so would work over here free between skype users assuming unlimited data, over in the states they wouldnt + it costs money to call a mobile from skype. Again as far as I know, it's skype to skype that's free :/

[mainecoon lover]

Far as I know, they work using cell data and so would work over here free between skype users assuming unlimited data, over in the states they wouldnt + it costs money to call a mobile from skype. Again as far as I know, it's skype to skype that's free :/

Ah right, so if i got two cheap skype phones and left one home here and took one with us, they would be free?

[Keith]

Ah right, so if i got two cheap skype phones and left one home here and took one with us, they would be free?

well I'd say yeah except I dont think they'll work free in the states :/

Now, a laptop with skype on it or a wireless skype internet phone in your hotel room back to a skype phone in uk, THAT ought to work

[mainecoon lover]

well I'd say yeah except I dont think they'll work free in the states :/

Now, a laptop with skype on it or a wireless skype internet phone in your hotel room back to a skype phone in uk, THAT ought to work

Thanks Keith. We are in a villa and no mention of internet access.

[catrancher]

Whoa kiddos!

As far as I know, Skype is VOIP telephony. That's Voice over Internet Protocol for anyone who doesn't know. What that means is that you make telephone calls over the Internet.

Perhaps an example would work best. I'm in the US and Keith's in the UK. If we both have Skype installed on our pc's (or Mac's), we could call each other. Could even do video and audio. All free because it's on both our PC's. Now, assume that I'm trying to call Keith's home phone. I could do that via Skype on my Mac, but it's not free. I''d have to buy Skype credits or a subscription plan. However, both of those are a LOT cheaper than an international call.

Now, having said all that, there's Skype software available for various makes of cell phones (iPhone for example). Using that, as long as I can get an internet connection, I can make Skype calls. However, in the case of my cell phone (iPhone), I need to make sure that I'm using a wi-fi hotspot to get my internet connection. If I'm using the cellular network, it's still gonna cost me my cell charges.

Skype also sells dedicated handsets that can use any wi-fi hotspot to connect to the internet through.

Tom (... hope this helps! I'm not 100% clear on all of it myself!)

[Keith]

Thats right Tom with the added complexity that over in the UK, skype are in partnership with 3 and sell a "skype mobile phone" which includes a data plan. So it "just works"

However, it doesnt "just work" in the states where they'd still need either wifi or a data plan

So one way or the other I think the solution involves needing that villa to have internet access or finding some wifi hotspots

[Wendy]

You'd be better off buying her a cell phone when you get over there so that she can call home. It is so much cheaper, we had Go phones last year but I think the TRAC info here (or there was another one) that was better value now. The cheapest place to go is Walmart you can get a really cheap phone for about $20 and it includes call time as well. You just buy a top up card and it works well. If she goes over her air time then she will have to buy herself some more

I'm not sure about calling mobiles though, it's definitely cheaper to text and call a land line

[mainecoon lover]

Thanks all and thanks for that Wendy. Its a good idea.

[catrancher]

Thats right Tom with the added complexity that over in the UK, skype are in partnership with 3 and sell a "skype mobile phone" which includes a data plan. So it "just works"

Ahhh... now it becomes clearer, grasshopper!

So one way or the other I think the solution involves needing that villa to have internet access or finding some wifi hotspots

Agreed! Perhaps there's a free hotspot somewhere close by? Maybe this list will help.

Tom (... free hotspots for everyone!)