This article appeared in abbreviated form on 28 February 2011 at Aaytch.com. Phil Wolff at Skype Journal teased me into writing a more complete account of my experience making the transition from a traditional Time Warner Cable landline to a Skype-supplied "landline." Some might be surprised at how easy and effective it is.
Background
Here in rural North Carolina, my family is a customer of Time Warner Cable. We might have chosen to purchase some of our services from the local phone company but we found TW to offer somewhat better quality and service. Through TW, we have plain cable service at about $30 per month, plain internet service (3MB down/.5MB up) for another $30 per month, and two phone lines at $30 each per month with unlimited calling in the United States and Canada. Our household is an extended family and we decided we needed a third line. So I called TW and they informed me their "modem" would only support two lines. I considered alternatives:
Vonage. It would have worked, but I was looking for something simple and significantly cheaper than Time Warner. Vonage isn’t.
MagicJack. Absurdly cheap; just $20 per year. I rejected this option for the simple reason that the phone service would cease to exist when I turn off the computer. It also appears now that the company, Magic Jack will not be able to sustain its low prices.
Line2 from Toktumi. It operates more or less as the Skype "home line" does in my description below. I did a trial of Line2 a few months ago and found it to be quite excellent. It’s cheap compared to other alternatives, and its feature set is in some ways more complete than Skype as you can see in this comparison chart or product video. However, in the end I turned it down because I didn’t need its extra features, and its pricing is about twice Skype’s.
Wait for future developments. There are new devices, technologies and services coming along all the time. I am aware of some of them, and they sound intriguing, but they are not here yet.
Skype. It is not immediately apparent that Skype can be set up for regular "phone" service. However, my wife and I each have iPhones, and I had come to appreciate the very high quality calling experience that Skype gave me with iSkype; actually better and more reliable than Skype on Macintosh (but that is another story). I had also noticed that over the past year, SkypeIn numbers, now called an "online number" by Skype, had become available in my local area whereas they had formerly been available only in Charlotte, the nearest city. Online numbers are not available at all in Canada. Finally, I observed that the combined cost of a SkypeIn number and a US+Canada calling plan was just $60 per year, versus $360 from Time Warner. For all these reasons, I decided to give Skype a try as my wife’s and my regular home landline, and not just for beta-testing purposes. This had to work flawlessly.
Setup with Skype
Step one: sign up for a new Skype account. That took about 30 seconds.
Then I gave that ID a $30 per year US+Canada calling plan and a local SkypeIn number. The online number would have cost $60 per year but there is a 50% discount when combined with a calling plan, so it was an additional $30. Total: $60 per year or $5 monthly.
These purchases took about five minutes, made pleasant by the knowledge that I would be saving more than $300 per year.
Skype Configuration
For incoming calls to our new home number, my goal was to forward them automatically and immediately to our cell phones, thereby allowing them to function as extensions. When someone wants to contact me or my wife individually they call our cell numbers. When they want to call our home they call our "home number." It rings on our iPhones and the first person to answer is the one connected. That’s no problem because we can always use iPhone’s three-way calling if needed.
Note that I do NOT use Skype for voicemail here but rather let the cell phone handle that.
Some people may be disappointed that Skype’s online numbers are not listed in the directory or "phone book;" an anachronism and invitation to spammers. We are happy to not have the feature. Now, when we post contact information to family and to friends we share, it’s the "home number" we give them.
Skype does not simultaneously ring on multiple lines, and I was a little concerned incoming calls would not be re-routed quickly enough. That proved to be a needless worry because Skype’s settings permit calls to be forwarded more or less instantly. Set the preference to forward after 1 second.
Note the forwarding numbers in the screenshot are my cell phone and my wife’s cell phone. Skype allows forwarding to up to three endpoints, or "extensions." It would be nice if Skype would allow more than three to accommodate a larger family. If I wanted to, I could forward to my regular Skype name to answer calls in Skype. However I decided not to because when I’m sitting at my desk, I don’t want multiple devices ringing at the same time; more chaos than I can tolerate.
Outbound Calling
Considering our use of the "home" Skype ID for outbound calling, let it first be said that the primary use of the Skype "home line" is receiving inbound calls. Because of the 50% discount on the SkypeIn number, the US+Canada calling plan is essentially free.
This is how to configure caller ID for outbound calling. The following screenshot is from Skype for Mac 5.x whose user interface is infamously and unbearably horrible. You actually go into the "messaging" preference panel and enter your cell phone number for SMS. Ironically, the design flaw is inherited from the Windows version; it made it into the "gold" release on both platforms. Oh well, at least it works.
When deciding whether to make calls with your regular cell line or the Skype "home" line, consider:
Cost. Depending on the time of day and whom we are calling, your cell carrier (AT&T Wireless in my situation) may or may not charge extra. Skype will never charge extra thanks to the flat rate Canada+US calling plan.
Quality. When at home or in range of a good Wi-Fi connection, a Skype call is ALWAYS going to be of higher quality than a cellular call. I have a slight hearing loss, so this is sometimes a crucial decision, especially if the person I am calling can be reached on Skype.
Emergency Calling. Until Skype has emergency 911 calling, it should not be your regular phone for outbound calling. However, the default mode on my cell phone is not Skype, and even when I am using Skype I have local emergency numbers in my Skype address book, like "911 – Police." It’s hard for me to imagine that the FCC is not going to force Skype into implementing 911 services soon.
Convenience. To be frank, it’s easier to call out with the cellular line than to boot up Skype, even if my iPhone is connected to a power source. This convenience factor restricts my outbound calling with Skype to only those calls that will otherwise be charged as "anytime" cellular minutes.
Summary
Having completed the setup of the Skype "home line" with far less hassle than it would have taken with Time Warner, I logged out of the new Skype ID. Call forwarding doesn’t work if you are logged in and I haven’t logged back in since. It has worked flawlessly now for months.
So there you have it. A home phone line with a local number and unlimited outbound calling that rings on multiple "extensions" both in your house and when you are on the road, all for a cost of $60 per year. Can’t beat it.
Jason Asbahr is CEO of iOS game publisher Monstrous Company. Design defects in Skype’s persistent chat drove his whole firm to switch back from Skype for Mac 5 to the older 2.8. Still has love for Skype’s group video chat and hotspot payment services.
A programmer who’d worked on the precursors to Skype’s code in the last millennium asked me where Skype’s spirit had gone. “I can still dig and see my code (we all put eggs in) but I have no hope that Skype will keep the faith. it has become the bane of what we were trying not to do. they married servers with p2p.” An hour later I’d Skyped this.
code is poetry
it’s also speech
skype’s code speaks to its founders’ values and the new owners’ goals
they have three goals in mind
liquidity events (personal wealth) meaning an ipo or buyout
world domination
avoiding failure
nothing there about making the world a better place
or leaving the internet better than you found it
they are going through the transition that villages go through when they become cities and then nations
When my grandmother died, my father mourned traditionally. That included saying the Mourner’s Kaddish (text) at three services daily for eleven months. I was in high school, my brother in junior high, and we wound up going with Dad to many of those hundreds of services that year.
Most daily Orthodox Jewish services are surprisingly brisk, informal and matter-of-fact. Morning services smell of coffee and are early so people can get to school or work. Afternoon and evening services at dusk are an interruption on your way home. The guys get to know each other pretty well and some minyonaires become friends.
It takes ten to make a minyan. Jewish law defines a quorum of ten adults, or a minyan(מִנְיָן), for specific prayer services. A minyan lets you recite the prayer for your dead relative or read the weekly Torah portion in services.
We lived, at the time, in Long Beach, California. It was a backwater for observant Judaism and we couldn’t count on having the ten we needed for my father to say Kaddish. We’d usually go to the one minyan held across town but we’d sometimes be disappointed. We’d wind up on the phone, asking guys to come down for half an hour. We’d stop people on the street and ask if they could spare a few minutes. And sometimes we’d just go without.
That was a generation ago. What happens today if you’re stuck at nine? Can you phone in your tenth? Can the tenth Skype into your service?
I asked this of a Maryland Torah scholar after this last Rosh Hashanah. [Happy 5771, everyone! ]
Before we get into the technology: Why do we need a minyan in the first place? Since Jews talk directly with G-d, without intermediaries found in some other religions, why do we need others?
Is a minyan special? Why does a group have the power to hear the Kohan’s blessing? The most respected interpretation holds a minyan assures G-d’s attention to its prayers, that the collection of souls in one place brings the light of G-d’s spirit on that place. A minyan is like having G-d on the speakerphone.
That’s the purpose; what’s the practice? We have to bring the people together in space.
13] The ten (who constitute the minyan) must be in one place and the leader with them. If one stands in the doorway from the threshold and outward, that is, were the door closed, from the point where the interior face of the door rests and outward is treated as outside.
14] If a person is standing outside the synagogue and there is a window, even if it is several stories high and smaller than four cubits [six feet] wide, if he shows his face (in the window) he may be counted. Note: Roofs and upper floors are not considered to be in the house. One who stands there is not counted.
15] If a few of them (vi. the potential minyan) are inside and a few are outside, and the leader is positioned in the entrance he connects them (to form one minyan).
18] If part of the ten were in the synagogue and part were in the courtyard they do not connect (to form a minyan).
How close is close enough? From Wikipedia (perhaps the ultimate source of Talmudic pop-culture):
It is not just the status of the individual which dictates eligibly; the physical arrangement of the minyan is also a factor. Maimonides delineates the confines which are placed on the arrangement of the people making up a minyan. Ideally all the members of the minyan should be gathered in one room. However, if they are within hearing distance of one another, it is permitted for the ten to be distributed in two adjoining rooms.[25] Later authorities limit the extent of this opinion and rule that even if there is an opening between the two rooms, the two groups are still considered separate entities. Only in extraneous circumstances is it permitted, as long as some of the men in each room can see each other.[26]
So, for my geeky friends, you can count ten people when they are in physical proximity, enjoy full-duplex acoustic intelligibility, and have uninterrupted line-of-sight vision of each other.
Clearly the third and sixth century scholars of the Babylonian Talmud didn’t anticipate any way for people being close, for meeting, for talking, other than being in the same room. But their argument was specific: the next room creates a separation, a division. You might hear people through a closed door but that is not enough. An open doorway (perhaps like an open Skype window?) doesn’t restore the spiritual connection. You must be physically present in the same room.
You count even if you’re asleep or not paying attention. Even your unconscious self makes a miniyan if you are in the room.
So at what point does the new virtual presence match physical presence? Skype lets you see and hear everyone else, be seen and heard, and to respond amen. Skype can do this with vivid, high-fidelity, life-sized, two-way representations.
Yet it remains merely a representation.
You still can’t touch your colleagues or smell the room. Your field of view is limited, as is the field by which you can be seen. Virtual presence feels distinct. I’m still here and you’re still there. We must willingly suspend disbelief to ignore the hardware that delivers our conversation. Perhaps that convenient fiction keeps us from fully committing to the moment, to the others in the room. This moment is not fully shared, our fates are not fully connected.
It takes grounded, immersive, elbow-rubbing fellowship to pierce the limits of consciousness, enabling a collective breath of the divine. The presence of others helps you be so present that you transcend your solitary relationship with your god and experience the magnitude of your tribe’s relationship.
Skyping doesn’t qualify. No more than a phone call.
Rumor: Michael Arrington suspects minority Skype owner Andreessen Horowitz is buying Foursquare. I love 4sq. Robert Scoble has 8 suggestions for building more 4sq consumer/platform value as Yelp copies 4sq features. Meanwhile, I can’t wait for an enterprise version, the better to check in with colleagues, clients, suppliers, partners. The location-based-workplace is here, waiting to be updated, searchable, social, and easy to navigate. LBS checkins should do wonders for triggering face-to-face work conversations, adding people virtually to f2f conversations, and plain old space-shifting virtual conversations. A little Skype integration, foursquare?
Steve Jobs announced iOS4 and iPhone 4 at the Apple WWDC. They should make a better platform for iSkype: faster processor, longer battery life, front (VGA) and back (HD) video cameras, two microphones with noise reduction, multitasking, an improved display and now support for Bluetooth keyboards. This could mean better performance from Skype, the ability to stay connected to the Skype network all the time, even better audio than what Skype’s SILK codec offers, touch typing text chat, and Skype video calling.
Apple announced FaceTime, iPhone 4-to-iPhone 4 video calling. The spec for FaceTime is based on some open protocols and Apple will submit the suite to standards bodies. The rumor that Skype wanted to use FaceTime was downgraded to Skype noticing it.
ooVooreset its pricing for multiparty video calling. $0.10 per minute per person (e.g. $18/hour for three people above the two free included in the service) or $20 per month for six-way calling. Clues to Skype for iPhone’s mobile video charges? ooVoo has to pay for expensive servers and bandwidth since every stream goes through its servers at least once. Unlike ooVoo, Skype distributes its iPhone and desktop video streams peer-to-peer. Skype can undercut ooVoo ten-fold and still make money.
Skype hiredRick Osterloh from Motorola to head consumer product management. This includes desktop software (netbooks? tablets?), Skype.com, and Skype’s paid products (SkypeIn, SkypeOut, SMS, voicemail, WiFi access, etc.).
Verizon will put Skype on non-smart phones too, according to a news release. "Skype mobile from Verizon Wireless, currently available on 12 different smartphones, will expand to more handsets later this year, including several 3G Multimedia phones." Good for Skype: a lower price-point means more users will have access to Skype. via Florin
Skype will redesign its Skype mobile UI to pursue international callers. From the same release: "In addition to Spanish, Skype mobile will also be available in Korean and simple Chinese, providing more flexibility and the ability to communicate with people around the world. Skype mobile customers will soon see an enhanced user interface with a drop-down menu with flags for international dialing."
Juniper Research predicts 100 million mobile VoIP users by 2012, half in the North America and Europe. An analyst said "we also anticipate that several more traditional operators will have joined 3UK and Verizon in the US and developed relationships with mobile VoIP players such as Skype."
People are using Skype from conception to the old age home
Telemedicine was attacked in today’s Telegraph Herald, covering Dubuque, Iowa. A right-to-life advocate is afraid out of town doctors will prescribe RU486 to women in local Planned Parenthood clinics through a Skype-like videoconference.
Kids are using Skype for video play dates. In a few years it will be Skype pajama parties. Then Skype sex. I saw a difference between watching people shoot pool through a video monitor and, as I did tonight, watching a pool game in a local tiki bar. As vivid as the video gets, the view is frozen. When I move my head, my body, perspectives change and the part of my brain that thinks spatially tells me this is real, not a painting. So let’s be sure to keep kids catching colds from other kids, immersing them in face to face reality along with skyped conversations.
Meanwhile, check out Skypito: "Kids can finally safely chat on the Internet. Strangers and bad guys cannot reach them anymore." Uses Skype, naturally. Free, sponsored by EasyBits. This follows the classic blend of server based community and desktop based Skype plug-in. Meanwhile CNN readers who’ve never seen kids play together virtually objected strongly to video play dates.
My sons are big basketball freaks. My wife, too. So I’m in London and I can’t sleep. It’s 4 in the morning, so I go on NBA.com and I’m watching the Lakers and Utah game. And all of a sudden my little Skype video chirps, and it’s my three sons on their computer talking to me and they’re whispering.
I said, “Why are you guys whispering?” And it’s about 11 at night back home. They said, “ ’cause Mom will kick our ass if she knows that we’re up.” And so I said: “Well if she walks in the room, click me off, man. Don’t let her know I’m part of it.” But I’m sitting there watching the game with the boys and the only thing I can’t do is put my arm around them. I’m on the road 100 days a year, so those moments are really important.
"What’s the phone number for Skype customer service?" is the most common question I’ve been asked this year.
There isn’t one. All support is provided through Skype.com.
Why not let customers call?
The back of the napkin arithmetic is simple.
100 Skype customer support representatives (roughly) serve 400,000,000 user accounts (roughly). So each rep has about four million customers.
Let’s suppose Skype has the happiest customers on earth. In any given year, 99 out of 100 don’t have any problems with recovering passwords, payments, fraud, harassment, hardware, networking, or anything at all.
That leaves one percent of account-holders per year with a problem. One percent of 400 million is 4 million accounts with a problem sometime in the year. Let’s assume all the problems take the same effort/time and that they arrive smoothly throughout the year; so no need to allow for demand spikes.
If 1% of customers have one customer service issue per year (a low, conservative guess), then each rep works 40,000 issues each year.
That’s about 160 issues per day (assuming fifty weeks of work, no holidays), or 27 issues per working hour. At six hours worked per day, that’s about 2.3 minutes to solve a customer’s problem; 135 seconds.
Voice calls in call centers don’t work at this scale with these resources.
So what does Skype do?
Avoid problems. An ounce of prevention is worth millions in call center operations.
Design your software and web site to minimize customer issues.
Improve self service. Help customers help themselves through help pages.
Help customers help each other. Skype’s forums are very active.
Efficiently solve customer problems.
Text takes less time and effort than voice or video.
Asynchronous text takes less time than interactive chat. No hold times or waiting times.
Structured, templated complaints find their ways to the right people more often and trigger appropriate scripts for the reps.
Tiered support.
Registered developers and enterprise customers can purchase priority engineering support from Skype.
How much would you pay per user account per month for a Skype customer service rep to pick up the phone (or Skype) when you ring?
Add resources smartly.
Demand for support will grow. Skype’s user base continues to grow with millions of new customers every month. Skype opens up platforms, runs on more kinds of devices and computers, as Skype operates in more countries with many languages and cultural views. Demand for support will grow in volume, intensity, and variety.
Guest post by Christopher Buttner, President, PRThatRocks.com, a San Francisco Bay Area entertainment PR agency. Christopher, uses Skype at work.
Good Afternoon,
First, I am shocked and appalled that, regardless of how many support tickets I submit to Skype, I never get a reply from anyone at Skype regarding any of my ongoing issues, and there are many. Voice mails are not being saved and downloaded to my computer. Once they are played, they disappear and I have no record of them anywhere on my hard drive.
Additionally, after setting up SMS messaging for my cell phone, so I can be notified that I have Skype voice mail messages waiting for me, I never get the text messages to my phone. I have issued countless requests to have this matter resolved, I was promised it would take less than 24-hours and I am still NOT getting SMS messages. Skype is plagued with countless technical issues and a staff that ignores all support requests.
Skype is a parody of what people hate about big, faceless technology companies that won’t publish a corporate address or technical support telephone number. This is a crime and a waste of money. I need some answers.
Christopher Buttner, 33 Martin Drive, Novato, CA 94949 tel: 415-233-7350 cell: 415-302-0839 email: chris@prthatrocks.com
Soldiers head to war, Skype their mothers. "I’ll Skype as much as I can. But Mom would like me to call every day, all day long, Skype every day, all day long. It doesn’t exactly work that way," joked SPC Forney. Capital News 9, Albany, New York.
The World Mind Network advocates Skyping to improve the world. One conversation at a time.
"Skype or not to Skype, that is the question. But answering it invokes a larger conundrum: how to perform triage on the communication technologies that seem to multiply like Tribbles — instant messaging, texting, cellphones, softphones, iChat, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter; how to distinguish among those that will truly enhance intimacy, those that result in T.M.I. and those that, though pitching greater connectedness, in fact further disconnect us from the people we love." New York Times Magazine.
Have you noticed President Obama is never photographed using a mobile anymore? Here are some pics from The Official White House Photostream on flickr by Pete Souza.
Given how many hours the President must spend on a phone, is a Bluetooth or other wireless headset out of the question?
I just got a Skype online number and I love it. I want to use it for both business and personal. But there is no way to opt out of allowing my number to be given out to complete strangers by Skype or some Skype affiliate or provider (21st century telco? Level 3 Communications?) other than to say "only people in my contacts can use my number." Business users to whom I have given the number may not yet be in my contacts — I don’t want them to have problems reaching me, so I am forced to leave my number "open for all takers."
I have already gotten a spam call (voice mail recording — arrived at 5AM! — stating that I am pre-approved for a credit card) and I have only had this number ten days. Another friend of mine who has one also gets spam calls regularly — and in the middle of the night!
I can’t agree about support tickets. I think Skype purposely answers them so badly (late, inappropriate, canned responses) as to intentionally discourage people from submitting support requests. I am exhausted — just like they want me to be — from my efforts to get questions answered or fix problems via Skype "support."
Skype’s parent company, eBay, is just notorious for not caring what works for their customers and only about what works easiest and cheapest for them. What a shame! I really want to increase my use of Skype and am very wiling to pay for services from them. I just am waiting in hopes that the new Google phone features are managed with a bit more consumer respect.
Thanks again!
Katherine Robinson Determined But Discouraged Skype User
Skype Growing by 380,000 Users a Day. "The number of its users is growing by the population of Singapore (more than four million) every 12 days and nearly a third of its registered subscribers now use it for business purposes."
Pamela 4.5 shipped Wednesday. The new Call Scheduler and Conference Call Manager look handy. Still the best for recording Skype video calls.
I’ve never been in a long-distance relationship, but from what I’ve observed, it seems like cross-country coupledom is the way to go – especially in the technologically advanced and emotionally independent era we live in. Who needs roses and candlelight when we have webcams, emoticons and the ability to airbrush away our imperfections?
Globalization has swept the business world, and it’s bound to affect all of our personal lives sooner or later. Long-distance relationships are the wave of the future, so hop on the Skype train and ride.
Sometimes, when I’m arguing with my boyfriend about his excessive inebriation or his inability to properly display emotion or various other petty and pointless topics, I compare my relationship to my friends’ long-distance counterparts and the green envy monster rears its ugly head. I’m downright jealous of my friend who has daily Skype sex with his British girlfriend, and I kinda wish it were me instead of my roommate who got to send semi-pornographic photos via airmail to Kenya.
Granted, the long-distance thing can be a deal breaker for certain couples – Turkey Drop, anyone? – but I bet all you overzealous freshmen who broke up with your high school sweethearts over Thanksgiving break would think twice if you knew the sex can actually be better when you’re not sharing the same zip code.
Sure, long-distance sex has the potential to suck, but international intimacy can also blow, if you really put your mind to it. Phone sex is potentially awkward – Wait, where did you say your hand was? – and text sex is almost impossible. But I’m pretty sure webcams, what with their visual design and high speed, were invented to solve both of these problems.
The first thing any long-distance couple needs to pair with their webcams is Skype: It’s free, it’s convenient, and, when used correctly, it’s the best practical-turned-sexual invention since handcuffs. Once you’re all wired and the webcam is set up, your lover feels so close it’s like their wet mouth is right between your legs. Of course, when I say “their” I mean “your,” and when I say “wet mouth” I mean “sweaty hand,” but work with me here – it’s the perfect combo of sex and masturbation.
The beauty of Skype sex, aside from the beautiful alliteration the term lends itself to, is you can pretend your girlfriend is a porn star. Of course, nobody actually wants their girlfriend to star in sex tapes and aid in other dudes’ quests to cum, but who hasn’t fantasized about their woman prancing around onscreen? Think back to seventh grade – the Playboy bunnies were goddesses. Now, your girlfriend is a goddess, and it’s an exclusive peepshow for only your eyes to see. My buddy, whose girlfriend is 6,000 miles and a Skype connection away, said it best: It’s just like a Wednesday night at YouPorn.com, except you get to talk to your favorite video girl afterward.
And it’s not just the boys who reap the benefits of cyber sex. For ladies, the beauty of bringing yourself and your partner to the big O over a webcam is the advance warning implicit in the arrangement. You know how sometimes, you go over to his place with plans to cuddle up and watch “A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila,” but his dirty male brain has something else in mind? In a long-distance relationship, this dilemma is nonexistent, because there is no such thing as surprise Skype sex. You’ll never be caught with extra hair down there you were meaning to shave tomorrow, and you’ll never feel obligated to give a half-hearted blowjob. Right after you two plan the next time you’re gonna meet up on the ‘net, you have the chance to plan the lighting scheme, pick out matching underwear and decide exactly how much eyeliner achieves the elusive balance between lady of the night and girl next door.
Long-distance sex is superior for both genders: It’s the ultimate equalizer. It’s much easier for the ladies to fake an orgasm, and the guys don’t have to cuddle afterward – everyone wins.
If you need me, I’ll be at the airport. I’m flying as far away from my boyfriend as possible… just as long as there’s an Internet connection.
Daily Nexus sex columnist Dana Olsen wonders why there isn’t an emoticon for her “O” face. Photo credit: Kiss Lips by Anyaka.
![Screen 2[3]](http://skypejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-23.jpg "Screen 2[3]")
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Long-distance relationships are the wave of the future, so hop on the Skype train and ride. 
Join the Skype 6.X Text Chat Room