170 Spoons

Use Your Computer To Talk With Others

WHY? It’s cheap, often free, and can save you a lot of money.

Several years ago we stopped paying our phone company for local and long distance. It was just too expensive. But we kept our phone number so there was no hassle for anyone. We did it by switching to an internet-based phone service. Soon, we may even drop that.

Switching to Internet-based Telephone

There is a technology called Voice-Over IP (VoIP). All that really means for us is that we can use an always-on internet connection to talk with people. The cool thing is that you can, if you want, still use your telephone.

The first step we took was to switch to using Vonage in 2005. They offer two plans: $25/mth for unlimited calls or $15/mth for 500 minutes (we are using the $15/mth plan now). They offer everything (and maybe more) than our local phone company and their International rates are MUCH cheaper. For us it was all about getting the same service and more for much less — and yes, we use our normal phones with this service. We can track all of our calling history online and even have voice mail emailed to us (which comes in handy when traveling). There are other VoIP offers out there so just look around. If you want a referral to Vonage, let me know and we’ll both get a month or two of free service. But do it soon because we may be…

Dropping Land Lines All Together

Recently both my wife and I got new mobile phones and plans. We got a phone plan that allows us to share 800 minutes (rollover) National minutes. It was the cheapest/best deal for us. I know many people now have these kinds of plans and we are now realizing we have less need for a land line at all if we just use our mobile phones. We can be mobile and always in touch. But there is another tool we are using on occasion for talking to people that is very cost effective…

Text Chat, Voice Talk, or Video Talk for Free

Skype is a small program you download on your computer to communicate with others. It’s really amazing. We’ve been using it for several years and I am sold on it and it’s free for most of our usage.

It works like an Instant Messenger program. You add your family and friends to your contact list and then type text chats to each other. You can also create a chat room with a few contacts at the same time. We use the text chatting all the time with people around the world — and often with each other when we’re across the house (instead of shouting)!

Skype is also a VoIP program which means you can also voice chat (or video chat) with your contacts for free. And yes, you can have a voice conference call. I used this feature this week for a meeting with 3 others in Canada. Last year we used it to plan an International conference. Since they have Skype it was all free. When we were visiting our friends in Alaska, I set them up on Skype, they got a web camera, then called their family and got them on Skype and a web cam. It was awesome seeing the Grandparents in North Carolina seeing and talking to their Grandchildren in Alaska (and did I mention this service cost them nothing?)!

If you want to call someone using Skype and they don’t have Skype, you can still do that by calling their phone number. This is when you pay, but still it is dirt cheap (right now it’s $3/mth for unlimited US/Canada calls, $10/mth International).

Though the service is free, you’ll need to make sure you have a couple things first:

• For text chatting and best results have Broadband Internet
• For voice talking have a microphone & speakers or get a headset
• For video calls get a web camera that includes a microphone (and of course speakers)

I know I just gave you a lot to ponder so if you have any questions leave a comment or contact me! I’ve taught many people how to use Skype and love it. Later I’ll create a “Skype best practices” post. Leave a comment if you have some and I’ll compile them.