So the missus and I have been land-line free for years now. But lately, we’ve been finding it difficult to keep our phone usage within the quota of minutes that we have on our cell phone plans. So, I signed up for Skype long distance and have a pseudo land-line through my computer. It was easy enough to hook up my physical phone to the computer through a USB telbox. Since the Skype plan I got is unlimited for almost a pittance per month, it’s working out to be quite economical.
On the whole I’ve been impressed with the quality of the talk quality I get using Skype. For the most part I can’t tell that my phone is hooked up through my computer. But there are three things that do remind of this. Two are really major annoyances. First, when I dial a number using my phone handset, I have to come to my computer and press ‘dial’ on the Skype client. Why it can’t dial from my phone directly is beyond me. Second, Skype has major difficulties with touch-tones. So anytime I’m dealing with an automated phone system, it’s very hit or miss. In fact, I can’t dial into my work conference calls using Skype. It just doesn’t work because it can’t understand the tones that Skype sends it. Last, I need to keep the computer on all the time. The last thing is more an electricity-wastage play.
All in all, I’m going to stick with it…unless the touch-tone thing gets to a point where I can’t bear it anymore.
