Finally I’m connected again at home. Today marks the start of a new experiment: I’m going to use Skype and my mobile phone exclusively from now on. I had Cablecom digital phone before but was very unsatisfied with the quality. And I am not willing to pay the monopoly tax to Swisscom, because it’s too expensive for the rare cases where I actually use fixnet telephony.
So now I’m using SkypeIn (as purchased in November when it became available in Switzerland) and of course the ever wonderful SkypeOut. The advantages are quite a few. First, I have a mobile “fixnet” phone line. Whether I’m at home or on my office, you can reach me at that number. Also the phone calls are forwarded to my mobile phone if I’m unable to accept the call (not tested yet). So in theory I should be reachable very easily under my “fixnet” number. Second, I have cheap rates (see also my comparison of last year - though in German and almost certainly outdated now). Both to Switzerland and Peru, the two countries that currently matter to me. And to about any other country on this planet.
There are currently two disadvantages. One is that SkypeOut does not pass on my number when I call somebody. On my cell phone it shows up as “no number” while on a fixnet phone where we tested, it shows up as 044 586 00 00 (044 586 87 83 is my number). The second disadvantage has to do with my current headset. It’s a bluetooth headset which turns off after a few seconds of not using it. When I accept an incoming call it takes a few seconds for the headset to get activated again. That one is easy to fix, I’ll just buy a better headset.
I’m excited about this change and very interested in how it turns out. Is anyone else using Skype exclusively? Or maybe there is even somebody in my readership who tried it ans switched to traditional phones again?