Wireless Home Networking - Index of

Chapter 13: Using Your Wireless Network for Phone Calls
Wireless Skype phones are capable of supporting free calls worldwide to
other Skype users, as well as inexpensive inbound (to your number) and outbound
(to other people) calls using Skype’s SkypeIn and SkypeOut services.
(We talk more about Skype’s different services in the sidebar titled “Why
Skype is different.”)
Following are some manufacturers of Skype wireless phones:
� DualPhone (www.dualphone.net)
� Philips (www.philips.com)
� GE (www.home-electronics.net)
� NETGEAR (www.netgear.com)
� Belkin (www.belkin.com)
� Linksys (www.linksys.com)
� SMC (www.smc.com)
Skype is a peer-to-peer VoIP network, which
means that rather than having a centralized control
point for routing calls around the network
(and around the world), each individual Skype
client (the software on your PC or on a Skype
phone) contributes to the effort and assists in call
routing.
At its most basic level, Skype is a client-to-client
VoIP system. This means that with a Skype client
installed on your PC (or phone), you can make
calls to anyone else in the world who has
installed the (free) Skype client. This level of
Skype is free for anyone (beyond what you pay
for your broadband Internet connection). Even
this free level is handy because there are often
as many as ten million Skype users online at any
given time, and hundreds of millions of registered
accounts.
The next level of Skype is called SkypeOut.
SkypeOut enables outbound calls from your
Why Skype is different
Skype client to regular landline or mobile phones.
You can buy SkypeOut service plans (which, for
example, offer unlimited calling within certain
geographies — in North America you can subscribe
to a $3/month plan that allows unlimited
calling to anywhere in the U.S. or Canada). You
can also buy Skype credits (in $10 increments),
which allow you to make calls to anywhere in the
world, with rates starting at $0.021 per minute.
The final level of Skypedom is to subscribe to a
SkypeIn account. This provides you with a Skype
phone number (in your local area code) that
anyone can call. SkypeIn also includes free
voicemail, so you can pick up calls that you’ve
missed after the fact.
Skype has a lot of different calling plans, and
rates to different countries vary, so check out
www.Skype.com for all the current details.
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