There's been some talk here about VOIP in various incarnations and Panasonic switches. I thought I'd post our recent experiences with integrating Skype. www.skype.com
Skype is, at it's heart, a PC to PC phone service not unlike some of the IM voice calling services. But it's also more than that. There are USB Skype phones that look like a one-piece telephone complete with dialing pad. There are USB and PCI Skype-POTS adapters that connect a phone (or phone system) to Skype.You can place and receive Skype calls from a regular, familiar phone, ringing and all. Skype to Skype PC calls are free worldwide. SkypeOut lets you call to a POTS line anywhere in the world at the same rate as SkypeOut LD inside the receiving country. So SkypeOut calls from the US to, say, Austraila are 2.5c/minute, as are SkypeOut calls inside the US. Even better, domestic SkypeOut calls in the US are free though 2006 (just to get you hooked). Here at home, on my 1232-11D, and at work on our new KX-TA824 switch, we have Skype appear as another CO line using Cuphone USB RJ-11 Combos (www.cuphone.com). Incoming Skype calls ring the phones like a regular call. If the SkypeOut calls weren't free right now, the 2.5c per minute domestic LD is still cheaper than the ATT inside-the-area-code LD rates. Throught the switch, SkypeOut calls are dialed like 00-1-abc-defghij-##, where abc = area code, and d-j = the phone number. Skype-Skype numbers are dialed as a preconfigured speed dial, or through VNCing into the Skype computer to dial a text Skype name. At work, we now have our Skype Name on our website and invoices so Skype-aware customers can call us. In theory, the other half af the Cuphone Combo makes an extension on the switch look like a Skype call. So a call ringing on that extension would call your Skype client on your computer anywhere you're connected to the Internet. We haven't gotten quite that far yet. SkypeIn is a fee based service that gets you a POTS phone number that rings through to your Skype account, with free voicemail. There're SkypeIn numbers in a lot or most of the calling areas in the world. You could have a London number for your business in Peoria. The downside is that there are not yet Skype numbers in all cities. The closest available numbers in our area code are in exchanges over 100 miles away. Slightly off the Pana topic, I have a USB Skype handset on my laptop that I also use at home and work to place and receive calls. I used some 3M hook and loop to be able to hang it up on the side of the screen. And, cooler than that, there's a Skype client for Pocket PCs. I have it on my Dell Axim, and can make and receive calls anywhere there's a WiFi hot spot. Most current Pocket PCs are even designed to be used as a one-piece phone. On the Axim, the mic is in the top and the speaker below the screen, so holding up to your face inverted makes it work like a phone. Or you can use a wired or Bluetooth headset. In almost all cases, the call quality has been very good to excellent. The only substandard calls were with someone using a low-cost USB headset on a computer. The analog headset and adaptor-based calls have been great. And, farther off-topic, Skype does conference calls, and Skype 2.x now does video calls as well, with a USB camera (I have no affiliation with Skype, just a user and fan.) _________________________________________________________________ KX-T Mailing list --- http://kxthelp.com/ Subscription changes: http://kxthelp.com/mailman/listinfo/kxt
