Skype hitting the mainstream - The VoSky Call Center from ActionTec

David Pogue the NY Times gadget and technology report has a report on a new offering for Skype that permits Skype to be integrated with an analog telephone in the house and also gives you a way to call into the device with your cell phone and place outbound Skype calls. The device provides a digital answering service and other call handling options (in addition to the excellent features provided by the SkypeIn and SkypeOut services).
This gives you an interesting way to use Skype to replace your home telephone line or even replace other traditional model VoIP services such as Vonage.
Why do this?

• If you have to make frequent international calls and don't want to be constrained to your PC and a headset - this is for you.


• If you are tired of Vonage or other such VoIP services which can have less quality than Skype and have a pricing model similar to AT&T (the old SBC).


• You want to take advantage of the fact that you have one or more cell phones in the family that are reliable backups and you want to break the tyranny of the Ma Bell type companies and their VoIP emulators so you can save some money. You could probably save enough to add HBO to your cable service so you can watch season 6 of the Sopranos.

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WARNING
Big time caveat - make sure you understand how (or if) your 911 emergency dialing will work should you choose to move away from Ma Bell.
Don't Assume you automatically have 911 service and that the 911 service you install is connected to your local 911 center


Taken straight from the Skype website: Skype is not a telephony replacement service and cannot be used for emergency dialing.

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Setting up Skype as your home telephone service - A Plan
I will be reporting on the success of this as a comment to this post in the near future - maybe.

1. Install Skype on your PC (absolutely free) Immediately you can start talking to other Skype users free. Skype to Skype call are always free


2. Purchase a SkypeIn telephone number - this let's folks from the outside world call you. You can do this directly from the Skype software using a credit or debit card or PayPal. A 12 month subscription is 30 Euros (about $37.00). That works out to about $3.00 per month for a number that can be called from any telephone number.


3. Purchase SkypeOut - which allows you to call out to regular telephone numbers - for a usage fee of 2.1 cents per minute. As with SkypeIn, you can establish this service via the Skype software. Unlike other services - you buy SkypeOut credits - I usually purchase 25.00 Euros (less than $30.00) at a time - which can last for several months of outbound calls to regular telephone numbers.


4. Purchase and install the VoSky Call Center and connect it up to a telephone. I recommend you pick up a 5.8GHz cordless base unit that to which you can add additional cordless handsets as needed (avoid the 2.4GHz cordless telephones as they will interfere with WiFi). After trying telephones from GE, Motorola, and Uniden, surprisingly I recommend the Uniden PowerMax 5.8GHz for its much better sound quality, sleek and usable design, better software and firmware, it can also support up to 10 additional wireless handsets. I picked mine up at OfficeMax - but I think they are widely available. Friends tell me the Panasonic makes a great cordless telephone as well, not to mention Panasonic has announced a Skype plus Analog telephone expected to ship third quarter 2006. Using a cordless base station, such as the Uniden, will allow you to add more extensions - thus getting around one of the limitations of the VoSky Call Center - the support for only one analog telephone. I now have a Uniden for our main telephone number and one for my J&J Vonage line (yes planning to move away from Vonage Real Soon Now [RSN] over to our own internal VoIP solution based upon the Asterisk PBX).

Reasons why not to move away from Ma Bell

• Ever wonder why you can use your telephone to call your electric utility that your power is off due to a storm or transformer failure? You can do this because Ma Bell started their infrastructure when there was no such thing as reliable electric power. Your local telephone company's central office systems are run off of batteries. When I worked for AT&T in the 1980's these were very cool, 1950's science fiction looking liquid batteries in these large glass contraptions. So if you decide to move from Ma Bell - you now have put the electrical company and their reliability in front of your telephone service. Is your Internet Access via Cable modem? If so, now you have put your electrical utility and your cable provider's reliability in front of your telephone service. Even with DSL (from the telephone company) you are putting a DSL modem and router and some form of Ethernet connection and its reliability in front of your telephone. Last but not least, most of us run Microsoft Windows XP. If you use a PC based VoIP solution, you now have to add Redmund and Microsoft reliability in front of your telephone services. So let's recap.
  
  
  
  
  

  Service	Failure Points
  POTS (AT&T, Verizon, etc.)	The Telephone company and possibly your electrical utility if you only have a cordless telephone
  VoIP via dedicated device (like Vonage	Electrical Utility, High Speed Internet Provider, VoIP connection device, possibly a high speed internet router (such as a Linksys or D-Link router/firewall/Ethernet switch)
  Skype or other PC based VoIP	Electrical Utility, High Speed Internet Provider, VoIP connection device, possibly a high speed internet router (such as a Linksys or D-Link router/firewall/Ethernet switch) Now Add your PC and Microsoft Windows XP's failure modes in front of your telephone service

  
  


• See the warning above about 911 service.Depending on the VoIP service you select 911 service can be addressed. I have my Chicago number installed up here in the Northwoods. The 911 dispatcher connected to my Chicago Vonage number is the one up here in Michigan


• VoIP reliability over broadband Internet. I still will run into disrupted voice communications every once in awhile. More so when I am using our Cable modem up north here than the DSL I usually use in Chicago, but it does happen. Even though I have a Linksys Router with builtin VoIP and Quality of Service (QoS), there is a disruption every now and again using Vonage - though much, much less with the VoIP builtin to the router. I can cause problems with my Skype connection over Cable Modem by kicking off a large download during a telephone call - although this is not a problem with DSL usually.
  

The Bottom Line
If you have a cell phone, reliable high speed Internet service, and are a bit adventerous, I would definitely recommend considering the VoSky device as an alternative to paying Ma Bell for dedicated telephone line. You can add a $100.00 Uninterruptible Power Supply to your PC and networking equipment which will greatly minimize some, though not all, of the additional failure points that are encountered when moving away from Ma Bell. A dedicated PC, if available should help as well.
There I talked myself into it - I am going to give this a trial and report back on how well it works.