Just a few pointers resulting from a day of using Skype and assisting acquaintances who run a couple of small businesses get going with Skype. The day started with three concurrent chat sessions with contacts in London, New York and Munich; why does everybody make contact at the same time and then it’s quiet for hours?
In order to keep in touch with reality, it is sometimes useful to go out and help someone start their Skype experience to see what new Skype users come across as they install Skype (currently version 3.5). This was a case where my acquaintances are paying over $300 per month on North American long distance; they have been doing a number of three-party calls (telco limitation) and they do a couple of desktop sharing sessions each week via a GoToMeeting account. Here are some of the issues that arose:
- When you install Skype fresh, it seems that “Show Outlook Contacts” (in the View menu) is now turned on by default. I have never used this feature as I have over 1,000 Outlook contacts, most of whom I might contact once or twice a year at most. I don’t need the Skype Contacts window clutter that would result. I would much prefer to access my Outlook Contacts phone number information via the Skype Email Toolbar installed into Outlook.
- This feature should either be left “off” at startup or be proposed as a parameter to be set during installation. Contributing to the problem is that, if you have a large number of contacts, it actually can take some time (like up to 15 to 30 minutes) before the Outlook contacts appear in the Skype Contact window as Skype needs some time to load up these contacts. And then the new user becomes very confused; “what did I do to make this happen?”. So, on installation, make sure this option is turned off.
- They asked why one of them, who has a significantly more expensive (than Skype’s) fixed rate North American long distance service, should buy SkypeOut credits. (I’ll discuss the Unlimited Calling Plan later) We came up with four solid reasons for using SkypeOut beyond her existing plan:
- To make multi-party calls beyond three participants
- To make calls from the laptop while away from the home office
- To make inexpensive calls outside North America
- For desktop sharing, even if using GoToMeeting (they will be evaluating the Skype Partners’ desktop collaboration tools in due course).
- Why not just go to the Unlimited North American Calling plan immediately? Because, in spite of the low cost via Skype, the most important criteria for this very non-tecnhical user is reliability of service. She knows the other plan, even though it is more expensive, works. She needs a few weeks’ experience with Skype to gain the confidence required to be able to use it as her primary long distance service and to drop the other “telco” flat rate long distance service. It would definitely be helpful to build this confidence if two weeks of unlimited North American calling could be provided to new North American Skype users.
- I was asked if Skype chat windows would recognize numbers for use via SkypeOut when entered as part of a Chat message. We tried “(416) nnn-7890” and did not get a link. A quick Skype chat enquiry to an expert on Skype’s phone number recognition brought back the answer that you can’t forget the country code; so “+1 (416) nnn-7890” is recognized just fine as a SkypeOut hyperlink within a chat window.. For the most part North Americans have no idea of what the “+CountryCode” phone number format is all about (although the presence of “+” on wireless device keypads is increasing awareness).
Upon completion of the initial installation there can be a lot of settings to review initially especially to ensure privacy. A starter wizard could set the following as the more critical parameters, phone numbers and settings for personalized Skype operation::
- Entry of mobile and office numbers (see this post for reasons)
- Basic Sounds: Classic or Modern
- a single selection to cover all settings
- frankly most people I encounter prefer the Classic settings to the default Modern
- “Allow calls from”, “Allow chat from” settings
- Show Outlook Contacts (Yes/No)
- When someone calls me
- {Show Skype call alert, Show Windows tray alert} (with examples)
- Automatically answer incoming calls selection
- Call Forwarding Number(s) entry
- SMS message option
And finally, doing a purchase of Skype Credits during this setup demonstrated new international economic paradigms. Whereas the Canadian dollar has traditionally tracked the US Dollar in relationship to European currencies, it now appears the Canadian Dollar is tracking the Euro and not the US Dollar’s downward drift over the past few months..
And how is Skype contributing to this massive international economic change? Since the beginning of SkypeOut two years ago, SkypeOut rates to major countries were US$0.021 or less per minute but C$0.024 per minute (reflecting an earlier 15% premium for the US$ relative to the C$.). When looking at SkypeOut rates today, we found that the US rate has risen to US$0.024 per minute while the Canadian rate remains unchanged. Friday was the first time since the mid-1970’s that the Canadian dollar traded above the US Dollar on foreign exchange markets. And Skype is pegging the C$ to the Euro.
By taking this direction in pricing changes, Skype is not only disrupting communications but also disrupting long standing international foreign currency trading traditions. My macro-economics prof told me that ongoing massive government operating deficits will eventually devalue a currency — and he is getting verification during this period of high U.S. federal deficits and economic turmoil in the U.S. Proof again that there’s no free lunch!
It also corroborates that Skype does most of their interconnect contracts in Euros – to be expected given both its headquarters business office location and much higher base of European relative to U.S. users.
Tags: Skype, Skype Unlimited North American Calling, Skype Credits, Skype Email Toolbar, Skype installation, Skype pricing, Skype Sounds
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