I agree that the spyware is a bit much to take in, and I am very glad I read about that before installing. In my case, I am lucky enough to have multiple computers, so now that I know spyware is going to be an issue it is going on one of the spare PC’s. It can feel free to slow down the spare PC all it wants=)

With any luck, I will be one of the lucky ones who enjoys the service. If not, I rolled the dice and lost. As a current skype user, I can say I tend to be quite happy with it. I don’t have a phone number associated with it, but if magic jack doesn’t work out, I guess its time to get a skype #.

I still need to understand the different protocals of how each service works and what exactly is the method of the service I am paying for and why do I have to pay them anything at all!

Meaning, if I already have high speed cable internet service what are the different methods used to convert a conversation into a telephone call that will make someones phone ring and be able to communicate with me from my computer or my phone plugged into my computer or my phone plugged into a special modem that is then plugged into my high speed cable internet line, etc. Not so much from a scientific point of view but from a point of view as to what are my options and why do I need them and why can’t I do it myself.

Noteworthy may also be the question of, if any of these companies fail will I still be able to make calls using whatever I bought from them.

I want a generic system, does it exist?
It doesn’t matter who goes out of business the internet will still be there, generally, etc.

BTW, also noteworthy may be the discussion of the caps on minute usage by each of the services, “unlimited” may not actually mean without a limit!
I have read of a very great number of disputes with many services about this very issue. One service implies unlimited might mean 5,000 minutes a month, another seems to indicate up to 10,000 is OK and another has a formula that ends in their discretion…

Thanks for listening!
NaturalTV

I found this review very well thought out and well put. I am currently researching multiple options with Skype. I have used all three of these services now for not only personal but also business use. Here is a list of services I have used…

Landline, Cellular, YahooIM to Phone, Vonage, Magic Jack, RingCentral, and now Skype!

I will have to say by far I am the most impressed with Skype. As one of my business partners I have done FREE Skype-to-Skype calls says’ “It sounds like she can reach out and I am in the same room!” I would say the same of hers!Read more below under SKYPE!

Here are my personal opinions of all of the above:

Landline: Old Hat and nowhere near competitive or flexible!

Cellular: Over the last couple of years I have actually just been using cellular phones for personal and business. In fact I find that my clients prefer my cell as they can text me as well as call me and they feel confident they will reach me, even if I don’t answer. I found that when I had my $15,000 Professional phone system and when people couldn’t reach me there, even though they could leave a message, they would call my cell anyway. So nonetheless I am allowing my clients to feel less like they are chasing me down when they call and leave a message. (I answer most of the time, LOL) Overall in this new economically conservative era we have entered (at least that is how we consumers are responding to the economic climate, even though the gov thinks they can spend their way out of this…) I am looking for more ways to save and simultaneously improve communication quality! At this point I have two numbers on my business card. 1) Office which is an 800# that forwards to my cell and 2) My Cell # / in the end everyone reaches my cell, so up front no loveloss on my level of professionalism, and those that call both quickly realize my 800# calls my cell when they get me both places and they then call my cell direct. Yes the 800# does cost me $0.02 per min when they call me, but the professionalism is worth it.

YahooIM to Phone: I did this as a temporary solution back in 2006 when I moved my office, didn’t have a landline set up yet as the ultra convenient local phone company AT&T couldn’t get out there on time. At the time I didn’t have one of those great new unlimited cell phone plans so I was watching my minutes. Being a big user of YahooIM for the Instant Message aspect of office to office communication, I then saw the ad for calling landlines for free or reduced after free min ran out. I will have to say my experience was this went well on the limited occasion I used it and the people I called always got a kick out of the caller ID always showing us as 777. Someone once said to me that they thought God was calling them? LOL Overall no one could call me at 777, and today and as of late I’m not even able to use this service, it is grayed out in the program? I know I still have min as it was only $0.02 per min…

We have also used Vonage for the last couple of years as we moved to using cell service we didn’t want to lose our landline number that we had and as the review states it is the only one that you can keep you existing #. In the end now that we have done the cell thing for the last couple of years and I have branded my Cell & 800# as my numbers noone even calls my Vonage line anymore (of which I have forwarded to my cell also) So we are getting rid of it and the number soon as I finalize my latest setup that I feel is going to trump all.

MagicJack was a very exciting opportunity as I had a few new agents that were not interested in using their cell phone as their main line as I do. So since we have computers at each desk all hooked up to high speed cable internet, so MagicJack seemed like an easy decision. The only thing I can say about this is two words, “Tin Can”! Every call I ever made from multiple computers with MagicJack I received complaints that people couldn’t hear me or my agents. Overall I guess MagicJack has one thing going for them! Their price is so cheap that people like me won’t invest very little time, or none in my case, at getting their money back.

RingCentral: This seemed like a promising option as I was hearing great reviews from other sources. On top of this I could set up four phone numbers on unlimited service with vm, call tree, unlimited extensions, etc for only $99 a month, also included a virtual fax to email. So all in all I was looking for this to be a great solution and I could cancel all the other items I was paying for and actually save money. Wouldn’t be a big help to me as I still use my cell for 99% of all of my business calls, but would be a great solution to get my mobile salesforce on the same system as we are all workign virtually over all 50 states. (Modern Business World)
- Problems I ran into with RingCentral were with the softphone (phone/dialing software for the pc) as it kept causing problems with my pc and the call quality was not there. Then on top of the hours I spent with customer service in Singapore with people who did not fluently speak my language, it was explained that their service being international works better in some places than others. So in the end it wasn’t worth the hassle and the agents ended up going to my cellular solution since unlimited plans are totally unreasonable on cell phones when you factor in the grief factor. I ultimately still like all of the bells and whistles that RingCentral has to offer and I might have been having more problems due to it being a slower pc that was having problems and me having install issues. After I installed on my laptop it worked great, but again people are using their cell mostly today so the expense didn’t make since, so we canceled it in Aug of 2009.

Skype is my current project under way… Having a growing sales force on a national basis I found myself entertaining the idea of RingCentral again as it has all of the professional features to allow our mobile force to stay connected. But before taking the plunge at setting up over 50 accounts I figured I would research other options. Over the last couple years I have had Skype come my way but never paid any attention to it, but due to a few business connections mentioning its use I began to feel left out! As you can imagine by my in depth details here, I like to be the source of info! So here I am, I have taken up some time over the Christmas Holiday to play with it a bit. By far I have experienced the absolute best call quality out of everything, including my cell phone, landlines, everything. No other solution has built in Video Conferencing, Oprah uses Skype, Instant Messaging, File Sharing, Screen Sharing, and prob other things I have not found yet! On top of all of this the base cost of FREE, oh but watch out they get you on the Unlimited Subscription to anywhere in the US and Canada for $2.95/month!!! (Sarcasm) Oh but then there is $4/month they charge you for a call in if someone wants to call you! So to have unlimited in and out and everything else you have to pay a whopping $6.95 per month! But the review does mention that you have to buy a Skype phone! Well you don’t “have too”, you can choose too, as you can use the software and your speakers, headset, and mic on your computer. I do think the Skype phones are interesting as they work off the wifi network in your house. (Time to through out that old cordless phone anyway…) The biggest thing that intrigues me the most about Skype is its Open Source / FREE Roots!

So why am I so interested in Skype since I use my cell phone so predominantly in my life? Simple, many people are missing the coming change of leveraging and eliminating of cell phone carriers. In fact Google just this week took a major step in Launching their first phone ever sold directly by Google without a carrier!

You see with tools like Skype and GoogleTalk you can actually leverage your internet connection to make phone calls! ALL WITHOUT USING YOUR CELL MINUTES! Yes you have to have an unlimited internet package on your phone, otherwise this would be cost prohibitive. So if you are thinking what I was thinking, this is a great way for me to continue doing what I have been doing, which is using my cell, but lower my rather expensive unlimited plan on my cell, allow my wife to no longer watch her minutes on her cell plan, and allow my sales force to do the same! All done without really adding cost but helping them and myself reduce cost! Remember we were talking $6.95 a month unlimited, let along the great savings it can pose for international aspects! If your plan costs anything like what we pay you are looking at easily a $50 – $100 a month savings.

So feeling very proud of myself at realizing how great and endless the possibilities would be with Skype I sat back and realized that it didn’t have any form of professional services I could with RingCentral? But I was wrong, you see I am also a relentless Google Search Pro and I was able to find multiple services that allow you to push your skype calls through solutions that add enhanced features like RingCentral. So now I set out to figure which was the best and most economical add on! The great thing about Open Source/Free solutions is the developers and home developers like to create solutions that work with them!

The solution I found to add-on to Skype is called Zaplee, and believe it or not they offer a solution that allows you to create a professional call tree, or even a home phone call system that costs only $5 per month for Unlimited Users! While this is a self hosted solution, if you want to beef it up and have professional service you can pay only $10 per month per user. So worst case you are up to $16.95 per user for Unlimited everything! Compare that too RingCentral at $99 for four numbers, that is a savings of $30+ per month! Plus I can save the other money on my cell plan, so with all of these savings I am actually doing this for FREE!

In all fairness RingCentral does have an app for the iPhone as they are the only app of their kind for the iPhone as Apple and AT&T gave Google the stiff arm on adding their app GoogleTalk! Hum I wonder if this played into Googles Swift action to bring their own Non-AT&T cell or maybe wifi (FREE) phone to market!

Now as it is also stated in the review above no one person can really make a clear recommendation on these products unless they are biased. But I have to say I can, as I have used all aspects of these services and I even have the ability to sell you any of these options through various affiliate programs I am enrolled. So you decide!

I just know that today it is about function & cost effectiveness and I believe that many of the contributions that open source developers create is on par or superior to that of other for profit companies may have brought to the market. Hence the competitiveness of Skype and the add-ons that are constantly being developed!

I will be posting an update to how I get this complete phone system setup with Skype and Zaplee, so check out my Blog and I will also post it to here!

http://www.ufam.wordpress.com

I will be amazed if this whole thing fits!