Hi all.

You may have heard of Skype. It's a free program that lets you talk, computer to computer, anywhere in the world, for free. So far so good, but both parties have to have the program running. However...

There is also a service called SkypeOut, which lets you use the computer program to call actual phones anywhere in the world at much lower than long distance rates. Even better. But there's more...

Until the end of the year, you can use SkypeOut to call telephones anywhere in Canada or the US from a computer anywhere in Canada or the US for free. Nothing to sign up for, no catches, and nothing required of the person your calling. Just enter the number (or numbers... you can conference call with you and up to 4 others) you want to call into the program, and their phone rings.

Called my mom yesterday (i'm in Ontario, she's in Arizona) and she said the sound was, if anything, better than usual.

I went ahead and bought credits so i could also call my brother on his phone in Holland. I can now call him (or both him and my mom at the same time) for about 2 cents a minute.

NOTE: Anyone who is now coming up with jokes about 3 ways and my mom, kindly keep them to yourself!

Of course, you need a mic, preferably a headset mic, but most of you already have those for use with vent, so that's no problem.

Get it at www.skype.com

Disclaimer: I have no business relationship with skype, and get no benefit from encouraging others to download it. I just think it's cool as hell!

think big p was talking about it here.....
http://www.mobclan.com/forums/upload/index...showtopic=11216
silver tried it but don't know what happened

You can get it in the UK aswell,but instead of a headset ,you can buy an actual pnone that plugs into the USB port of your comp

Funny enough, I was just reviewing my phone bills tonight, filling out some expense accounts. I'm only paying $0.01/min through AT&T. (Not including the monthly fees which is around $12 or so including taxes.) Nothing to do with Skype, but I was amused at how cheap long-distance has gotten.

Back when I was a young 'un, (maybe 1975) I remember Dad calling the operator xmas morning to schedule a trans-atlantic call to the grandparents that afternoon. The operator would then call back around the scheduled time with the news a line was available, and would then connect the call. I don't know how much it cost, but we kept it pretty damn short, so I imagine it was pretty steep.
I expect it wont be many years before long distance charges are a thing of the past.

Gotta love competitive markets!