HELLO Manju! Hello ‘Telly-tubby’! That’s the trend of a typical conversation, via video, between my family and my cute little niece in New York every day… For free! Imagine life; how simple it has become communicating with family and friends worldwide… Right at our finger tips! You want to show your sister who lives in India how healthy your kitchen garden is in Guyana! Just click it! Skype it! And you got served!

With more than 400 million registered users, Skype is the most popular voice communication service in the world. Skype is one of the pioneers in voice communication over the Internet, and many other applications and services have followed it. Many outweigh Skype in features and quality, but what makes Skype top the list of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) software is its popularity. The Skype service comes with application software, which is why many people think of Skype as being only software, overlooking the great service behind it.
Skype has broken many barriers to communication. While in the past you needed to take particular care of the minutes and seconds you spend speaking on international calls, you no longer need to bother about that now. If you use Skype to make PC-to-PC communication, you pay nothing more than the monthly Internet service fee, which you would have had to pay anyway, with or without Skype.
From anywhere in the world, you can make unlimited calls, totally free, to anyone anywhere in the world, provided that that person is using Skype too. So, you have to arrange to meet that person Online at a particular time.
Skype also provides presence information in a very practical way. Presence is the availability and willingness of a person to communicate. For instance, if you find a buddy Online that is ready to communicate, then there is presence. Skype allows you to know if a buddy is Offline, and when he/she is willing to communicate, so you can log back in at that time.
It is also possible to use Skype to make local and international calls to landline and mobile phones, through special apps like Public Switched Telephone Networks (PSTN), and also receive calls from these phones on your PC. That is not free, but is very cheap compared to traditional landline and mobile international rates. These services are called Skype-Out and Skype-In, respectively.

People use Skype mainly because it is popular, and, as a result, many people can be found on Skype, from new friends to business partners. People around the world use Skype for several purposes: For long-distance meetings with family, friends and loved ones; for remote activity monitoring; for business calls; for long-distance conferences; for cheap calls during travel; and for simply socializing etc.
Skype is used in nearly all countries of the world, as it has been developed with a view to delivering clear and consistent calls over the Internet. Today, there are many Skype user-groups around the world. The largest groups are found in Europe, North America and South East Asia.

Skype is almost 11 years (launched in 2003) old this year, and has undergone certain minor changes. Maybe, we need to look at it from a different perspective; one that will, on the one hand, consolidate our respect for a still-going-strong pioneer, and on the other, make us realize that we might find greener pastures, considering that there are other PC-based calling tools out there that have gone one step or two beyond where Skype has reached.
But let this be said before we go any further: With 100 billion free calls, no other VoIP service has achieved this. The fact, therefore, still remains that if you are starting off with VoIP, and you want to make a multitude of friends out there to whom you can talk on voice and video chat for free, Skype is your best bet. Let’s briefly brush through its history and see what’s so good and bad about it.
Back in 2006, just three years after launching, Skype’s subscriber database hit the 100-million mark. In 2007, Skype had more features introduced, like SMS; radio; desktop sharing; sketch pad and the famous business control panel, a free web-based tool that allows you to set up and manage Skype within your company. The control panel manages Skype credit and Skype-In numbers for all members of the control panel.
Between 2007 and 2008 saw the release of Version 3.5, featuring video conferencing and free video features. Another newer version styled up the Skype softphone interface. Skype also improved the quality of its free video calls, allowing a better video conferencing experience. It also introduced the 3 Skype-phone, a mobile phone designed by 3 to be with used the Skype service for mobile calls.
Skype later introduced the Skype-to-Go number, a special access number you can dial to call almost anywhere in the world — from any phone or mobile in your country– and save with favourable rates. It also partnered with the very popular social networking site, MySpace, for better buddy search.
I’d like to think that most people using Skype do so because they are ignorant of other tools that do the same job. But, had they known, would they have changed service?
Where Skype lags behind
Yeigo and Fring, for example, do great with mobile phones, and have brought VoIP, and hence free calling, in the pockets of mobile phone users. Skype does quite poorly in the field of mobile VoIP; in my humble opinion, 3 Skype-phone is not a real success. You wouldn’t buy a phone just to use Skype, would you? The new Skype softphone for mobile phones is no better than other key players in this field.
Having said all this, I myself still use Skype (among others). Why? I guess the main reason is its popularity. Skype gives you an open window to talk free to 400+ million people worldwide. With Skype, and other applications like it, you can talk for free with anyone in the world; on condition that they are using the same service (Skype in this case) as well. So, with that many subscribers, your chances of talking for free are much bigger. Most business contacts, friends and relatives do have a Skype presence.
Skype’s call quality is also an asset; though its quality is not the best around, it’s reasonably good, as long as the conditions for a good VoIP communication are gathered. It has its own SIP andP2P standard, and a good number of servers worldwide to ensure good quality.
Also, its popularity has caused it to be adapted by many other services. For instance, it can be integrated with email clients like MS Outlook and Mozilla Thunderbird; with services like Jet numbers virtual number service, etc. It is also the target application for most call-recording tools.

Here is a list of all you need to have, to be able to use Skype:
•    A computer with decent processing power and memory, including generic peripherals likes keyboard and mouse.
•    A good (fast) Internet connection, preferably broadband.
•    Sound. Make sure your sound card is working properly.
•    Speakers or earpieces.
•    A microphone.
•    The Skype software, which is downloadable, free, from www.skype.com
•    A Skype account; this is done after installing Skype on your device.
•    One or more persons to communicate with. They need to be Skype users as well. If they are not, you can still access them through their normal phones, but then you have to pay for extra services with Skype
So, make your next call a Skype call. It’s easy, cheap, and fun.