OT: Skype.

Any good?

Actually, now that they have stuck a connection charge of 3p on each
outgoing call[1], SkypeOut ain't so good.

[1] to landline.

I've used it quite a lot to talk to people in the US, the quality was
variable sometimes good, sometimes bad. It really depends on the quality of

I'd say the same for connections from Spain to India.

your connection.

I first saw it a few years ago - we had a conference call with three of
us in Manchester and another guy on a beach in Greece. I was impressed
to hear the sea.

I use it to talk to people when I'm abroad, PC to PC. I've not used the
PC-to-real phone yet though.

Yes.

Started using it last year when no. 1 son moved to Uni. His halls had
restricted bandwidth down to around 16k and we still had perfectly
intelligible conversations (1) with him with little or no distortion.
Still use it now he's out in the real world with real bandwidth.

I was thinking about calling fixed lines in the YUK from my desk here in
Spain. I currently use a premium rate (902) number, but half the time it
doesn't work and when it does the quality is awful.

The lad's paid for that option and uses it to call home (briefly to get
us on-line and Skype-ing). Seems to work well, quality good. My only
advice from our experience is don't skimp on the mic/headset, the sound
on Skype is only as good as the input device.

(1) As much as you ever can with a hormonal, music obsessed drinker