Calling all geeks - Internet Phone

[Hawkmoon]

A friend of my wife's (in South America) wants to play with Internet phone. She has come up with the name of a program -- SKYPE. They have a web site ( www.skype.com ) and it looks interesting. The price is right -- free. Does anyone know anything, good or bad, about this program?

Does anyone have any other free Internet phone resources they can recommend?

[gottripletsNC]

it uses internet connections to talk, you talk to a microphone hooked to your computer, and it comes to you over the computer via the speakers. The other part of still uses the computer and will dial the number from an ISP hub that is local to the number you are calling. Works ok if you have a GOOD broadband connection. Sucks if you have dial-up... Personally, I just get a good phone package and use the phone.

[John]

Good old VoIP (voice over IP). It's amazing that the technology is around for so many years, and still not every darn telco on this planet is not switching to it. The benefits (both for the end user and the operator) are amazing, but the existing investment is also so huge that telcos do not even want to think about the change.

VoIP (free VoIP) works, as long as the whole internet path between the caller and the called person, is not overloaded (overbooked). Quality can some times be better than normal telephone (I found that hard to believe too, but it can be done, we used to demo that, when I was working for a VoIP equipment manufacturer).

Rgds