Skype has been around for quite some time now… it has established itself as VoIP (Voice over IP) initiator. This means that it will allow you to make calls over the Internet. Now, it has taken another major step towards bigger market. It is now offering what it calls “Unlimited World Plan“. What is this? For just $10 a month (ok, $9.95 to be precise but it’s $10!), you can make unlimited calls to anywhere in the 34 countries! And it also happens to include South Korea! 😀
So I signed up to test this humongous potential! I used my Logitech Webcam as microphone. I call Soojin up as she’s in Korea. I hear her just fine. However, she says she can only hear my first syllable… like a bad cell phone call. 🙁 I get frustrated so I hang up. I call her back with the cheap calling card I have been using from www.fonsale.com
Brian had warned me about this poor quality… so I was about to give up on it… but after few days of thinking, I decided to search SKype’s site for “poor quality”. What comes up first? Echo. That’s right. First thing it says is that echo can degrade audio quality and that webcams are infamous for it. So I decided to unplug the USB webcam and plugged into mic port a microphone that I own. I dial Korea again, and this time, she hears me perfectly!! 😮
Conclusion to this review? What about this line? “We have a winner!!” 😛 Seriously folks, if you call one of those 34 countries frequently (and that includes within US, Canada, and Mexico), this is one heck of a deal!! Just be sure to not use USB webcams!! 🙂