I've been a Skype user for years, pretty much since it first hit the world. Think way back in the day, before it was a standard feature of laptops to have internal microphones and webcams, when you had to have a microphone connected via the audio-in jack on an add-in sound card. And on the whole, I've been pretty happy with it. My wife and daughter both use it, relatives and friends both interstate and overseas. I have used it to keep in touch with work colleagues all over the world. We have an unlimited calling subscription with an inbound call number, a little box that connects to a cordless phone, and a WiFi Skype phone that lives in my travel bag. And I'm going to ditch it all.
I've been a little annoyed over the years that Skype insists on using a proprietary protocol for their voice traffic. It's a pain to manage and secure, and makes interoperability with other systems difficult. I've put up with it because the up-side has been usually no need to configure routers or firewalls on the basis that it just works.
I was really annoyed when they announced that Skype-to-Skype calls made over a 3G data connection on the iPhone would be charged via SkypeOut credit. Not really a big deal, as I'd usually be on a WiFi network when wanting to use that kind of thing, but annoyed because the claim was always that Skype-to-Skype calls would always be free. It was the principle of the thing.
I've also been really, really annoyed that the two phone numbers associated with my subscription (an inbound call number, and a so-called "Skype-to-go" number, that allows me to dial-in from anywhere and have the call forwarded at Skype rates to anywhere in the world) seem to keep changing. This is a real pain, as it means you can't just hand out the number and expect it to work; you have to keep checking to make sure it hasn't been changed on you.
The final nail is the email I just received telling me I should start using my Skype-to-go number. To make things easy they included the number in the email. For some reason, this number has now moved from Melbourne to Sydney. Go figure.
It's now at the point that I simply cannot rely on anything to do with this service. I'm going to migrate all my VoIP services to a SIP service, from a provider who actually treats the phone as something important. I'll be able to use any number of interoperable pieces of hardware and software to make it all work in the way I want and need it to. And, more importantly, I'll be able to give someone a phone number and be comfortable that it will still work tomorrow.
Posted via email from Richii
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