The 3 Network -SKYPE phone works great

[ginapeterb]

Tried and Tested Free calls to the Philippines for SKYPE Users on 3G


Some of you may have remembered I made a post a week ago about my purchase of the 3's network phone with integrated SKYPE, well the good news is, Yes Yes Yes, it works great.

We tested the phone yesterday whilst on the road, our best friend based in Bacolod City, Western Visayas, called up Gina whilst we were traveling down the A13 near Canvey Island in Essex, the phone rings just like a normal cellphone, the difference being the caller is connected to their PC on SKYPE, Gina took the call and had a great conversation lasting exactly 54 minutes, and by the time the call had ended we were parked up some 30 miles away in Bluewaters Shopping Mall car park.

The call quality was superb, and I think this phone is a great buy for someone who wants to keep in touch regularly with their Filipino relatives, or their Girlfriend, Wife, Fiancee, etc, or even relatives which is what we use the phone for.

Its also a dedicated GSM Phone, a PAYG is £49.99 with a £10.00 monthly credit.

The deal with 3 means you must put £10.00 a month on the number as a top up, to maintain the free SKYPE service, their is a fair use policy of 4000 minutes per month, which equates to around 16 hours per week.

I worked out, that similar calls to our relatives in the Philippines was costing around £100.00 per week pro rata, so the phone is well worth a buy, the phone can be purchased from SKYPE's online shop.

Just thought I would mention it to any other interested readers, by the way, if Husband and wife have them in UK, all your calls are free on SKYPE, point to point user....and anyone else who is on SKYPE at same time.

[KeithD]

We have 2 of the Skype wireless phones that plug straight into the broadband, no need to have a PC on (altough mine are never off!!), work great.

I have Skype on the PDA, but you need to be near an open network.

[andypaul]

One point is check you have good 3g coverage where you live. We don't in our house. But fine out and about. Also we live in an area where a lot of commuters pass though major roads and train routes plus one of the largest airports in the world up the road. This means sometimes even with a strong 3g signal the actual data rate is very slow or nonexistent due to lack of avaiabilty of channels to log into. So sometimes im sure the service will drop off if your unlucky. For example in some malls and high streets at this time of year all the blokes surfing 3g waiting for the missus so service might drop off.


Sounds real useful and i think for three they have found the "killer app", my wifes mum lives in Italy where 3 are as well so im trying to encourage them both to use.

cheers for the heads up pete i read about it but nice to here as real users views.

[ginapeterb]

Keith,

I also considered buying a wi-fi skype handset, and thought it was really useful with the "Ultimate killer app" on it, however, as I had already purchased a 2nd hand Dell Axim 51 from Ebay, Gina was using the very excellent SKYPE on that, and the call quality is absolutely superb, she can roam around the house and sit in the bedroom anywhere she wants, yes I see the wi-fi skype phones are great for that.

Andy, some of the points you raised about coverage and data channels is valid as this can happen, I have tried the phone in the house, anywhere, coverage is great, also around the town, and in LONDON, coverage and call quality have been superb, not as clear as GSM but clear enough to make the phone a great buy.

Thanks Andy I agree with you, I think instead of disabling phones internet telephony stacks which I know O2 and Vodaphone/Orange have tried to do, they should embrace the technology, as 3 has done, I think for £50.00 its a good buy, I was just talking to my sister in law in Philippines for about 1 hour and having a great conversation knowing full well that its not costing me a penny, thats a good feeling.

I can remember my very first call to Gina when we started courting, back then it was £45.00 on orange, (the most expensive 1st call ever made probably) ...but we all learn our lessons. dont we !

[andypaul]

ouch 45 pounds that rings bills. I remeber just before i went to phill for the first time for the three months or before i had been using my vodafone numbers to call, text phill and had a huge monthly bill of way over 400 pounds my phones were free and the best deal i have ever seen plus accessories thrown in by vodafone!!!

One more question is whats the battery life like when using is it worth buying a spare battery for the phone? I could see the wife using the phone battery to death and then needing it for an emgency call. I know 3g generally knackers the battery just in standby let alone streaming loads of data.

[ginapeterb]

Andy, I am not sure how the battery life is on this phone when being used in 3g mode, probably doesn't last that long, i.e. maybe 5-6 hours, but as Gina only ever calls one person, they chat once a day, the phone is worth it to me in terms of low cost calls, the only problem we find is that, its getting a bit silly to have her handbag full of mobiles, one for UK use, one for SKYPE calls, I just wish some of the other networks would embrace the SKYPE package, instead of running scared.

I am not sure how to get a spare battery, but I am sure the 3 network can supply it from their own shop.

As the phone is only used during skype calls, I have no idea how long the phone will last when tested on long useage, sorry Andy I am too busy playing with my new Apple I phone, and thats another story.

[andypaul]

Looks like a typical sony phone i know for a fact in alabang we were buying spare batteries for less than a tenner for similar models.

Like you say it gets complicated carrying two phones im used to it due to work and when the missus it used to be in phill it was three uk personnal, uk work and one to text Phill. Whenever a phone rang i would pull out the wrong one looking like some sort of dodgy drug dealer

Enjoy your iphone prefer my nokias but can see the appeal

[mhynne]

My husband and i use this.. and it really saved us a lot of money.. i just usually call him in his phone through skype and we talk for hours.. =) we basically sometimes ran out of things to talk about hehehe... doesnt work in all phones though.. but really worth having..

[adam&chryss]

Hi. If you want to use only one phone for uk calls and for skype try 3 X-series. It`s what i use. Costs £5 per month and includes Yahoo messenger, windows live messenger and skype too. Subject to fair usage but as mentioned before that a lot of calls and im`s! I pay £35 per month for 300 uk mins and 1000 uk texts and the £35 includes £5 for x-series.
Hope this is helpfull to you.

[ginapeterb]

Good information Adam, I have been frustrated by the networks lack of uptake for skype, I have been skype Pro and skype out customer for quite some time so it annoys me when the mobile networks wont embrace it.

3 has done this and the X series is superb, sadly, although my Gina has her SKYPE mobile, we purchased the lower cost one, as she has a contract with T-Mobile, so £49.99 for the cheaper phone plus £10.00 a month is better for her.

I have now taken the plunge and switched on to the Apple I phone with 02 when it comes to the features and interface there isnt anything to compare its a truly superb convergance device, I am smitten by it.

But last night I did find a way to make skype calls on it, by using Shapes new software, by logging into my skype account on safari, and then seeing all my skype contacts online.

The software then makes a conference call between myself and my skype contact, costs me a skype out credit, but hey you cant have everything, and it works fine.

Where there is a will there is a way.

For now, I will have to content myself with that.

[KeithD]

We pay a few quid every 3 months on Skype, which allows any UK calls for free (apart from the one-off that is, think its £8). This saves me £3,533,634.03 in the cost of calls if I used BT!!

[andypaul]

Good information Adam, I have been frustrated by the networks lack of uptake for skype, I have been skype Pro and skype out customer for quite some time so it annoys me when the mobile networks wont embrace it.

3 has done this and the X series is superb, sadly, although my Gina has her SKYPE mobile, we purchased the lower cost one, as she has a contract with T-Mobile, so £49.99 for the cheaper phone plus £10.00 a month is better for her.

I have now taken the plunge and switched on to the Apple I phone with 02 when it comes to the features and interface there isnt anything to compare its a truly superb convergance device, I am smitten by it.

But last night I did find a way to make skype calls on it, by using Shapes new software, by logging into my skype account on safari, and then seeing all my skype contacts online.

The software then makes a conference call between myself and my skype contact, costs me a skype out credit, but hey you cant have everything, and it works fine.

Where there is a will there is a way.

For now, I will have to content myself with that.

Voip and skype are not like by the big boy phone companies. I think for three it will be the killer app, just check the people you see using calling cards and how big a market it is, that if they sell at a decent rate for them will bulid them a huge market share. The company that own 3 have the clout to get them there thats for sure.

For example we are looking at getting my wifes mum a skype 3 mobile in italy so DOM maybe worth it to chat to family there

I use various voip apps mainly with wlan in the city but the coverage and the bandwith where it is avaiable is just not good enough at the moment.

I will be supporting 3 with this brave move and hope it takes off

[adam&chryss]

One thing i`m not certain of and I wonder if anyone could explain it to me. If I buy my fiancee a 3-skype phone here in UK and take it to her in Phil will she be able to use it for free? Or is it classed as roaming and subject to higher charges. I assumed it`s for people in UK to call abroad as oppose to the other way round. I hope i`m not sounding thick!
Thanks
Adam

[andypaul]

One thing i`m not certain of and I wonder if anyone could explain it to me. If I buy my fiancee a 3-skype phone here in UK and take it to her in Phil will she be able to use it for free? Or is it classed as roaming and subject to higher charges. I assumed it`s for people in UK to call abroad as oppose to the other way round. I hope i`m not sounding thick!
Thanks
Adam

I looked it up last night it would be roaming im trying to find out how much it might cost as they are nifty and im sure globe and smart would sell bucket loads of them but they would lose all that lovely load spent on sms.

If she lives very near Hong kong and had a huge aerial pointing in that direction shewould be ok.

Anyone with realtives in hongkong this should soon be avaiable.
Also italy, austraila among others.

The skype phone is working as a mini pc using skype connecting to either the 2g (gprs) or 3g network which sends the speech on to the skype network which the person in phill can log into at present via pc.

[ginapeterb]

Yes Adam, I concur with Andy on this one, yes its roaming if you buy your lady a skype 3 phone and take it for her, or send it, she would be roaming, so its not much good to her, also the Phone works great on 3G here, Miss Gina has taken to it and uses it everywhere, out and about, in the back bedroom where she talks to her best friend for about 10 hours a night, and then at the end of the conversation, tells me.. she didnt haven't nothing to say.

The Business models of Smart and Globe, will not take into account skype, as you have said they rely so much on sms revenue, as very few people make voice calls, if it was skype to skype around the Philippines, it would take off really well.

But 3G is not the current network there, and even though it may come into fruition in the future, I doubt whether they will allow VOIP over their networks as they know what that could mean.

I found a way this week of making SKYPE calls over my Apple I phone, by simply having skype on my PC call my I-phone and setting up a conference call, which it then mutes, and transfers the speech from my phone through my home pc to the skype network, then my skype contacts in the Philippines can hear me and talk to me, the speech is then transferred from my PC back to my phone in seconds, the only problem with this, is that its costing me for a connection on my skype out allowance, as its actually made a chargeable call.

I think the E65 which 3 is selling is a superb phone with SKYPE built in, what a great buy, with a killer App....hmmmmm I am drooling, but just wish Apple had built it into the i PHONE..ohhhhhhhh don't tempt me...to drool on that one.

[andypaul]

Yes Adam, I concur with Andy on this one, yes its roaming if you buy your lady a skype 3 phone and take it for her, or send it, she would be roaming, so its not much good to her, also the Phone works great on 3G here, Miss Gina has taken to it and uses it everywhere, out and about, in the back bedroom where she talks to her best friend for about 10 hours a night, and then at the end of the conversation, tells me.. she didnt haven't nothing to say.

The Business models of Smart and Globe, will not take into account skype, as you have said they rely so much on sms revenue, as very few people make voice calls, if it was skype to skype around the Philippines, it would take off really well.

But 3G is not the current network there, and even though it may come into fruition in the future, I doubt whether they will allow VOIP over their networks as they know what that could mean.

I found a way this week of making SKYPE calls over my Apple I phone, by simply having skype on my PC call my I-phone and setting up a conference call, which it then mutes, and transfers the speech from my phone through my home pc to the skype network, then my skype contacts in the Philippines can hear me and talk to me, the speech is then transferred from my PC back to my phone in seconds, the only problem with this, is that its costing me for a connection on my skype out allowance, as its actually made a chargeable call.

I think the E65 which 3 is selling is a superb phone with SKYPE built in, what a great buy, with a killer App....hmmmmm I am drooling, but just wish Apple had built it into the i PHONE..ohhhhhhhh don't tempt me...to drool on that one.

Apple users will soon have skype and other serives sorted for the apple i phone but i doubt apple in bed with o2 will develop a preloaded version for it as the evill phone companies will not allow it and im sure apple make a cut of the monthly and possible calls made. At least that was the claim with the apple at and t/ apple deal in the US.

[ginapeterb]

Yes Andy you are quite correct in your information, Apple are picking up a percentage of the termination call revenue, its my understanding from Mac Rumours the site I belong to, that O2 Are paying them about £11.00 a month on each handset from the minimum contract of £35.00 per month.

Thats not a bad deal is it mate.

[andypaul]

Yes Andy you are quite correct in your information, Apple are picking up a percentage of the termination call revenue, its my understanding from Mac Rumours the site I belong to, that O2 Are paying them about £11.00 a month on each handset from the minimum contract of £35.00 per month.

Thats not a bad deal is it mate.

The way i have seen people walking out of shops in central london on my travels and the wide range of people i have seen walking about with them a very nice deal indeed Pete.Considering how many people will be waiting for contracts to run out.

We are buying a second skypephone tomorrow im impresed by the 5 pounds extra for all the basic webserving you can do a month.

Also i noticed slingbox can beam telly to your 3 mobile ( i think only contract ones not to sure) so for those who miss there tfc while out or if your really ambitous your gma or star in phill slingbox beaming it back to the uk (over the top but so was browsing the web on your phone a few years back).

[joebloggs]

don't know if you've read about the court cases about the i phone in france and germany

http://www.toptechnews.com/news/Unlo...d=131007L3OTUS

[andypaul]

Just to add to this site the wife is as we speaking buying two skype phones for 89.99 saving ten pounds as they have a special deal instores which means in theory the first months top up is only 5 pounds each for the two phones.

These may be useful for brit-phill couples especially when the phill is first over as they can talk or chat(like yahoo) to back home much easier and also to their hubby when sperated in the uk (for example when he goes to work a tough time for newly reunited couples) for just a ten pound top up. The phones allthough basic look very nice and silm.

[ginapeterb]

Andy
Thats an excellent idea, I am sure for those British Filipino couples who want to stay in touch, if the husband is out on the road, SKYPE is a great way to keep in touch with each other at very minimal cost, or if he is at work a lot and the lady has just arrived, she might want to call him and talk over 3G I think there are applications where this phone package is great in that situation.

[andypaul]

This weekend i went to bayswater three store on the way back from woking in liverpool street the system both for credit top ups and to actually buy it was down grr. So couldn't buy them but the missus finished work and bought two at the price a Black and also Pink model. The other we had is going to a friend.
We could buy any credit for the Phones as threes credit system was down on saturday. But i set them up (took 5 mintues) also the phones have windows live messagner which you can download these phones set up so it has to be a hotmail.com or .co.uk type not sure it will take yahoo and others. But some of the other services include yahoo and google are there as serach pages, so im sure if it takes off both will be pushing to put there messagners onto these devices.

So if your workplace like most doesn't let you use messagner on a your pc at work you can carry these in your pocket and at a low cost speak to your Mahal. Which helps with the time difference if they are in Phill. Less late nights and early mornings for both unless wanted.

Also the call it appears is actually a phone call to three skype server and then becomes a "skype" call it appears and when you recieve the skype call it is a phone call from the three sever. Thats why it works ok in 2g,2.5g and 3g areas as they advertise.
I think Three use as well as there own transmitters also use orange network so if you have a good orange phone signal you will get the skype call. From i can see.

I like to add i have no intrest in three but like both three shops visted this saturday they are selling well the assitants (the wifes assitant had sold 20 himself not including other staff) told us but in both occasions we could choose from what colour of model we wanted.

As far as i know apart from the london free newspaper cover adverts, which are poor as they don't explain to a non techy person quite how you could save, no newspaper or tv programe or even martins moneysaving website have picked up on them yet in a big way once they do i can see them become hard to get hold of, as we approach christmas.

[ginapeterb]

Thanks Andy for telling us about your purchases of the skype phones, my Gina was talking to her best friend today on SKYPE, they have been on all day, how is that for fair use policy hahaha, they started at 08.30am this morning, then they talked until about 10..30am, then they had a break and started again around 12.00pm, they talked until about 4pm, cant believe how long they were on.

I think in total they talked for about 7 or 8 hours, using Yahoo video as a means of seeing each other, wow, what a mammoth chat session.

It certainly is going to make a big difference, I would like the E65 to talk to my mahal when I am on the road, but I have 1200 minutes a month with 02 on my Iphone, so its hard to see how it will benefit me...but its always worthwhile to have skype if I was here in UK.

[andypaul]

Thanks Andy for telling us about your purchases of the skype phones, my Gina was talking to her best friend today on SKYPE, they have been on all day, how is that for fair use policy hahaha, they started at 08.30am this morning, then they talked until about 10..30am, then they had a break and started again around 12.00pm, they talked until about 4pm, cant believe how long they were on.

I think in total they talked for about 7 or 8 hours, using Yahoo video as a means of seeing each other, wow, what a mammoth chat session.

It certainly is going to make a big difference, I would like the E65 to talk to my mahal when I am on the road, but I have 1200 minutes a month with 02 on my Iphone, so its hard to see how it will benefit me...but its always worthwhile to have skype if I was here in UK.

The missus and i both like you have a ridiclous amount of "free mintues" but the rental is 80-90 pounds or so including insurance for the two numbers. For many that will be way to much to pay, with one of the couple new to the UK and needing to contact at home. Our bill back to phill can vary but 20 to 40 pounds a month is not unknown sometimes a lot more. So seriously investigating how this might, reduce costs. I estimated 50 to 60 quid a month in savings even with a bit set aside each month to pay for extra credit etc. This pays the internet connection in phill and extra to pay for a new ee pc every 10 months or so

I think the max usage quoted is 4000 mintues a month and 20,000 chat messages i saw that somewhere other than on the networks own website so may not be correct. That works out at 60 hours a mouth or so.

[ginapeterb]

yes the fair use policy is 4000 minutes per month, which is some chatting, my problem is I have 1200 minutes and Gina has 120.00 a month of allowance, and she often ends up with £70.00 left, and you cannot roll it over, I will stick to GSM, but international calls are still way over priced so SKYPE is the way forward for skype subscribers to talk to each other.

[Peanutz]

I gotta try this!!!
I have been looking for cheap ways to call my sister in PI, we currently using virgin for cheap overseas call but that is only for US and Europe, it is good that I can call Mom with it but bad cause it cost me lot to call my sister.
Thanks for this info Peter.

[andypaul]

I gotta try this!!!
I have been looking for cheap ways to call my sister in PI, we currently using virgin for cheap overseas call but that is only for US and Europe, it is good that I can call Mom with it but bad cause it cost me lot to call my sister.
Thanks for this info Peter.

The peeps i have shown and tried it out with here in the uk have either gone or are going to buy one.

As long as the family in phill have skype, headset, pc and a internet connection your sorted

[ginapeterb]

I had a good experience today Andy, and any others who are interested, my mate in South London William, a good friend of this forum, actually had a skype mobile to skype mobile call, I have to say the quality was not bad at all.

He was on an E65 using X series add on, which gives him SKYPE ORB MSN GOOGLE, ISKOOT, MOBICAST, those sort of services, but I called him from Gina's QUALCOMM phone, which is the new dedicated SKYPE phone being provided by 3.

We spoke for about 20 minutes and it was I have to say not bad quality, not quite as good as a GSM call, slight harmonica in the background and because his 3 network signal at his place is not as good as where I live, the call was sort of coming in and out, but apart from that, the signal was fairly good all round.

I fancy picking up one off EBay on 3, which someone wants to sell just for the SKYPE calls, for £10.00 a month its not a bad plan, I am trying to cut down my GSM bills like Andy, the problem is when you get into contracts, you get free minutes to use, but your bill always seems to be higher than you anticipated.

What I also like about 3's top up scheme, is that you can put £25.00 on the phone and you end up with around 500 minutes, I use between 900 and 1200 minutes per month, which is some chatting, but lets face it, we use our GSM mobiles like a 2 way radio these days.

Thats why I am attracted to being able to talk on SKYPE to my mates whilst being on the road, the 3 network offers this.

I just wish more of them embraced it, I have a friend who uses SKYPE for his business, he has SKYPEIN as well as SKYPEOUT, so his customers can call him on his SKYPEIN number giving them a local call, whilst he has a small connection fee to any local UK landline of 3p, but the call is free.

I use SKYPE to Go also in my SKYPE PRO package to call my house in the Phlippines, if my caretaker, or I want to speak to my maids, also sometimes I might want to talk to my driver/mechanic, skype is great for this, especially if I think of something in London, while I am driving, or I need an errand running downtown, I can call on my skype phone and let it answer in the house.

All exciting stuff.

[andypaul]

I think this hybird type of phone will be the winner. As skype the internet and voip can have off days as we all know. If it does you have the back up of gsm calls.

The other intresting part although i think the next version will improve on what we have now is. The staus which works but a little slow to change sometimes i noticed. So when your busy people will know but online so if you text or call at least you know why they might not respond.

For example someone in phill wakes up in the middle of the night wants to call there mahal in uk. But they are in a meeting which was sprung on them. the staus can be changed to meeting so at least the phill caller knows and viceversa. Not worried where are they why they not answered im sure we have all had that feeling?

[ginapeterb]

Andy good points you raised actually as we speak I am on apple I phone now putting in this post and its simply great ! Nothing beats the I phone for convergence but just put skype and it will be the ultimate gadget especially as my one finger typing is being corrected as I should add this comes via wi fi from BLuewaters costa coffee shop in Greenhothe Kent.