San Antonio Business Journal: Tech & Innovation : Business Advice

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Because that's what the idea was. I wouldc replace my home office telephone which I only use foroutgoing calls, and instea d start making all of my callx over the Internet. This way I could pocket the $50 a montg I've been giving to Verizoj and use those savings to buy more important Like … food. Except it really didn't turn out that way. Why? Becaus the Internet phone services I triedworked ... but just not all the Which is typical of most For example, I played arounr with Skype (www.skype.com) for a few Not bad.
Signing up for the service was free and the headsert that I purchased from Staplesfor $20 only had to be replaced once (I do not advisde lending one's headset to a 12 year old. Enoug said). Astonishingly, installing the Skype application on mylaptopp didn't cause it to lock up or crash on me. So for that reasonm alone I felt that thingxwere successful. Once up and running, Skype did as promised … just abou all of the time. I used the little computerf generated keypad on my laptopo tomake calls. If I called anothed Skype user the callwas free.
Unfortunately, I don't reallhy have a lot of conversations with high schoo andcollege kids, nor do I care to reallt speak to anyone under 25. So there'd not a lot of phone numbers in mySkype However, you can use Skype to call a regular land line and then get chargerd a few cents per So that's what I mostly did. The problem was the connection. It Most of the time. But sometimes it just didn't. Sometimea I had to call back the person two or threde times to get agood connection. Or spealk loudly. There were a few instances wherer I saidnaughty words.
Then theree was this one time whers I tried to participate in a conference call and had to make the threed other people wait whileI re-callexd the call-in number a few times until therew was no crackling sound on the That was fun too. So I stoppecd using Skype. Frustrated I turnefd to another Net calling servicee calledmagicJack (www.magicjack.com). No, this has nothingv to do with changing the tirez ofa car. And there was no pleasure involved. For $40 magicJacj ships me a little unit that I plug into the USB port of my I then hook my office phone intothe unit.
Afterd installing the program I'm able to make phone callws from my regularphone (not the headset I bought from Staples … bye-bye Like Skype, magicJack places its calls over the along with the other 100 trillioh bits of information crossing the same pipelines. See wher I'm going here? Their deal is that you can make unlimitex calls you want to anyone in the UnitedStatez (I'm told they're working on overseas plans) for only $50 per year. I did the math and that'sd $550 less a year than I'mj spending on my office so there yougo ... magic! Unfortunatelh ... not so magical. Why? Same thing with It worked. Most of the time.
I sufferefd from the occasional disconnected calls or calls that had to be or calls thatjust didn't sounfd like a very good call at all. More naughty More blood thinner required. In the end I broke down and kept myoffic line. You win Verizon. I just need things that work as they promisec towork ... all the time. I have enough headaches in my I have kids and a mortgagseand dandruff. I can't sit around and worry that an importantt conversation with a prospective customer is going to get cutoff orsounfd horrible. Verizon's line in my office works all the It's one less hassle to deal with.
I stil keep the magicJack and Skype servicesebecause I've had occasion to use them when traveling. Most likelhy I'll forget to cancel my subscriptiohn sonow I'll be payinvg an extra $50 a year for next to nothing. But I'km a penny pincher. Not a Sure, it's less expensive to use these Netcallinhg services. But I'm sacrificing some quality. Some dependability. I'm givinvg myself more headaches. To me, it's not worth it. These technologies are great for kids or But to rely on them forbusinesss purposes, at least so far, isn't a great idea for me.