The holy grail of VoIP - the Skype handset that doesn’t need the user’s computer to be switched on – has gone on sale.
Handset manufacturer, RTX’s new Dualphone wireless phone enables users to take full advantage of low cost Skype calls 24x7, and receive and make normal landline calls as well. The Dualphone 3088 is a combined Skype and cordless handset that builds on the success of their original 9211 Dualphone model. Unlike their first Dualphone, the base station of the new model plugs into an Ethernet port on the user’s broadband router/modem.
Set up, according to reviewers who’ve had their hands on the 3088, is straight-forward, and existing Skype users need only enter their username and password to have their contacts imported to the handset.
It may sound a dull techie development to get excited about, but the new Dualphone means you can make and receive free calls to other Skype users in any room without being tied to a computer or having to wear a microphone headset. Not only that, if Skype users purchase credit they can use the handset for landline and mobile phone calls at low rates too.
Detracting from the package, though, is the fact that users have to manually key in landline and mobile numbers as there is currently no way to import them from your computer. And, for some reason, the new model doesn’t audibly signal like the 3088 when a Skype contact has gone online. Going some way to make up, the 3088 fully supports Call Line Identification (CLI) and there is a visual display of your Skye credit balance.
Recommended Retail Price is £129.99, but by shopping around it should be possible to buy for less than £100.
Meanwhile, Skype have launched a new subscription service that lets users make connection only calls to domestic landlines in 15 European countries for a monthly fee of €2 (£1.34) plus VAT. This means users can call domestic landlines just about everywhere in Europe, talk for as long as they like and only pay the initial connection charge, which is the equivalent of 3.9 cents US (£0.02p).
The Skype Pro subscription deal also includes free Skype voicemail (saving €15 [£10.08] per year) and €5
(£3.36) Skype Credit for signing up. Discounts form part of the package too, with €30 (£20.17) off SkypeIn numbers, a €30 discount on a Philips VoIP 841 cordless phone, a €10 (£6.72) discount on an SMC WiFi phone and reduced prices on a series of Skype Extras.
Recent research by a UK internet telephony provider has claimed small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can cut 20 to 40 per cent off their communications overheads by switching to internet-based telephony.
IP Centrex – a web-based telephony centre – enables companies with limited ICT resources to gain all the functional and cost benefits of switching to IP telephony without the burden of management and day to day running.
Cost savings derive from having one converged network rather than operating separate networks for voice and data, and from routing calls over the internet and thereby avoiding network operator charges. Researchers at Ovum estimate that the number of IP Centrex extensions in Western Europe will exceed two million by the end of 2009.
