Skype App Updated, Allows 3G Calling On the iPhone 109
silverpig sends this excerpt from the Wifitalk.ca blog: "Skype has just announced that an updated version of its iPhone app has been released to the App Store and now allows calling over 3G. While this functionality has been available on the iPhone since a January update to the SDK, and while other apps such as Fring have enabled 3G VOIP calling through their apps, Skype has been noticeably absent from the VOIP-over-3G landscape. Until today." A reader adds: "Included in the app update are some UI tweaks and a call quality indicator to help you predict what your VOIP-over-3G call quality will be like. Most interesting in the announcement is the suggestion that while Skype-to-Skype over 3G will be free for 2010, Skype is investigating pricing options and may charge for it in 2011. This could lead to smartphones being sold with data only + Skype plans."
Awesome! And good timing for iPhone OS 4 (Score:3, Interesting)
I've been playing around with VoIP on 3G using the SIP client from Acrobits and it's fairly reliable on low-bandwidth codecs in most areas around here. Bad reception does affect VoIP calls more than cell calls, but overall this covers about 90% of places where I talk outside of the car.
Then again, if there was better prices on airtime maybe I'd be less inclined to go 100% VoIP. Canadian carriers offer unlimited incoming minutes for $15/mo, but after the upper cap on packages they can't do better than 3 cents/minute for outbound? So long as pricing is designed to deter cell phone use I'm going to continue migrating away as fast as possible.
I am very curious about the technical details of Skype's service. What Codec are they using for their VoIP traffic? Is it GSM/g.729 for the low-bandwidth, or something proprietary they cooked-up? I'd love to see what they considered a reasonable call quality trade-off for 3G service limitiations.
-Matt
I predict... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:I don't get it.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Competes with the phone company selling minutes. I have a skype in number and the last two weeks I've been directing conference calls to my skype account. I still use Skype on my iPhone for talking, just connected to my WiFi router at home. If I had taken those calls directly to my cell, I would have been way over on my minutes this month.
I'm sure the cell phone company would much rather bill me for the over use of minutes. (although I do have like 2800 roll over minutes)
Re:I predict... (Score:5, Interesting)
Personally, I think Google is waiting for Skype to fight the data vs. telephone case and then follow the "open" path Skype has created to swoop in with Google Voice end-to-end VoIP apps and scale out like sand in a sandstorm.
Emergencies (Score:4, Interesting)
Are they finally going to allow emergency calling (and locating) for skype?
Just use the iPad plan (Score:5, Interesting)
1) Buy an iPad
2) Use a MicroSim adaptor [microsim-shop.com] to use the iPad data only connection in your favorite mobile device.
3) This step intentionally left blank.
Although I can't find any reports of someone ACTUALLY doing this (just lots of reports of people using an iPhone SIM in the iPad3G) it seems like it should work.