SkypeIn is useful for the homeless traveller
Penn Yan Public Library
Penn Yan, Finger Lakes, New York State, USA
20 April 2007
5.01pm
SkypeIn is useful for the homeless traveller
Yesterday I set up a SkypeIn account for myself. SkypeIn is a Skype service in which I choose a U.S. phone number. The phone number is not associated with a mobile phone or landline. Callers dialing the number can speak to me if I am on a computer connected to the internet and I am logged onto the Skype application.
SkypeIn is a separate product from two other products offered by Skype. SkypeOut allows someone on a computer to call people in certain countries as if they were calling from a telephone exchange in that country. As a result the cost is low -- for many countries it costs US$0.021 (2.1 cents) per minute. The Skype product refers to two people at computers using the Skype application to talk, the use of which is free.
What is even better is that SkypeIn comes with a voicemail account. So when I am not logged into Skype (which is most of the time), the caller can leave a message for me in voicemail. I can check the voicemail whenever I am on a computer that has Skype running and has a broad-enough band on the internet.
As I am still a homeless traveller in the U.S., this service may still be useful to me. At the moment the prepaid T-Mobile SIM card on my mobile phone is out of the T-Mobile network range. So people could call me on the Skype number.
The real clincher is that calls may be forwarded from Skype to another number. So I can forward calls to the number of the house I am staying at or to my mobile phone if I know it will be in range. If the call is not answered Skype voicemail will pick up the call. Since I get a new SIM card and, consequently, a new mobile phone number each time I change countries, forwarding phone calls from a single U.S. phone number could be very useful for keeping in touch with people in the U.S.
This service is really useful as a U.S. number to leave for banks, credit card companies, and online retail companies. All of these entities want a U.S. phone number at which someone can be reached. Leaving an international number generally is not acceptable. If I had a SkypeIn number registered with all of my financial institutions when I was in India, I perhaps would have found out about outstanding credit card fraud more quickly when my wallet was stolen in New Delhi.
In short, the service lets someone have a permanent U.S. phone number that they can use, maintain, and check while they are in another country for long periods of time. It is usually not possible -- and it is almost always not economically sensible -- to maintain a U.S. landline or mobile phone if someone is going to be out of the country for more than three months. Maintaining an identity for financial and tax purposes in the U.S. is partly dependent upon maintaining a phone number. (The other major component of maintaining an identity in the U.S. is maintaining a physical address. This is a huge topic, and for the American traveller is confusing and even Kafka-esque.)
The price for this convenience is US$12 for three months or US$38 for twelve months. It can be set up, maintained, and paid for online from anywhere in the world. As of this writing, other countries for which SkypeIn numbers may be obtained are Australia, Brazil, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong S.A.R. (China), Japan, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
SkypeIn is useful for the homeless traveller
