The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Skype Phone David Hague |
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The Netgear SPH 200D phone combines Skype's cost savings with some nice features. But it is worth getting one asks David Hague? |
The world of telephony has changed forever. Gone are the days of the PMG/
Telecom/Telstra monopoly where it charged what it liked and held us all to
ransom. (You don't have to be an octogenarian to remember the wind-up phones in
country towns. An operator would connect you to someone at $2.14 a minute when
wages were $70/week!)
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So bad were the charges,
that in those early days of the mining boom in the Pilbara, many companies put
their own lines.
in, or in the case of the company I worked for, we used two way radio from Perth
to Karratha, Port Hedland and Barrow Island! No not 1940-something, but 1976! The change really came in Australia with the launch of Optus. The monopoly was gone forever and telephony technology that the rest of the world enjoyed started to dribble in. Then mobile phones came along and even in the mid 90's, ISP OzEmail was experimenting with Internet based telephony. In the early days, it was flaky, scratchy and failed often, but remember, this was before ADSL technology was here. Once it did arrive, all of a sudden replacing the humble Telstra handset with a cheap - very cheap - alternative, it looked extremely appealing. A few companies jumped on the Internet phone bandwagon, and we now know it more commonly as VolP or "Voice Over IP". The ubiquitous little black box that held the magic tricks connecting a phone handset to a modem/router and then via some other magic at the other end connecting back to the public telephone system. It originally sold for around the $199 mark, and higher. The promise was that the savings would soon recoup the cost. Local phone calls were almost free, and "STD" and overseas calls were dirt cheap by comparison with what the major telcos wanted.
But the public wasn't convinced. Despite the promises, it all seemed too hard,
and many start-up companies, betting the farm on VolP, failed. Then someone got
the bright idea that using the model made successful by the mobile phone
companies may work - sell the gear for almost nothing - or better, give it away
- and the punters will come! |
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The major drawback was still actually getting this stuff set up. The advantage
of the standard phone was simply that you picked it up and dialled. Anyone could
do it, from 3 to 100 years old. There are no such things as IP addresses, URLs
or worries of where to plug
in the headphones and mics. And so, cutting to the chase, this is where I reckon
the Netgear SPH 200D is an absolute winner!
To set up, it's delightfully simple. The associated "black box" (which these
days is fashionably white) is plugged into your ADSL modem,
a phone cable is plugged into your standard phone point and the handset put in
the powered cradle.
That's it!
There's a little bit of setup work, but it's a no-brainer. The system uses Skype
as the carrier - you simply log in to the website, create a user name, top up
the account with a credit card or PayPal ($5 is enough) and off you go.
The handset looks like a phone, rings like a phone and is used like a phone. So
if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck ... right? Yes, you simply pick
it up perform a single key press and then dial the number you're after. It
rings, the other person answers and it well, just works. And people can call you
on your Skype ID and it works there too. Just like a phone.
But, eagle eyed people will have picked there is something more here. Why is the
associated white box also plugged into the standard phone line? Easy - it IS
a phone, and you have the choice of making a call via Skype or via your normal
carrier. That's the extra step mentioned above - selecting which to use. The
ring can be set so that when someone calls you, you can tell whether it's a
Skype call
or a standard call, and there's an LCD that shows this detail as well.
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PC Update ratings Performance: 9 Installation: 8 Features: 8 Documentation: 9 Value for money: 6 We liked: easy setup, cost savings, flexibility Disliked: design a bit minimal Vendor: Netgear www.netgearcom.au Price $259 |
The 200D has all the things you'd expect of say a $89 cordless you'd buy from
Telstra - redial, speaker, inbuilt contacts list, history, search, voicemail and
so on. It wins no great points for ergonomic design (though it can take a
headset), but the flexibility and the savings once you force yourself to use the
Skype calling out method are fantastic. In three months use, I've had no call dropouts and am more than happy with the unit to the point I am going to buy it. In these tight economic times, saving anything you can is a bonus, and as most of my calls are to Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide, I save considerable amounts - certainly worth the purchase price when amortised over a year. So, in summary, people can call me on the Telstra number they're used to and tech savvies can call me on Skype, I can return or make calls on Skype and save, and everyone is happy. You should try it! It's fantastic! Read up on Skype at www.skype.com.au for more details of how that service works. |
Reprinted from the October 2008 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
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