[gofer067hotmail]

Has anyone determined how cheap it is to use Skype pay service compared to other international telephone services offered in Hongkong(phone cards, IDD international plans etc)?

[ayukobaby]

I thought Skype is free. as long as two people both have skype and have a mic, they can talk for free with video.
But the local IDD is really very cheap too. its like only $0.2 for a min to america or england. so a whole hour only costs you $12. its even cheaper than making a local call with paid phone haha

[TaLL|dUdE]

depends on the country you are trying to call as well...

voip gateways are another alternative with the use of SkypeIN

[PDLM]

This has been discussed here many times before...

For PC to PC it is free.

For PC to phone it is significantly cheaper than "standard" IDD services (by which I mean dialling 001 or '+' from your mobile), but more expensive than most discount methods of calling IDD. For example, PCCW 0060 has for many years now offered me HK$0.17/min to UK, USA, Canada, Australia which is more or less identical to Skype's Euro0.017 without the hassle of having to be in front of my PC. Other services (for example, calling cards from various companies) can be even cheaper, and some companies such as HGC offer a flat rate "all you can use" tariff to certain countries of HK$68/month http://www.hgcbroadband.com/idd0088/index_e.html
(but bear in mind that HK$68 would buy you nearly 7 hours of calls to the cheap destination using other methods, so you need to be a very heavy user for that to make sense).

Personally, for the UK, US, Canada, Australia the PCCW 0060 offer is as close enough to free for the amount I use that I can't be bothered to shop around to save, say, HK$5 per month.

[lowlight]

It's REALLY cheap. About $0.03 HKD per minute to call Canada. Yes, 3 CENTS. Hong Kong Dollars.

[PDLM]

Originally Posted by lowlight

It's REALLY cheap. About $0.03 HKD per minute to call Canada. Yes, 3 CENTS. Hong Kong Dollars.

Your source for that assertion? Skype's website claims that its rates to Canada are Euro 0.017 per minute, which is about HK$0.17/minute.
http://www.skype.com/products/skypeout/rates/

[lowlight]

My source for this assertion is actual charges on my Skype panel, divided by call time. It's never higher than about $0.005 CAD per minute. I am still using the same original Skype credit I bought 3 months ago, and haven't even gone through half of it yet...

It could be because I bought in CAD, not Euros. I don't know.

Some IDD charge more minutes than they're supposed to (with some companies you can burn through a 60 minute calling card in half the time! depending on length of each call), I guess Skype charges less.

[PDLM]

And I guess either Skype's billing system has problems (unlikely) or that you have some of your friends set up with both their online Skype ID and their phone numbers and that sometimes you connect to them using Skype-to-Skype (free) and at other times they are offline and you connect using SkypeOut (C$0.024). No company is deliberately going to charge you less money than they tell you it is going to cost...

[lowlight]

Nope .

[PDLM]

Well we'll have to agree to differ then. Personally I believe you are mistaken, but then I've only worked in the telcomms business since before you were out of short trousers, so what do I know?