IP Democracy: Skype's Dual-Mode Phone Could Be a Killer

A huge hindrance to Skype, with its extremely low-cost and free Internet-based voice options, is the fact that customers have been tied to their PCs in order to fully take advantage of Skype. Now, as this review by Daniel Greenberg in today’s Washington Post attests, Skype may have leapt this barrier with its new USB Cordless Dual Phone.

It looks and operates like any other cordless landline phone except customers can use the Skype network for only $38/year (contrast that with cable VoIP service, which runs, typically $40 per month) after purchasing the phone for $140. If they want, customers can switch over to regular landline service on the handset. That’s a killer application if I ever saw one.

Moreover, Greenberg says the quality of the Skype phone is top-notch.

In tests, Dualphone voice quality was consistently strong and clear. In most cases, the audio was virtually indistinguishable from that of a land-line phone. Skype calls over the Dualphone didn’t suffer even as the computer performed other functions.

We ran tests of the Skype cordless phone over both wired and wireless Internet connections and placed calls from different locations, including overseas countries. The calls were consistently clear and offered no noticeable delay, whether the call went to a land-line phone, cellphone or another Skype user.

Isn’t it only a matter of time when new developments, such as this dual-mode Skype phone, make customers rethink their cable or even plain-old-telephone voice packages to pay only 1/12 the annual expense for phone service?

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on July 2, 2006 10:45 AM to IP Democracy