My Digits

[ayelienne]

I bought Skype Premium recently, since I'm using Skype so much for work and really like the group video chat functionality. I finally took a look to see what other Premium features were available. They had 50% discount on Skype numbers, which are local telephone numbers for your Skype account.

So... I went ahead and bought myself a Skype number for the next 12 months, which is not really noteworthy excepting the fact the local number I selected is in London, UK.

Moment of madness?
Waste of money?
Impetuous whimsy?
Impromptu Experiment?
A hint to the universe?

I have no idea.
But, you know, really - why not?
:)

Comments

[semibold.livejournal.com]

I know next to nothing of Skype. . . so you can buy a "local number" from London even though that's not where you spend most of your time? How does that work?

[ayelienne]

Perfect icon, lady! :D

Ok, so Skype does instant message chat, video chat, and voice calls, all of which is done through usernames. What Skype also can do is allow you to select a telephone number (Skype Number) that can be used to reach you instead of a user name. So a mobile/landline phone user can call you like a regular call, except they are calling your Skype account (on your computer, on your phone, wherever you have Skype installed).

As I was poking around, I tried to set one up and the first step was to choose the country you wanted your number from. So, I picked UK, and then London :) So London pple can call me and it'll "ring" on my Skype; I pick up, we have a voice call. I can also tell Skype that if I'm offline, to send my calls to my cell. I'm still confirming this, part, but it looks like that forwarded call is treated as if it's a call coming from the US.

Incidentally, the Chicago trip morphed into the Boston trip, so I didn't make it out there.