Skype vs Google vs Yahoo! (long distance calling)

Student Lounge College Life
1

<p>Hi. I'm an international student. Which of the three do you think is the best way to communicate with family outside of the US.
What about cell phones? Calling from home to the US is not very expensive. Can I take my cell to the US, or I have to buy it in the states to make it work?</p>

<p>Thank you all</p>

2

<p>SKYPE is good. computer to computer. the best part -its FREEE!!!</p>

3

<p>skype is really good, especially since through the end of the year, it's free to dial (from your computer) to a landline or cell phone number. so not just computer to computer</p>

4

<p>Skype (pc-to-phone) is only free within U.S/Canada. Skype, google talk, yahoo talk are all free for pc-to-pc.</p>

5

<p>Sorry to interrupt this thread, but do these services act as instant messengers or voice/video chats?</p>

6

<p>skype is a voice chat. id ont know about the other two.</p>

7

<p>i also use skype.</p>

<p>havent heard about google or yahoo before... is that offered in the US?</p>

8

<p><a href="http://gizmoproject.com/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://gizmoproject.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

9

<p>There was this VOIP that allowed you to call land phones and mobile for free. I don't remember the company though.</p>

10

<p>Yahoo is complete crap. Google Talk isn't a very good thing too.
Skype forever! :)</p>

11

<p>gtalk and yahoo do act as IM chats.</p>

12

<p>I thought I'd read somewhere that Skype was free for calling internationally from the US. And I hadn't heard that it was only free until year end 2006.</p>

<p>Can anyone confirm this? I was hoping to set that up for my D and me when she goes to Australia in January for 6 months.</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

13

<p>I no longer see the stuff about skype-to-phone being free, although I know that's still true at least within the US. Anyway, why not just download skype to both of your computers and then it will be free for sure? Just make sure that both your computers have mics. Anyway, if not, Skype is still very cheap, about 2 cents a minute to Australia (check skype.com)</p>

14

<p>Thanks.</p>

<p>Yes, I had been planning to set up Skype so it was computer-to-computer only.</p>

<p>So you're saying that it what won't be free is computer-to-phone only?</p>

15

<p>computer to computer is always free
internationally, computer-to-phone won't be free (I believe)</p>