Larry wrote in news:Xns9802D1FBDBF7Fnoonehomecom@
208.49.80.253:

"Glenn Ashmore" wrote in
news:gMxug.166$ok5.156@dukeread01:

Skype can do more than that even. When I Skype to Skype a friend on
Tortola and his computer doesn't answer it tries his land line. If
that doesn't answer after 4 or 5 rings it tries his cell. You just
can't hide anywhere! :-)



He still has a landline?? Why??...(c;

Clearly you don't have a lot of experience with Caribbean Internet service if
you're asking that question...Having just spent the past 7 months in
Honduras, Belize and the Bahamas, I can assure you that the quality of calls
varies tremendously minute to minute. In general we could hear fine, but our
transmission was often unreadable. We went back to using our Iridium at
$1.25/min due to this.

Many of the connections were over DirecWay (now Hughes) satellite connections
and there's a large propagation delay on top of large packet losses. On the
rare occasion where we had a DSL connection, things worked better, but in
general the networks are heavily loaded. Don't confuse US broadband
connections with what you find in the Caribbean. I would never give up my
land based phone line (or cellular) and rely on Skype in the Caribbean.

-- Geoff

"Geoff Schultz" wrote

Don't confuse US broadband
connections with what you find in the Caribbean. I would never give up my
land based phone line (or cellular) and rely on Skype in the Caribbean.

That is true but at 2 cents/minute to the US vs. a minimum of $1 it is
always worth giving Skype the first try. :-)

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

Geoff Schultz wrote in
6:

I would never give up my
land based phone line (or cellular) and rely on Skype in the Caribbean.



I was referring to him having a landline telephone in the USA. There's no
reason to have one in the states any more. I've talked several
overconnected friends out of their "Landline Ripoff and Spammer
Connection" in the past year. Now connected to cable broadband, the don't
need landlines at all with cellular in their pockets. It wasn't about
Skype in Belize. DirecWay stinks, even in the USA. How
awful...overloaded.

I would never give up my land based phone line (or cellular)
and rely on Skype in the Caribbean.

I was referring to him having a landline telephone in the USA.
There's no reason to have one in the states any more. I've talked
several overconnected friends out of their "Landline Ripoff and
Spammer Connection" in the past year. Now connected to cable
broadband, the don't

There's a very good reason to have a land line here in the USofA:
reliability.

I gave up my land line a year and a half ago and went with Vonage over
my cable internet connection. Vonage is ok, but my cable internet
connection is very flakey. This week it is embarrassing me. Cable
internet is dropping out for a minute, two, several, 15 minutes at a
time. One of my lines is a fax line and I'm in the midst of business
dealings with faxes coming and going. People are having to resend at
least half of the time. And when the connection is down they get a
recording that my phone is not in service. Now I could set that fax line
to fwd to voicemail when the connection is lost, but that doesn't get me
the faxes I need. I could use an internet fax service, but then I still
need to get out on the net and get the fax. Telling people to resend,
and again, or to wait 15 minutes and try again, really sux.

I had landline in this area - a major suburb or a major city - for 20
years and do not recall a single day I did not have TelCo service. I had
DSL on that landline for 6 years and recall only 2 or 3 days when it
went down, and then for short times. Now I loathe "the telephone
company" but they were _there_. But my local cable tv & internet
service... don't make me laugh. (Especially this week when I look like
the dummy in the tv commercial that tried to save money on shipping
instead of using FedEx.) I've already called to set up a new landline
account.