abroadband

[dg7feq]

Originally Posted by snidely

Could you put the SIM in a BlackBerry which is easy to tether to a computer - thus using your phone as a modem?
I should know the answer - but how much data per minute does a voice call use - like over Skype?

...mike

It's a fraction of the price my home carrier (TMobile U.S. charges to roam for data - $15/mb. Truphone seems to charge $2.17/mb in most countries. This is less than $1/mb.

between 300k and 1 meg per minute, depending which encoding skype will use.

Chris

[snidely]

Originally Posted by dg7feq

between 300k and 1 meg per minute, depending which encoding skype will use.

Chris

If that's the case, then it would pay to use this SIM for voice calls as well. Am I overlooking anything? Which would be the best/easiest method to use? Skype? Someone else? I assume someone like Skype has an app for most smart phones to make calling seamless?
Is there much diff. in voice quality between 300K and 1000?
And, can you designate the codec on Skype or someone else to attempt to save money? At 500K, you would be paying approx. 40 cents/min.
IF there is a seamless way of setting up a service like Skype on a phone - wouldn't this be a big game changer?

...mike

[GadgetKen]

Skype can definitely be used on a mobile device. Used to have an AT&T Tilt on prepaid AT&T service for a year or two. Had Skype mobile installed under Windows Mobile. Skype also has various clients for other devices including Blackberry, Android and non-PC's (such as the MacBook I'm penning this response on), and on my Sony Mylo wi-fi device.

If using Skype over a cellular connection, 3G seems to work best (EDGE is just too slow under many conditions for decent quality VOIP).

[dg7feq]

Originally Posted by snidely

And, can you designate the codec on Skype or someone else to attempt to save money? At 500K, you would be paying approx. 40 cents/min.
IF there is a seamless way of setting up a service like Skype on a phone - wouldn't this be a big game changer?

...mike

yes, there is some difference between the differnet codings.
With 500kbyte/min skype uses a codec similar to the one that the DECT digital cordless phones use which have a data rate of 32kbps+IP overhead.
Otherwise skype uses the ISDN like codec with 64kbps+IP overhead.

You can not set the quality by yourself, skype calculates the line quality before establishing a voice connection. On mobile phones i suppose that they always will use the low bandwidth codec.

Chris