International Skype Video Calling...Free?

[puma1552]

Is it? My wife wants to talk to her mom back in Japan over skype video. Her mom has a PC with skype.

If I understand correctly, my wife can:

--Call her mom's computer on skype for a free video call
--Call her mom's Japanese cell phone (non iPhone) for a free audio call

Also if she does these with her iPhone's wifi on, no data will be used, but if she does it with 3G, then a lot of data will be used?

??

What can and can't be done is kind of confusing, and what uses data and what doesn't.

 

[MyRomeo]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Any Skype to Skype call is free be it voice or video so as long as you have a wifi connection or a data package it will not cost any extra. Same goes or the reciever. If your calling a cell number fro Skype you will have to purchase Skype credit but if she runs skype on her cell phone then it's a Skype to Skype call.

I've found the Skype video calls over 3G to use surprisingly little data, less than 1mb a minute IIRC. Good quality too.

 

[puma1552]

Cool, so to confirm, as long her mom is on Skype, it's free be it audio or video)--*completely* free over wifi and using no data, and free but just uses a minute amount of data if over 3G. And if my wife calls a cell phone, then she just has to get skype credit (like 2 cents a minute or whatever their rate is).

Correct?

 

[donnaw]

My husband is in Iraq and I'm in the states. Usually we call via Skype on wifi. Last month I was out of town without wifi access for 5 days. We talked every day for 20-40 minutes. We used audio only since I was uncertain how much data would be used. I also did my usual surfing, etc. over 3G. When I got home I checked my data and I had used less that 200MB.


So to answer your question, yes, as long as you are placing a Skype to Skype call it's free. But even if you want to call a landline or a cell phone number the rates are pretty cheap. But if her mom has an iPad or computer or even any smartphone she probably has access to the Skype app/client. I love Skype.

 

[puma1552]

So as long as my wife and her mom are videoing skype to skype with my wife on wifi, it's 100% free in that it uses no data, and if my wife is on 3G, it just uses a little data?

What if her mom is on 3G and my wife is on wifi? Still free/not using data on our end as long as my wife is on wifi?

 

[darster]

On verizon, if you use SKYPE for local calls, you will get a message stating it will use Verzion minutes even if on wifi. Not sure about international calls.

 

[donnaw]

If you wife is on wifi and her mom is on 3G then her mom will incur data use age on her account. No usage to your wife.

And yes, I found that data usage was what I would call, minimal. However, I suggest they try a video call on 3G. Each should check their usage to that point. Make a call of 10 minutes or so and check their usage again. That should give you an idea of the data costs. If its too much just use audio.

One more thing, you can turn video on and of during the call. So say your wife wants to show her mom something AND talk a long time just use the video option for part of the call. Sometimes we run into the issue that my husband's wifi connection isn't very strong. If Skype starts stuttering we just turn off the video and that usually clears things up. They just need to go try it and find out what works best for them.

Disclaimer: I have no experience with Skype calls to Japan. So if it's your mother-in-law using 3G she really should make sure her provider doesn't do something else.

 

[Sc24evr]

My husband is in Iraq and I'm in the states. Usually we call via Skype on wifi. Last month I was out of town without wifi access for 5 days. We talked every day for 20-40 minutes. We used audio only since I was uncertain how much data would be used. I also did my usual surfing, etc. over 3G. When I got home I checked my data and I had used less that 200MB.


So to answer your question, yes, as long as you are placing a Skype to Skype call it's free. But even if you want to call a landline or a cell phone number the rates are pretty cheap. But if her mom has an iPad or computer or even any smartphone she probably has access to the Skype app/client. I love Skype.

Please thank your husband for us for his service!

 

[mark valender]

You all say that skype calls are free or at least very cheap

Every one in this forum says that skype is free! but I have found that to use anything on skype you have to pay a charge first to even get started. at the least £11.00 sterling a month just for a skype number! and this will give you just the minimum services. I would like to know if anyone knows of a totally free video conferencing service on the web? Many thanks in advance. Mark.

 

[Mr.C]

Every one in this forum says that skype is free! but I have found that to use anything on skype you have to pay a charge first to even get started. at the least £11.00 sterling a month just for a skype number! and this will give you just the minimum services. I would like to know if anyone knows of a totally free video conferencing service on the web? Many thanks in advance. Mark.

Skype is totally free if it's Wi-Fi to Wi-Fi over the Internet whether it's just audio or also includes video. In other words computer/computer like device such as a tablet or smart phone using the Internet at both ends.