Should You Skype?

It took a tech-savvy engineer friend to get me to start using Internet-based phone service, also known as voice-over-Internet protocol (VOIP), on a regular basis.

I had tested several services on my own already, but when I followed his recommendations, I set out to do a price comparison and all the other comparisons you'd expect.

Then I started making calls to Costa Rica. I even went to Italy and found that I could be doing business with the U.S. for just over 2 cents a minute.

That's when I knew I really had found the good life: I could eat fresh pasta with my Italian amici while keeping my business humming along.

Sure, you have to have an Internet connection -- that's the one big requirement here. But on the plus side, you get portability: Go to Romania, and as long as you can get online, you're good to go. But with a cell phone, if you go to Romania, chances are your cell phone won't be working unless you've coordinated with your phone company in advance.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a phone plan that was simple to understand, promised no surprises and, as a bonus, offered the best rates available anywhere? As in ... free?

In my most recent tech article, I talked about carefully evaluating what you really need in terms of new personal technology.

All too often we buy stuff that looks really cool but turns out to be more trouble than it's worth. Or it simply doesn't do that much, and you end up wondering why you laid out the money in the first place.

But here's one that's worth a try: Skype. Owned by eBay (EBAY Quote), Skype is one of the new VOIP services that allows you to call someone just as you would on a regular phone. But instead of using the expensive private infrastructure of a cell provider, you use the cheap and public Internet.

What does that mean? You can call other Skype users for free. No charge. Nada. From anywhere on the planet. And for those not on Skype, it's still very, very cheap.

Click here for the video version of this story from Jennifer Openshaw.