The Computers in Business Editor from the Sunday Business Post praises Voice over IP, and Skype in particular in this month's issue.
I've been using Skype for a few months now and I'm not convinced it's a legitimate substitute for making phone calls the old fashioned way (picking up the phone and dialing), but it's great if you use it to talk with friends and family. I don't know if the problem is what passes for broadband in Ireland (512Kb/s maximum speeds with 48:1 contention ratios) or if there are other technical factors at play, but I often find the signal breaks up when I'm using Skype. This is not ideal in a normal business context, but I think it would probably be acceptable for internal calls.
Using Skype to call home is great, however. No charge as long as both parties are using the PC and only 1.7c per minute if I use Skype to call a telephone, whether that phone is in W. Europe, N. America or Australia.
