I'm on vacation this week and the airlines lost my luggage; I mean they lost them big time. It took more than a week of cajoling before I finally got my my suitcase from Aer Lingus. I'm staying in France and can't use my iPhone here without incurring huge charges, so I've turned to the Skype app to call the airline and found it failed miserably.
I remember reading where someone suggested that you could save lots of minutes (or even do without a network) if you had Skype on your iPhone. There were even suggestions that AT&T didn't want Apple to allow a Skype app precisely for this reason. I'm here to tell you that AT&T has nothing to fear.
Wireless Network Wonkiness
First of all you need to rely on the WiFi network. Where I'm staying in the country, it's not great, but the satellite service isn't terrible either. Still my conversations went something like this:
Me: Hello
Aer Lingus employee: Hello?
Me: Hello?
Aer Lingus employee: Hello?
You get the idea. I could hear him, but he couldn't hear me. It was as frustrating as the luggage odyssey itself. I learned if I went into the room with the wireless router I had a fairly strong and consistent signal, but that was only part of the problem.
Skype Network Inconsistencies
Not only did I have to deal with my wireless network, I had to deal with Skype's and would get messages that the network was having issues. Between the two, it was next to impossible to have a consistent conversation using the iPhone App. Sometimes either my wife or I would get part of the way before inexplicably the conversation would be cut off.
We finally gave up, bought a phone card and drove to a phone booth in a nearby town. Not exactly the most modern solution, but it worked.
You Really Do Get What You Pay For
Ultimately, you really do get what you pay for. Much like Google's free eBooks, which are often just some old copy of a book that's been scanned complete with water stains and so forth, free services are not as big a threat to the pay ones as you might think. Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other eBook sellers who add value to the experience give you a product that you want to pay for. The same goes for cell phone networks.
So the next time someone suggests you can use the Skype App to replace your phone network, remember my experience. It's all well and good in theory, but when you really need a reliable connection to make a phone call, you may want to pay the money, rather than take your chances with a free or low-cost service.
