You've probably heard Skype mentioned by your friends, read about it in a newspaper article or seen it on TV, but you might not know how it actually works or what it does. Below is a very brief explanation of what it is and step by step instructions of how to start using it.

We think Skype is fantastic! Amongst other things Skype allows you to make a call from your PC/Mac to another PC/Mac anywhere in the world, via broadband, absolutely free!

SkypeIN

It also allows you to purchase a SkypeIN number (which is a fixed landline number) so people can call a normal telephone number that redirects to where ever you are. For example you may be a UK businessman in an internet cafe in Australia, your UK friends and colleagues can call your 020 SkypeIN number and you can answer the call in the cafe. They pay the phone charges to aUK number and you pay nothing!

And if you have friends in many places, you can get up to 10 SkypeIn numbers in different places and keep them guessing as to where you really are!

SkypeOUT

SkypeOUT allows you to call any landline/mobile number anywhere in the world through Skype. This allows you to benefit from Skype's low call rates.

With Skype, you get a straight price per minute rate to call wherever your friends are. The rate doesn’t change for weekends, Mondays after 8 PM, weekdays from 9 to 5 or anything like that… it stays the same. We’ve even come up with one rate for the 20 most popular call destinations: The SkypeOut Global Rate. It’s currently 1.7 Euro Cent (that would be around 2 US cents or 1.1 pence) per minute to more than 20 countries.

Skype is free to download - so why not give it a try!