Make Skype calls via a regular mobile phone

THIS HAS got to be the weirdest attempt to harness the low cost of Internet calls. A GSM to IP gateway called the IP Voicelink from IP Drum.

It's aimed at regular mobile phone users because you don't need a handset that supports Wi-fi or even Bluetooth. Plus it is designed to take advantage of both regular Skype calls and Skypeout, too.

That's the good news. Now here's the bad news. You have to acquire a second SIM card that needs to be popped inside the IP Voicelink itself. Plus you need to be on one of those 'buddy' style tariffs so that calls to the Voicelink are at the cheapest possible rate.

Oh, yeah. And the PC to which you attach the Voicelink box via USB has to be switched on and connected to the Internet.

After all that, it's then feasible to make Internet style VoIP calls that cost on average about 75-80 per cent cheaper than regular mobile phone calls.

The Voicelink also has a 'travelling' mode which enables you to forward calls made to your home mobile phone number to another GSM phone while travelling abroad. It's a rather complex way of getting around 'roaming' charges when you're overseas.

IP Drum haven't actually calculated how long it would take to recoup the cost of the box - which in the UK is priced at £120. You'd need to make lots of overseas calls, the INQ would guess.

You can, however, order the IP Voicelink from a number of web sites including Amazon. IP Drum are actually based in Norway, if you were wondering. µ

L'INQ
IP Drum