Skype phone arrives with no string attached

IMAGINE BEING able to take full advantage of Skype's low cost telephony service without even having to turn your computer on. That's exactly what the Dualphone 3088 promises with this wireless handset for use around the home.

RTX has, it claims, effectively built on the success of its original 9211 Dualphone model. That gave us a single handset which could act simultaneously as a regular cordless digital phone for wandering around the home. And a Skype handset for making low cost Internet calls.

The chief advantage which this latest version of the Dualphone provides is a combined Skype and cordless handset which doesn't need the PC to be turned on to provide the Skype connexion.

It may sound mundane, but the sheer fact that you don't need your PC to be switched on and fully operational just to make a simple Skype call is a major improvement.

Instead of having the handset base station hanging off the back of a PC via a USB link, with the new 3088 offering, the base station simply connects into an existing broadband router/modem via an Ethernet cable.

The INQ anticipated that setting up the whole system to work with Skype would be very tedious. The opposite was true.

Once the base station was powered up; connected and functioning - switching on the handset takes you straight to a series of easily understandable setup questions.

This ensures the base station is correctly configured to work with a land line in whichever country you're located. It even stores useful parameters such as the local dialling code, so that calls can go through quicker.

When it comes to establishing Skype connectivity, nothing could be simpler. Tap in your existing Skype username and password and the handset takes care of the rest. Once registered, you can see all you existing Skype contacts, for example.

Armed with that directory, you can call all your existing Skype 'buddies' for free. There's no cost. Nothing to pay.

Offering free calls to your mates is a tremendous advantage seeing as the same handset hangs around the house for use as a digital cordless phones. So now you can call all your Skype contacts from the bath, if you should so choose.

By paying to take advantage of Skype's Skypeout service, it's also perfectly possible to call ordinary fixed telephone numbers as well as mobile phones.

The downside is that's there's no PC link to enable you to add loads of landline numbers to the handset's 'Contacts' list.

To compensate the product offers full support for CLI (Calling Line Identity) so if you feed a regular telephone number into your contacts book it will show who's calling.

Unlike the previous model, the 3088 doesn't beep to let you know when one of your Skype contacts has just gone online. Which is quite a useful facility to lose.

This handset does, however, show how much credit is remaining should you decide to make a non-Skype call using the standard Skypeout facility.

The handset can be set to default to Skype; the landline; or simply ask which link to use each time you want to make a call.

Purists might think that the 3088 should use Wi-Fi to create the link between the handset and the cordless base station. Instead the 3088 uses DECT, which the INQ has found to give much better coverage and voice quality than a Wi-Fi phone.

Those who hate making Skype calls via a mike and speakers connected to their PC should definitely consider acquiring a Dualphone. µ