Technology Replace voice plan with mobile Skype on Verizon?

[Cyradis]

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I've heard Verizon has great coverage so I'm leaning towards them (from others in this forum =P), but their prices are pretty steep (as I've seen plenty of others say).

What I'm thinking of doing is getting one of the 3G Android phones that works with Skype and get an unlimited data plan, but no voice minutes. The idea would be that if Verizon's network can keep me constantly connected to the internet, I could use Skype for all incoming and outgoing calls and save a ton on the ridiculously expensive voice plans.

An online number + unlimited calling with Skype would probably only run me about $10/month. That's a far cry from the $60/month I'm looking at otherwise.

Now I just sort of thought this up on the spot right now - so I'm obviously a little hesitant to go ahead with it since I have NO idea how well this would work in practice.

Has anyone here used Skype off their cell phone before, have any thoughts on whether this idea would work, etc. etc.?

Thanks!

 

[Tiktaalik]

I've heard Verizon has great coverage so I'm leaning towards them (from others in this forum =P), but their prices are pretty steep (as I've seen plenty of others say).

What I'm thinking of doing is getting one of the 3G Android phones that works with Skype and get an unlimited data plan, but no voice minutes. The idea would be that if Verizon's network can keep me constantly connected to the internet, I could use Skype for all incoming and outgoing calls and save a ton on the ridiculously expensive voice plans.

An online number + unlimited calling with Skype would probably only run me about $10/month. That's a far cry from the $60/month I'm looking at otherwise.

Now I just sort of thought this up on the spot right now - so I'm obviously a little hesitant to go ahead with it since I have NO idea how well this would work in practice.

Has anyone here used Skype off their cell phone before, have any thoughts on whether this idea would work, etc. etc.?

Thanks!

I don't think they'll allow you to buy just data without minutes. The only plan like that I saw on their website was for deaf people, and you have to prove that you need it. (There's a dumbphone version that's open to everyone, but you'd need a smartphone to do the Skype thing). Also, I don't know about Verizon, but Skype doesn't work over 3G on AT&T (it's software-disabled).

There might also be some technical trouble - Skype can get garbley and drop a lot of calls even over WiFi, and might not be reliable enough on 3G. Also, (I'm not an Android user, so I don't know how the software end would work out), you would be stuck backgrounding/running the app all the time if you wanted to receive incoming calls.

I use Skype on my iPhone a lot, but only over WiFi and only when I can't use my network, because even AT&T's ****ty network is preferable to Skype's drop rate in most situations.

 

[Tiktaalik]

Skype just enabled calling over 3G. Other criticisms still stand.