One of our biggest goals when moving Across the Pond was to maintain connections with friends and family despite the distance. Fortunately, thousands of miles and a 5 hour time difference is a cake walk in the digital age.

For phone, our tool of choice has been Skype. Empirically, I’d estimate that average folks are only marginally aware of Skype which is unfortunate considering how much freaking money you can save if you make even a handful of international calls (and often domestic as well). To make things even better, Skype has just released new flat rate calling plans for various regions in the world that makes it an even better value.

Let’s break down our setup, what it lets us do, and how much it costs.

Internet Connection
First of all, we need a DSL or broadband internet connection. It doesn’t need to be blazing fast either as Skype doesn’t hog too much bandwidth. Highspeed internet is a fortune in the UK but I’m not factoring that cost here as we also use it for TV, Movie Rentals, regular Internet Access, etc.

Skype Phone – £90
You don’t need to have this, but it makes life easier. This particular phone has a base station which plugs in to our internet AND to our UK landline. The phone itself wirelessly talks to the base station like any other cordless phone. That is, you can’t connect it directly to a wireless network if you were at a friend’s house or Wi-Fi hotspot. If you have other requirements, there are other phones that may suit you better.
Benefits: Don’t have to be sitting in front of the computer to talk. The Mrs. can talk to her fam on the Skype phone, while I talk to mine using Skype on the computer.

Calling Plans – $2.95/month
Used to be (a few weeks ago), the standard SkypeOut rate was right around $0.02/minute. That assumed you were calling much of the developed world and sometimes mobile lines were excluded from that low-low price. With no clear indication of the rate when we placed the call, we’d occasionally get stuck paying $0.20/minute or so. Not the end of the world but certainly not preferred.

Enter the new monthly subscriptions and we are now paying a killer $2.95/month for unlimited calls to landlines and cell phones in the US or Canada!

SkypeIn Lines – $24/year each
Since it’s nice for our family to be able to call us as well, and we haven’t expected each and every one of them to setup Skype, we also have local SkypeIn numbers. These numbers are US local numbers, one for Ohio and one for PA, that automatically route the call to us here on Skype. Since we have a Skype phone (see above), we don’t need to be in front of the computer to answer the call. With one of the paid subscriptions above, each of these numbers is only $24/year.

Total Monthly Cost
Figure the phone hardware will last at least 2 years and add in the other monthly recurring costs (excluding internet) and you come to about $15/month for unlimited calls to the US and Canada, unlimited calling from the US to here, included voicemail and other odds and ends. All in all, not too shabby!