VOIP with Skype from a Local phone

If you are someone living far from family and being lazy to buy telephone cards, perhaps you are like me too, to end up using Skype for calling home. And then if you think 3G connection is not good enough to make phone call, then perhaps you have already known that Skype offered a VOIP feature.

So I've just recently tried the 'Call To Go' feature from Skype. Long story short, this feature makes it available to set up our own private VOIP number specified for our favorite contacts. And then to call that person we just need to dial the private VOIP number from a telephone. The VOIP number will appear as a local toll-free number. Other than that as a bonus, you do not have to get online in Skype in order to make a phone call.

The pro of this method, I don't have to say no more, is that you are going to have a phone call with better and stable quality. And then about the pricing, it has no different with how much if will cost if the call was made through Internet connection via Skype client. Of course to be able to make use of the toll-free, you might need a fixed line telephone. Maybe it is free as well if made from a mobile phone.

So below are the steps to setup the to-go number.


1. Login to Skype, and then under your profile, click Skype To Go.

2. To set up a new Skype To Go number, click on "Add a contact". If you have not set up any registered phone, at this point Skype will have you register one, which could be either a local phone or a mobile phone.

3. And then, fill in contact's name, country, type, and phone number or Skype ID. On the right side you are going to see a local phone number started with (315). In Singapore, this is a phone number format reserved for VOIP purpose.

4. You could also set up a PIN number if you wish to protect your Skype balance, especially when you have auto reload being set up.

5. To make the phone call by using your Skype credit, directly dial the number specified for the contact, and you phone number where you made the call from, will appear as the Caller ID.


*Unfortunately, Skype has not yet support all countries for this feature. Fortunately, Singapore is one of the country that has this feature ready.