Skypephone S2, 3 Mobile Broadband and Skype

Father Christmas has brought me a Skypephone S2, tied to the 3 Network. I
have already got a 3 Mobile Broadband dongle - which had a bundled year's
worth of internet access (or 12 GB if less) which has now expired.

I'm trying to work out the cheapest way of getting occasional internet
access for my laptop, using the facilities at my disposal. If I ignore the
phone, I can buy a £10 top-up for the dongle, and convert it to an add-on -
which will give me 30 days internet access or 1GB (whichever expires first).

It would appear that I can do the same with the phone, and use that instead
of the dongle. *However* the phone also has an option for 30 days internet
access for £5. Can I only use that if I access the internet with the phone
itself, or can I also use it with the laptop? How much data comes with the
£5 option? [1GB is far more than I would use in 30 days]

Can I mix and match SIMs? For example, if I buy 30 days worth for £5 on the
phone, can I then put it's SIM into the dongle? OR, can I put the dongle's
SIM in the phone, top it up with 30 days worth for £5, and then transfer it
back to the dongle? Etc.

On a separate issue: the phone comes with free Skype to Skype calls for
ever. However, I don't knowingly know any Skype users! I may well actually
know some, but simply not be aware that they *are* Skype users. Is there any
simple way of finding out, other than asking everyone individually - such as
a publicly accessible Skype directory?

TIA
--
Cheers,
Roger
______
Email address maintained for newsgroup use only, and not regularly
monitored..
Messages sent to it may not be read for several weeks. PLEASE REPLY TO
NEWSGROUP!

Roger Mills has written:
<snip>
> On a separate issue: the phone comes with free Skype to Skype calls for
> ever.
<snip>

A supplementary question: how are these Skype calls carried? A fairly
recent posting stated that they're on the voice network so is it the
case that one can make free Skype calls even if outwith 3's own network
coverage and therefore using their UK roaming partner?

--
JonPhred

>
> On a separate issue: the phone comes with free Skype to Skype calls for ever. However, I don't knowingly know any Skype users! I
> may well actually know some, but simply not be aware that they *are* Skype users. Is there any simple way of finding out, other
> than asking everyone individually - such as a publicly accessible Skype directory?
>


My son has completed his first University semester without any PAYG credit in his S2.
It didn't stop him from calling normal landlines and mobiles.
I put some notes on the Skype Gateway technique used here:
http://www.skypegateway.webs.com/

--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%

On Fri, 25 Dec 2009 22:21:28 -0000, Roger Mills wrote:
[...]
> It would appear that I can do the same with the phone, and use that instead
> of the dongle. *However* the phone also has an option for 30 days internet
> access for £5. Can I only use that if I access the internet with the phone
> itself, or can I also use it with the laptop? How much data comes with the
> £5 option? [1GB is far more than I would use in 30 days]

BTW, you even get 150 MB data (valid for 90 days) just for topping up the
phone SIM. Technically, you can use the S2 as a modem for you laptop (or put
the phone SIM in your dongle), but it's not allowed by the terms and
conditions.


> Can I mix and match SIMs? For example, if I buy 30 days worth for £5 on the
> phone, can I then put it's SIM into the dongle?

Yes.

> OR, can I put the dongle's
> SIM in the phone, top it up with 30 days worth for £5, and then transfer it
> back to the dongle? Etc.

No, I don't think you will be offered the £5 top up for the data SIM.


Christof

--
http://cmeerw.org sip:cmeerw at cmeerw.org
mailto:cmeerw at cmeerw.org xmpp:cmeerw at cmeerw.org

"Roger Mills" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Father Christmas has brought me a Skypephone S2, tied to the 3 Network. I
> have already got a 3 Mobile Broadband dongle - which had a bundled year's
> worth of internet access (or 12 GB if less) which has now expired.
>
> I'm trying to work out the cheapest way of getting occasional internet
> access for my laptop, using the facilities at my disposal. If I ignore the
> phone, I can buy a £10 top-up for the dongle, and convert it to an
> add-on - which will give me 30 days internet access or 1GB (whichever
> expires first).
>
> It would appear that I can do the same with the phone, and use that
> instead of the dongle. *However* the phone also has an option for 30 days
> internet access for £5. Can I only use that if I access the internet with
> the phone itself, or can I also use it with the laptop? How much data
> comes with the £5 option? [1GB is far more than I would use in 30 days]
>
> Can I mix and match SIMs? For example, if I buy 30 days worth for £5 on
> the phone, can I then put it's SIM into the dongle? OR, can I put the
> dongle's SIM in the phone, top it up with 30 days worth for £5, and then
> transfer it back to the dongle? Etc.
>
>
The S2 has a better aerial than the USB dongles and so will give you better
coverage in weak signal areas
5quid per month (or 2.5 per week or 50p per day) internet had a fair user
limit
of 2gb d/l per month, although i've gone over that

So chuck the dongle, use the S2 with its USB lead, and allocate 5quid p.m.
internet, also set the APN to 3internet in the S2 modem manager.

Also install the S2 PC suite so you can use up those inclusive text from
your pc
and manage the phone contents

If you want to use a 3 dongle, stick a free 3pay Sim in it, do a tenner top
up,
and once you've used up the free 150mb of data, allocate a fiver to internet
p.m.

I can't think of any practical use for keeping a 3 BB payg Sim

If you want a free 3pay Sim please make use of my Sig

Steve Terry
--
Get a free Three 3pay Sim with £2 bonus after £10 top up
http://freeagent.three.co.uk/stand/view/id/5276

"Graham." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:hh3l05$vu0$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
>> On a separate issue: the phone comes with free Skype to Skype calls for
>> ever.
>> However, I don't knowingly know any Skype users!
>> I may well actually know some, but simply not be aware that they *are*
>> Skype users.
>> Is there any simple way of finding out, other than asking everyone
>> individually -
>> such as a publicly accessible Skype directory?
>
> My son has completed his first University semester without any PAYG credit
> in his S2.
> It didn't stop him from calling normal landlines and mobiles.
> I put some notes on the Skype Gateway technique used here:
> http://www.skypegateway.webs.com/
> Graham.
>
>
Clever idea, except i think you'll now find:
http://backsla.sh/betamax shows smartvoip.com, or 12voip.com,
are now cheaper than smslisto.com, to uk mobiles

Steve Terry
--
Get a free Three 3pay Sim with £2 bonus after £10 top up
http://freeagent.three.co.uk/stand/view/id/5276

"Steve Terry" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:hh529k$pof$(E-Mail Removed)...
> "Graham." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:hh3l05$vu0$(E-Mail Removed)...
>>
>>> On a separate issue: the phone comes with free Skype to Skype calls for ever.
>>> However, I don't knowingly know any Skype users!
>>> I may well actually know some, but simply not be aware that they *are* Skype users.
>>> Is there any simple way of finding out, other than asking everyone individually -
>>> such as a publicly accessible Skype directory?
>>
>> My son has completed his first University semester without any PAYG credit in his S2.
>> It didn't stop him from calling normal landlines and mobiles.
>> I put some notes on the Skype Gateway technique used here:
>> http://www.skypegateway.webs.com/
>> Graham.
>>
>>
> Clever idea, except i think you'll now find:
> http://backsla.sh/betamax shows smartvoip.com, or 12voip.com,
> are now cheaper than smslisto.com, to uk mobiles

A penny-pinching Scrooge like me would not have missed that!

Here's the problem, I pay Betamax by Paypal, and when you change
clone and try and pay via the same route, the payment is rejected with
a message that says you can't have the same Paypal account associated
with more than one Betamax product.
I got around that a couple of times by closing my PP account, opening
a fresh one and registering the same CC to it.

All was well until the last time I tried the above, but in error I tried
to register my CC to the new account before I had closed the existing
one. This had the effect of blocking my CC on PP completely!

After several grovelling emails to PP Customer Support they removed
the block, but told me I would not be able to move that card to a different
account in the future.

I do have a debit card registerd to another PP account that I use for my
own smslisto account, I will probably change that to smartvoip when the credit expires.

--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Graham. <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>
> My son has completed his first University semester without any PAYG
> credit in his S2. It didn't stop him from calling normal landlines
> and mobiles. I put some notes on the Skype Gateway technique used here:
> http://www.skypegateway.webs.com/


Thanks for the reminder. I can almost understand the updated version. <g>

Can you please tell me:
* Does it work in the other direction - i.e. can people make incoming calls
to the gateway (which presumably has an 01/02/03 number) and have them
automatically redirected to your Skypephone? If so, is the re-direction
free?
* I currently have a VoIP account with voip.co.uk - using ordinary analog
phones plugged into a Linksys PAP2 which is, in turn, plugged into my
broadband router. Could I use your gateway concept with this, or does the
SIP bit have to be handled entirely within the computer?
--
Cheers,
Roger
______
Email address maintained for newsgroup use only, and not regularly
monitored.. Messages sent to it may not be read for several weeks.
PLEASE REPLY TO NEWSGROUP!

"Roger Mills" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
> Graham. <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>>
>> My son has completed his first University semester without any PAYG
>> credit in his S2. It didn't stop him from calling normal landlines
>> and mobiles. I put some notes on the Skype Gateway technique used here:
>> http://www.skypegateway.webs.com/
>
>
> Thanks for the reminder. I can almost understand the updated version. <g>
>
> Can you please tell me:
> * Does it work in the other direction - i.e. can people make incoming calls to the gateway (which presumably has an 01/02/03
> number) and have them automatically redirected to your Skypephone? If so, is the re-direction free?
> * I currently have a VoIP account with voip.co.uk - using ordinary analog phones plugged into a Linksys PAP2 which is, in turn,
> plugged into my broadband router. Could I use your gateway concept with this, or does the SIP bit have to be handled entirely
> within the computer?
> --
> Cheers,
> Roger

Yes indeed, as the account would only need to accept incoming calls I just
used a free Sipgate one.
(IIRC) The account details are registered in siptosys.cfg and the target Skype
account goes in SyptoSkypeAuth.props in the format *,*,*skypeusername.
I tried it when I first commissioned it and it works fine, but I didn't
retain the feature simply because if Andrew was making an outgoing
call when I called him, his call gets terminated.

--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%

On 31/12/2009 12:48, CJB wrote:

> CS said that charges to landlines and other mobiles are 20p a minute.
>
> What a bl**dy rip-off. Imagine what Three charges for overseas
> calls!!!

All 3's prices are available on their website

http://www.three.co.uk/_standalone/L...=1214305748126