I wonder how the previous generation of Indian students going abroad used to manage staying in touch with their families. I can't imagine it being easy, what with trunk call costs the way they were, and VoIP and internet access facilities in India pretty much non-existent. I can imagine students pinching pennies just to be able to talk a little more to folks back home, and people at home just waiting by the phone at pre-arranged times to make the most of those precious few minutes, if that.
Enter today. With a better-half-to-be in the US, mum + dad + sister + lifetime's worth of friends in India, and my sorry self in Europe, I don't think I can spread my family thinner on the globe if I tried. Five years ago, I would have used instant messaging, now I can use Skype. Wonderful voice quality, free of cost for PC-to-PC calls (Yahoo fans, please excuse yourselves and try out Skype - do yourself a favour by using by some quality software, instead of the trash that Yahoo tries to pass off as voice chat). However, with three timezones spread over 13 hours, it's not always convenient for me to be at a PC at the same time as everyone else. Enter SkypeOut. I use my PC to call a phone, and even calling to the most exotic locations on the globe costs ~ 0.18 Euro per minute. To the US, it's a pitiful 0.017 Euro per minute (that's right, there's a zero after the point). Beautiful. I can call my mum when she's at work, which is when I just wake up. I can call my significant-other-to-be after I get home from work, which is when she's on her way to work. All this, at really great rates.
_Now_ the world's really smaller.
OK, now I'm waiting for all those smartalecky idiots who'll say "Dude, you look like you're advertising for Skype" or "How much is Skype paying you?".
