back to article Microsoft scares the bejesus out of Skype users with x12 price hike

Several Reg readers were stunned by an email from Skype on Friday, which told them they were going to be paying a lot, lot more for their paid-for VoIP subscriptions. "We're writing to let you know about an upcoming change to the price of your Skype Number subscription. The new price for your Skype Number will be 19.14 GBP …

  1. W Donelson

    Every single new update of Skype...

    ... introduces more bugs. Hard to believe.

    My contacts and I have given up. Only one still uses Skype. *facepalm*

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Big Brother

      Re: Every single new update of Skype...

      The Linux version works quite well, bizarrely.

      It seem that soon the police in the UK will be relying on it (see other recent Skype hype story). Deep, deep joy.

      1. Kiwi

        Re: Every single new update of Skype...

        The Linux version works quite well, bizarrely.

        The Linux version used to work great... For our shop we had a few Skype accounts, and machines where you could have ring tone come through the PC's speakers but the actual call go through the attached headset - that way someone not at their desk (most of us most of the time) could hear a call coming in and answer it.

        Then MS downgraded it (claims about "new features" - none ever appeared) and made it work with Pulse Audio only. Which isn't capable of things like splitting the sound.

        We found we pretty quickly dumped it after that. Since MS took over it's been another race to the bottom.. I wonder if MS are in this competition with someone else, or is it an internal thing to see which department can cause the most harm, the most spectacular self-destruction, the most...?

        1. P. Lee

          Re: Every single new update of Skype...

          >Pulse Audio only. Which isn't capable of things like splitting the sound.

          Are you sure? I was messing with Pulse last night and I had "simultaneous output options" available. My main issue is that kmix doesn't cover all the pulse options and some of the pulse software doesn't get installed by default on Suse.

          On the other hand, I plugged my laptop (with DVD Drive) into my big screen's spare video port and ran the audio over the network to my desktop which pushed it out through my main stereo. That was quite cool, though you have to remember to turn it off (or at least the stereo) when you leave, or you get surprise audio in another room.

          1. Kiwi

            Re: Every single new update of Skype...

            >Pulse Audio only. Which isn't capable of things like splitting the sound.

            Are you sure? I was messing with Pulse last night and I had "simultaneous output options" available. My main issue is that kmix doesn't cover all the pulse options and some of the pulse software doesn't get installed by default on Suse.

            Well, when I last tried it we had lost the ability to split things as described. That was a while back so maybe it's back - and kudos to those who did it (I can't recall the location but there was a message thread on a Skype or MS site related to this). Might have to set up a VM sometime to play (have since changed machines and are currently PA free, don't want to accidentally install it if we don't have to)

            On the other hand, I plugged my laptop (with DVD Drive) into my big screen's spare video port and ran the audio over the network to my desktop which pushed it out through my main stereo. That was quite cool, though you have to remember to turn it off (or at least the stereo) when you leave, or you get surprise audio in another room.

            I've not quite done that, but I do love being able to push sound all over the place with generally simple tools in Linux :)

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Every single new update of Skype...

      "My contacts and I have given up. Only one still uses Skype"

      Pretty much everyone I deal with in business uses Skype / Lync. and everyone I know has an account regardless of if they use it as first choice UC app.

  2. Your alien overlord - fear me

    It wasn't a mistake. Skype was checking to see if a price rise would annoy people. It does.

    1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

      But...

      Does it annoy the users more than the Data Slurping (all in the best possible taste you know) that is this thing they call Windows 10?

      On the Anniversary of the release of Bohemian Rhapsody these words come to mind

      Is this the real thing?

      Is this just Fantasy?

      etc

      We can only hope that it is.

      1. Fred Flintstone Gold badge

        Re: But...

        Is this the real thing?

        Is this just Fantasy?

        It's certainly an escape from reality..

        :)

        1. TRT Silver badge

          Re: But...

          If you read the small print in the Ts & Cs, then you'll find it's not so easy to get out of the contract.

          In the name of God, let me go!

          No, we will not let you go.

      2. Doctor_Wibble
        Trollface

        Re: But...

        Easy come, easy go!

        MS plants 3GB of new windows version on our machines, they will be expecting 3GB of intimate data in return, to include thumbnails of all favourites, copies of all and any searches performed in 'secret' or 'private' mode (regardless of browser) and a list of the titles of every video clip you ever played and that includes all you people with a 'Frozen' fetish.

        Anyone who thinks they could not be blackmailed should ask themselves if at any time in the past they ever quickly alt-tabbed back to that nuns-and-trifles porno page and pretended like they weren't in the middle of fiddling the accounts.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Mushroom

          Re: But...

          But only if you have upgraded to, or installed from fresh, Windows 10.

          My dual-boot system is about to get it's Windows 7 partition nuked from orbit. I plan to be sure!

  3. elDog

    Testing the waters? My first thought also.

    However it is more common for these megacorps to just change the rates w/o notification. You did read the fine print, didn't you?

    The poor intern who made that erroneous change will be rewarded somewhere. Maybe s/he'll be able to spend an eternity with Steve Ballmer.

    1. Mark 85

      Re: Testing the waters? My first thought also.

      Normally, they would just jack up the rates... but someone hit "send" accidentally. Ya' know.... everything is a service and our profits need boosting.....

  4. Graham Marsden
    Facepalm

    That would make it a bit expensive...

    ... to call the Police

    1. Geoffrey W

      Re: That would make it a bit expensive...

      You don't need a paid Skype subscription to call another Skype name.

  5. Gannettt

    They'd have to pay e $20 a year to use it. It has got awful since MS bought it. the last straw were the banner ads in the Android version. I now use FaceTime and Google Hangouts, as that is what all my contacts use.

    1. Kevin 6

      Yea I used to use it all the time prior to MS purchasing it out. I tried it for a bit after then my calls were breaking up all the time, and after an upgrade it stopped working completely(I mean the program would crash on launch) so I just gave up.

      1. steve616
        Holmes

        Re:

        I've been using it almost daily for years and recently we've moved to full Skype for business.

        Skype to Skype is normally good quality and hasn't changed

        "Skype for business" to "Skype for business" is fine, but

        Skype for business to Skype appears choppy and poor quality by comparison. I assume this is something to do with the federation between systems.

        1. Tomato42
          Boffin

          Re: Re:

          That's because Skype for Business and Skype have nothing to do with each other, except the name.

          Skype for Business is just Lync server while Skype is the old pre-acquisition Skype

          1. Mookster
            Stop

            Re: Re:

            I wouldn't count on that. They, at least, share an R&D team.

        2. Phil W

          Re: Re:

          Are you referring to Skype for Business/Lync hosted online by Microsoft or an on premises server install?

          I have to say, although we've never used it much, when tested Skype for Business to Skype calls work perfectly well.

          This is with a well specced on premises install, and high bandwidth Internet connectivity.

          Unfortunately as someone used to routinely supporting Skype for Business and other VOIP platforms I've seen it's all to common for users to say the system is crap when it turns out they're using it on a crappy PC and/or with a poor network connection.

          I've also known admins of other systems to complain they're crap when it turns out they're improperly configured or running on grossly underspecced servers.

  6. alain williams Silver badge

    MS must be coining it!

    Lots of fees from the users on top of what they get from the NSA to snoop in on calls ...

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Perhaps this is how they intend to pay for "free" Windows 10??

  8. CAPS LOCK

    Alternatives that work?

    So not Firefox Hello!

    1. Soruk

      Re: Alternatives that work?

      Google Hangouts has worked well, even my IT-illiterate mother is capable of using it.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Alternatives that work?

        "Google Hangouts has worked well,"

        But they slurp even more data than Microsoft, as a product suite it's vastly inferior to Skype for business, and it has close to zero users compared to Skype.

    2. Kiwi

      Re: Alternatives that work?

      So not Firefox Hello!

      They've got the "Hell" part right.. Just give them a little longer to work on the "Oh!" (as in "Oh wow, this is great". It'll come.. Some day.. Hopefully.. )

      Could be worse.. MS took a pretty good system and turned it into the dying crapfest it is today. Had they done nothing with it at all it would be really great. Now, I use it for.. Erm.. Hang on.. Oh, 0 contacts.. that's right.. No one I know uses it any more...

      Another fine and proven product that MS embraced, then they "extended" (not sure how you call a reduction in functionality "extend" but this is MS we're talking about!) and now are well on their way to "Extinguish"

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wouldn't be the first price rise.

    I'm fairly sure a Skype telephone number went from £6 a year to £20 a year very recently. As a consequence of that I got rid of one of my Skype telephone numbers. I don't mind paying a fair price but I object to being gouged.

  10. Slx

    Skype is still a thing!!?

    1. Craig 2

      Indeed, mine has been set to auto-run at startup for ages. The other day I realized it's just never used anymore. It's still installed but not auto-loaded and after a few months it'll be removed...

  11. Ilmarinen

    Paying for what?

    Their wee bit of software, generating trafic over someone else's network? Why's that a good deal?

    More like a "Nice Little Earner"

  12. x 7

    cheap form of market research

  13. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Hey, when did I make Silver??

  14. Jess

    I've had a telephone number for years with no ongoing cost

    With Draytel, a standard sip provider. And I can use whatever softphone (or hardware phone) I like without Microsoft obsoleting it, and replacing it with a horrible version, (if I happen to be using the correct platform.)

    The biggest problem with sip is it is fiddly to set up.

    However this service is quite useful for friends to use to call me

    http://www.getonsip.com

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I don't get how this kind of mistake happens

    You would think that a company the size of Microsoft would be able to employ a second pair of eyes to proofread an important email that was about to get sent to x million customers.

    It was a bit like the erroneous Windows update that went out last month. Apparently a test that managed to find its way out to the live site.

    << The Register poked Microsoft about the issue, and a spokesman told us: "We incorrectly published a test update and are in the process of removing it." >>

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/09/30/windows_update_glitch/

    Utterly bizarre and totally incompetent behaviour. It really makes you wonder how things are running behind the scenes over at MS HQ.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    can't have it all

    Skype used to work fine on my Eee PC with Windows XP.

    Now the latest Skype update on exactly the same computer running Windows 10 complains that the computer is no longer powerful enough, although it does satisfy all the system requirements for Windows 10. And the microphone has stopped working.

    Meanwhile, with Skype on my Android smartphone the microphone works, but not the camera.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: can't have it all

      Solution: Revert to XP

  17. JJKing
    Coat

    Hey, when did I make Silver??

    @Ian Emery. Maybe if you change your name to Rumpelstiltskin you can make gold.

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