VoSKY Call Centre

The VoSKY Call Centre promises to be the world’s first mobile skype solution. All this from a little black box in your office, will it live up to the claims?

Actiontec offer 3 similar Skype boxes in the range, we’re giving the Call Centre solution a run which was announced earlier this year at the International CES show.

The aim of the box is to allow users to make Skype and SkypeOut (regular landline) calls from your standard phone handset, as well as accept incoming Skype calls to your regular phone. We hooked up a Panasonic DECT phone for the tests.

The Call Centre edition adds an automated voice-driven system for controlling Skype through your normal phone connected to the VoSKY.

The Call Centre box requires software to be installed and running on a Windows based PC which also has Skype installed and logged in to an account. This requirement makes it less practical for business users who may want to run the system for a server.

You hook up the black box via USB to the PC, and (if required) connect the box to your landline phone socket. Finally, hook up your traditional phone handset to the VoSKY box and you’re done.

From a phone handset you dial ## to access the Call Centre voice menu. This is available either locally within the home or office, or by dialing your landline number from a mobile and pressing ‘##’ after you hear the prompt. You can protect access using a three digit passcode.

Being able to dial in to your landline to make Skype calls is where the “First Mobile Skype Solution” comes from, and to be fair - it works!

Upon accessing the Call Centre you can dial seleced Skype contacts which you have pre-assigned speed dial numbers to. This is good for regular callers but I feel cripples the abilities by not providing another way to access all your Skype contacts. Maybe text2speech could be employed here to some degree?

Actually making a Skype call to a contact connected quickly and voice quality was on-par with a usual Skype call. We did experience some echo with the last part of a word being repeated back by the caller on the VoSKY phone end.

Incoming Skype calls showed the caller id on phones which have a screen (as our Panasonic DECT did) - which was a great feature and worked flawlessly.

Other features of the box are a digital answering machine and call forwarding, when a Skype call is received the VoSKY will dial out on your connected landline to forward the Skype call to wherever you might be - a mobile, or home landline.

The VoSKY Call Centre solution is a great extension to the Skype service but its reliance on a Skype software installation with a logged in PC holds back its usefulness in a business (and home to some degree) environment.

For single person business Skype users who have their personal PC on 24/7 the VoSKY Call Centre is an excellent solution for their communication needs.

Once Skype is available to embed in devices the market for this kind of device will be massive.

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