I have been looking for this one for a while. And then i found EQO. EQO is a small program that you install on your mobile phone, and let you call others though skype.
It works by calling up both you and the person you are calling. That means that you yourself actually receive a call, when calling another person. And when calling another PSTN or mobile phone (Skypeout), you pay for both connections. That could be rather expensive, given the Skype price pr. minute is € 0,20 for mobile phones here in Denmark. I tested it by calling a friend and ended up paying € 0,80 for just over one minute (apparently it rounds up). But if you use it to call a phone in china (like my girlfriend often does), where the prices are only € 0,017 pr. minute, it really pays off, even though you pay for both calls. I don’t know if it could turn out to be cheaper if the call went directly from you phone using tcp/ip and thereby saving you from at least one of the Skypeout charges. It depends on the amount of data necessary to make a phone call, and the price of the data rate at your operator.
I am not sure about the amount of data transferred for using the program in general, but that could be and important factor too, unless you have flat rate on you mobile phone.
But a really ugly thing about EQO is this I found the FAQ section:
Can I still use EQO when my computer is OFF?
No. You need to have your computer ON and both the EQO and Skype™ program need to be running on your computer.
Why?? That really sucks! And it is not available for mac, so i cant just have it running on my multi purpose server. But the graphical layout is pretty cool as though.
Apparently there is another client called iSkoot out there, which also makes you do Skypeout calls from your mobile. Haven’t tried it though. What I really need is a Skype client in Java ME.
May 8th, 2006 at 18:12
Hello Brian,
I wanted to add a few things to your post. First off, EQO is available for Mac and has been for over a month:
http://www.eqo.com/download_osx.shtml
Second, the reason that EQO requires a PC plugin is that Skype is a restricted network. Therefore, for us to access your Skype account, we require that EQO be running on your computer. We’ve been knocking on Skype’s door for access to their network, but there hasn’t been anybody home since the sale to ebay. Also, we don’t want to collect your Skype ID and password and send them through the air as iSkoot does.
http://www.skypejournal.com/blog/archives/2006/03/iskoot_update_1.php
Please email me if you have anymore questions about EQO, chris@eqo.com.
Sincerely,
Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist
May 8th, 2006 at 19:40
Ok, I just didn’t find the Mac version on your download page, but I will check it out.
I realize that the iSkoot method is the only real alternative to yours for now. And I don’t think that giving them access to my Skype account, which they can periodically log on and off to, is a thing I want. So until Skype opens up, it is security or convenience I guess. Just keep knocking at their doors ;), because I am sure Skype from a mobile device will be biiiiig.