Shanti’s Dispatches

Can Skype live up to the Net phone hype?

When Sun Chun first heard of Skype and its promise of free, high-quality Internet phone service, he figured the claims were mostly hype.

Chun, who generally considers himself an early adopter, had tried broadband phone services before, only to suffer lost calls and garbled conversations. So he was skeptical when reports began circulating a year ago of revolutionary peer-to-peer software that could render traditional phone companies obsolete, much as file-swapping services threatened the recording industry.

The jury is still out on whether Skype will take down the Bells. But Chun, for one, is kicking himself for waiting so long to try out the software.

“The conversations with our friends are surprisingly clear and crisp,” Chun, a San Jose, Calif., tech worker, said in an e-mail. “Calls to my friend in Australia were also of equal crisp quality. So now, I am urging all my friends and family to install this incredible software.”

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