SkypeIn… but not “in” Canada.
Wednesday, August 13th, 2008
For those of you unfamilier with Skype, it is a peer to peer text, voice and video application. The Skype website says, “Skype is free calls, video calls and instant messages. And you can call landlines and mobiles anywhere in the world at great rates. Free to download and easy to use. “ I agree, in principle, with their statement.
SkypeIn(tm) is when you buy a 10 digit phone number and have it assigned to your Skype Account. People can call you from a cell phone or landline by dialing your Skypein number and ringing you on your computer. You can buy SkypeIn numbers for 21 countries… but unfortunately, not Canada.
Until Now…
Now you can get a number for most major Cities in Canada for Skype…
…but still not from Skype.
If you really want a SkypeIn number with a Canadian area code, there is a really inexpensive way to acheive it. I did. I can now be reached on my Skype account by anyone who dials my new number with the 403 Area Code – 403-775-2205 (give it a try… I spend 80% of my day near a PC)
Here is how you can get a Canadian phone number to ring into your Skype account;
- Get a subscription for unlimited calling in the US & Canada for your Skype account… 3 months, the cost is $7.95.
- Buy a SkypIn number for your account. Choose from a number for any of the 21 Countries that are available… I chose a number in Texas. I like Texas.
- Now, navigate yourself over to LES.NET. Sign up for an account ( no cost to open the initial account).
- After you are logged into your LES.NET account –> click the menu “order DID” that’s a fancy telecom term for “Phone Numbers” (direct inward dial… I think
- Once you buy the phone number you want for Calgary… you need to get it to ring into your Skype Account.
- Click the menu Peers/Trunks –> on the bottom, click “New Trunk”
- Edit the Trunk details –> give it a name –> Peer Type = Phone Number –> Peer Address = YOUR SKYPEIN number… remember the number you bought and assigned to your Skye Account earlier –> SAVE your changes.
Now. There you have it! Dial the local 403 number (in my case) and it forwards directly to my SkyIn number in Texas and then rings through to my PC!
Les.net rates are very inexpensive. You can get a North American Toll Free number for a one time fee $15, montly fee $2.50 and $0.055/min. Canadian numbers with Les.net are $3.50 per month plus $0.011 per minute or a flat rate of $8.88. You choose, pay-as-you-go or flat rate.
I know that it is sometimes easier read than done. If you want a local Canadian number for your Skype account and find the above steps overwhelming… just drop me an email from the contact page here and I will either coach you through it or just simply get you setup.
Happy Skyping.
Hey – why not get Skype now and give me a call? – 403-775-2205
Cheers -
David A. West
Related posts:
shane magee
Monday, August 18th, 2008
hay david, any ideas as to how i can get a skypein number for saint john nb????
admin
Thursday, August 21st, 2008
Shane – Les.Net doesn’t have all area codes covered yet. I would recommend a pay-as-you go plan with babytel.ca at http://www.babytel.ca – they have most areas covered. Their monthly fee and per minute cost is nominal.
David W.
Josh B.
Saturday, January 10th, 2009
Another good option, that doesn’t require jumping through all the hoops, is to get a virtual number from virtufon.com or didww.com, et. al. I have an Ottawa virtufon number forwarded to skype, and it works fairly well, and it functions with Skype voicemail, etc.
Josh
admin
Saturday, January 10th, 2009
@Josh B.
Josh – thanks for your input. I’ll check them out.
Cheers
David W.
Oscar
Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009
*********WARNING********** FRAUD ALERT *****
SEE COMMENT BELOW THIS ONE – D. A. WEST
——-original comment ——–
I have it!
A simple and cheap solution to get a Canadian number that rings your skype anywhere in the world. its inskype.com. they offer most of the Canadian local area codes like:
Calgary 1-403
Edmonton 1-780
Fort Mcmurray 1-780
Halifax 1-902
Hamilton 1-905
Kelowna 1-250
Kitchner 1-519
London 1-519
Montreal 1-514
Ottawa 1-613
Quebec City 1-418
Toronto 1-416
Toronto 1-647
Vancouver 1-778
Victoria 1-250
Winnipeg 1-204
so go and get your number from http://www.inskype.com
deez
Friday, February 27th, 2009
I think inskype a scam, ur sites looks fishy, prove it buddy!!!!
David West
Friday, February 27th, 2009
@Oscar
Their signup process is manual – you have to fill out a form and fax it back to them… with your credit card information and personal details. Unless you know and trust the company you will be giving them enough information, including your signature, that you may be at risk of identity theft.
I think my hair is standing up now. Please do your diligence when picking a VOIP provider. This may be a legitimate service provider – but I have to say… use caution.
Here are some other issues that lead me to think this is a scam –
inskype.com service fees are a 1 time $15 USD setup and $15 USD per month recurring fee. This is fairly expensive compared to les.net. To cancel the service you need to email an address at IsraelNumber.com. Point 4 of their terms make it clear you never own the number assigned. Point 15 adds a fee for cancellation. It seems to me that there are a number of red flags here. The domain name inskype.com is not properly registered – a whois lookup shows no proper company name, no address, City and shows Antigua and Barbuda as the county. Why are they hiding behind false information related to their domain names. I smell fraud…
————
Address1
City, 24234
Antigua and Barbuda
123456765
————
- David A. west
Randall J
Friday, August 7th, 2009
Hey David,
Les.net is giving me some registration problems (won’t accept the security code…frustrating). Some of the customer reviews were not that great either. I looked into Link2voip… head office is out of Panama, they have a good service record but apparently don’t do call forwarding (it’s on there to do list). I’m here in Calgary with a Skype account and can’t wait to cut my Telus bill down to pocket change. Any ideas?
David West
Friday, August 7th, 2009
Hi Randall – check out BabyTel.ca at http://babytel.ca – they have a very good VOIP service. I have used them for the greater part of the past 5 years. Compare their VOIP phone plans to your Telus or Shaw’s VOIP offering and you’ll likely find that it’s pretty excellent. You can call forward a babytel line to anywhere as well, so if you wanted to point it to your Skype account when you travel etc. it can be done.
Cheers – Thanks for visiting my blog.
David W.
Randall J
Friday, August 7th, 2009
Hey David,
Les[.net] got back to [me]… apparently Firefox doesn’t sync. well with there website. Everything looks good from here. I checked out Babytel, if this turns out to be problematic I’ll definitely give them a try. Anyways, thanks so much for the info here. I probably wouldn’t have even tried to do any of this if I didn’t notice your blog.
I’ll let you know if there is any problems.
Thx again.
RJ
Frank C.
Tuesday, August 25th, 2009
@Randall J Call forwarding works great on Link2VoIP now. I use it all the time!
JP
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
You could get a virtual number from virtufon.com and point it directly to your skype account name (don’t need a SkypeIn number) and this will save you some cash. The virtual number seems to work well – they let you test it, and it’s a free trial for 10 days. I haven’t officially tested it yet.
$7/month for virtufon.com and $3/month US/Canada unlimited calling from skype = $10/month
Slick
Friday, December 11th, 2009
Try ring2skype.com it’s free and it works I tried it.
PAP
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
Interesting option for ring2skype.
Its a local number + an extension.
They seem to provide the service for free.
The questions that begs an answer is what is or will be there revenue stream?
Nobody does anything for free…
They claim (in the FAQ’s) that they divide the cost of a local number across 990 users (extensions) so its very cheap – on a per line basis. OK!
What’s the catch ?
Once they get enough users on the service are they are going to force people calling in to get a marketing message?
chris
Thursday, February 17th, 2011
virtufon is terrible service, no company contact, ring2skype is extensions only
chris
Thursday, February 17th, 2011
i finally signup with http://www.onekingtelecom.com its 10$ +free fwd us-ca and voicemail to email.
Kenneth
Monday, July 11th, 2011
Hello I have a question..
I will be doing relief work in Japan, but I hope to have a canadian DID somehow hookd up to my skype so my family and friends can ring me up anytime without them to pay extra.
How would this work?
thanks in advance.
David West
Tuesday, July 12th, 2011
If you need a Canadian in number, you can get one from Les.Net. Setup a US Skype-In number and then point or redirect the Canadian number to the US number and it will ring you on Skype.
Hope that helps.
Kenneth
Wednesday, July 13th, 2011
Last night I experimented with Virtufon’s canadian number. It’s 6 dollars / month and it forwards all calls to a contact called Virtuafon on my skype. Whenever I ring that number, it rings up my skype through this contact. Sorta works… and cheapest so far.. I’ll look up Les.net thx..
Kenneth
laugh
Saturday, November 19th, 2011
all of this bullshit to make a cheap phone call?
you canucks are a bunch a loosers.
ask the government to provide you free phone services like health care. after all, you pay your ass of taxes…
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