A month or two ago I was waching my favorite podcast This Week in Tech, Leo showed off his new Skype-o-saurus. My first thought was - "Yea this will work <sic>". Amazingly enough he actually carried on a truly professional video conference. Now it has been years since I used Skype and I think at the time I had dial-up so it was time to give it a shot.
For a mere $60/year (per YEAR) I was able to obtain a local telephone number and an unlimited US & Canada plan. I've been making calls with it and found it worked supprisingly well with Linux. The final test was to use it from a hotel in the UK. To my absolute amazement it worked flawlessly.
I am now completely sold on Skype as a true communications tool. Sorry Vonage but paying $50/month for less service just isn't cost effective. You can locate us on Skype by using our email addresses.