Do you use skype and why?

Since Latvia is now a member of Europe (OK, I know there have been some problems with that, especially about the use of Latvian in education!), you should look at Voipbuster - check out the calling rates here: http://www.voipbuster.com/en/calling-rates.html#letl You can call from PC to PC free but you can also call from PC to Phone. I just checked the price to call Latvian phones and they are (in LVL): Latvia (Landline) 0.014 (inc VAT= 0.017) Latvia (Mobile) 0.112 (Inc VAT= 0.133) Quite a few destinations are free and others have a very good price. It depends where you want to call but I have yet to find a better deal for PC-to-phone. I also use Gizmo, which is a US based company and also has IM ... and can import contacts from other IM clients such as Yahoo. Again, of course, PC-to-PC calls are free, while PC to phone calls are either free or very competitively priced. The list of the countries you can call for free is here: http://www.gizmoproject.com/learnmore-allcallsfree.html I have been using both of these programs for over a year and I find that the quality is, on the whole, better than if I dialed direct! Skype has its own proprietary protocol, which is my main reason for disliking it. I do not, on the whole, like companies who monopolise or patent their systems because people who design add-ons (there are several, for example, which allow you to record calls on Skype) then tend to charge for their systems. Both VoipBuster and Gizmo use a different protocol (the same one, actually, that Yahoo and MSN use) but seem to manage to do it much better than MSN Messenger or Yahoo Messenger!

I use it sometimes to mic and web chat. :)

I have never been attracted to skp, as my internet provider already provides me with free calls to any land line in Europe, USA, Canada, Australia and sections of the Far East. I beleive its 50 or 60 countries in total. In France, this is now the norm, and all internet providers have similar deals, which then makes Skpe obsolete.