Skypecasts to Phone Companies: Eat Our Dust

By B.L. Ochman. Cancel your land line. You won't be needing it any more.

Skype has teamed up with Six Apart and other partners to provide Skypecasts -- large, hosted calls on Skype.

"Let your opinion be heard on subjects close to your heart in groups of up to 100 people from anywhere in the world."

The Skypecasts directory already features conversations ranging from travel to star wars to the world cup race. And it just launched yesterday. Yes, they all need Skype accounts. And you can be sure there'll soon be few people without one.

Verizon: eat Skype's dust.

Life with no land line is wonderful. Now we just need ubiquitous free (and secure!) Web access. (Filed under "pipe dreams" ...) Thanks for the tip, B.L. I'm off to see what these Skypecast doohickies are.

Don't keep all of your eggs in one basket though. Remember that a landline works when the power is out. In other emergency situations here in New York, cell phone systems were overloaded - its always a good backup to spend the $15 a month to keep a landline. Be sure it is the type that does not need to be plugged in for anything.