Sometimes, things that are too good to be true, really are
I used Skype on Wednesday, a couple of hours before it fell over.
It took several emails and one landlane call to get the Skype call set up, and then it was very difficult to hear what was going on compared to a normal landline teleconference. Mostly due to the voice of the person two desks away reaching me through the air about a second before it appeared on the headphones ... yet bizarrely there seemed to be no delay on the Indian leg of the call!
Landline would have been cheaper. Yes it would still have taken some emails to set the call up, but the better quality resulting in less time wasted would have paid the call charges.
This was my second attempt to talk to someone via Skype. On the first attempt the voice was so distorted in both directions, only about one syllable in three being audible, that a conversation was impossible, so we gave up and conducted the business by landline and email. I know which I'll try first next time.