[wetsocket]

Teamspeak is another option, along the lines Mumble. There are others. It's a diferent concept from Skype. ONe person has to run a server. They choose who they want to be on the P2P network. Teamspeak is closed source.

Free SIP services are another option, but not easy enough for the novice who is in a hurry and just want things to work. Most people seem to use SIP servers operated by companies, not running the servers themselves. Some ISP's are selling pre-packed VOIP service (and some are deep inspecting every packet, lol).

Skype has the market now. It is ubiquitous. It's easy to use and works reasonably well.

But to think Skype will become the world's new default global communications channel, with MS in control, is just silly.

Skype is just a hint of what's possible, given today's bandwidth and a network that no one player controls.