KhunHeineken

Strange. I installed it some time ago without a problem. As for high call charges, they have great unlimited plans. Why would they go to so much trouble to delete the account? Just uninstall it. Not sure what country, or device they are on, or their financial capacity, but I see they are promoting other products. Could be a fake review. I accept what you say. Another member had a similar issue. Here's some Viber stats. https://usesignhouse.com/blog/viber-stats/ "The number of Viber users worldwide was estimated to be 1.3 billion in 2022." Viber must be doing something right.

Don't forget the current boyfriend, who is on the dole, living with her when he shouldn't be. Between them, plus all the freebies they both get, they bring in more on welfare than many working households. Then, you have each one of those 5 kids growing up never seeing mum or dad work, so do the same, get onto welfare. This why it's become generational, and is ballooning. It's unsustainable. As mentioned, with millions of Australians receiving welfare, either major political party that looks to take $1 of welfare away will not be voted in. Traditionally, Labor was for "the worker." They are now for people that don't work at all. If someone started "The Australia Welfare Party" they would be swept into power. You'll get a laugh out of this. Some of these characters end up in Thailand on the old age pension.

I freely admit I got that call wrong. I thought there would be a swing away from both major parties because the people genuinely want change. Turns out, they just want some more freebies off Albo. Who would have thought?

Lacessit and Penny Wong, what a power couple.

Democracy in Australia is not just for guys like Paul Hogan.

Australian government. (I chose 2019 - pre pandemic) https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-welfare/australias-welfare-2019-in-brief/summary "$161 billion was spent on welfare by governments in 2017–18, or $6,482 per person." It gets worse when you add in all the middle class welfare. This is a good article that fact checks the comments of a Lib politician in 2015. He said this: "When you’ve got, oh, probably well over half of the population, heading to two-thirds of the population receiving some form of government benefit, it’s pretty easy to identify where that money is going. And a far better option would be to wind back on expenditure, let people look after themselves a little bit more, lower taxes in due course and reduce the size of the government. – Liberal Democratic Party Senator David Leyonhjelm, interview with ABC NewsRadio Breakfast, April 30, 2015." https://theconversation.com/factcheck-is-half-to-two-thirds-of-the-australian-population-receiving-a-government-benefit-41027 The verdict from the fact check was this: "It is correct however, that about 50% of Australian households receive a government payment."

Robodebt was a computer automated matching of welfare received v hours worked, and if there was an over payment, debt recovery. Robodebt didn't do surveillance on individuals claiming the dole or disability, but still working. Nor did it assess someone on the dole as being able to work but just chosing not to and cutting them off. Robodebt has nothing to do with the number of Australians receiving welfare. From one of many online dictionaries. https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/welfare "Welfare is money that is paid by the government to people who are unemployed, poor, or sick." What will YOU call it when Australia becomes a republic?

Yolla does not have an unlimited calls / minutes plan. Fine for casual users, not so good for frequent use.

Meta (Facebook) also owns WhatsApp, which doesn't give me a lot of confidence in relation to privacy with WhatsApp.

Have you read through some of the other Skype threads? Many alternatives have been put forward.

Why did they reject your application?

What's the problem with putting an app on your phone and scanning a QR code on your PC screen, if you want to use it on a PC?

You have to buy a Microsoft Teams Phone Plan in order to make calls on Teams.

What they will regret is not developing Skype, particularly with the rise of Zoom during the pandemic. Some may say Teams is Microsoft's development of Skype, but Skype was already a global brand, with hundreds of millions of users, worldwide. They should have developed it to keep up with their competitors, but it's basically remained the same for years. Like I have said, Microsoft reminds me of Nokia. Had a huge market share, but ultimately went broke. They didn't invest in R&D.

I'm predicting a complete server shut down in March 26, with emails being sent out later this year informing people to use what's left of their credit by March 26.

At the present time, Skype is currently running at a complete loss. That means, Microsoft is still supporting Skype, at a cost to the company, but there is $0 in revenue coming in because Skype is shutting down. Remember, they already have your money from your subscription / credit purchase. Wrong. They already have your money. They got your money the day you purchased Skype credit. It's not held by a 3rd Party and released to Skype after your call. No one is getting charged every month. They are not selling anything anymore. Not selling subscription, or credit / minutes. Zero revenue coming in, but still supplying the service means it's running at a loss. For this reason, in my opinion, I would say they will put a deadline on using Skype credit, and I have predicted it will be March 26 to coincide with the ending of Microsoft 365 subscribers 60 minutes per month, and the ending of the last annual Skype subscription. Like I said, I wanted to leave $0.20 in credit in my Skype account forever, in protest, to keep Skype alive forever, but I can't see Microsoft allowing users to sit on Skype credit for years and years, otherwise, there is no real Skype shutdown. Goodwill from Microsoft, that's funny. As another member posted, look what they did with Windows 11 and all the unsupported hardware out there. One thing is for sure, Skype's competitors will be picking up hundreds of millions of new users, and billions of dollars in revenue, many of them also offer a good product, but I will forever miss Skype.

Did you check out Viber? It's very similar to Skype.

Correct. https://ipa.org.au/publications-ipa/media-releases/growing-welfare-dependency-requires-honest-debate-and-urgent-action "Approximately 2.1 million Australians (aged 15+) are currently receiving welfare through either the NDIS, Disability Support Pension (DSP), Jobseeker, or Youth Allowance." "Many Australians receive welfare for valid reasons, however there is a rapidly growing cohort who could work, but do not. This is placing an enormous burden on our nation’s stretched finances and ballooning debt levels,” said Mr Wild."

Australia. https://ipa.org.au/publications-ipa/media-releases/growing-welfare-dependency-requires-honest-debate-and-urgent-action "Approximately 2.1 million Australians (aged 15+) are currently receiving welfare through either the NDIS, Disability Support Pension (DSP), Jobseeker, or Youth Allowance."

It's something that is very undemocratic in a democracy.

It's got to the point that there are now millions of welfare recipients in Australia. Any political party looking to take a dollar off a welfare recipient would never be voted in, that's how many are on the Centerlink gravy train. https://ipa.org.au/publications-ipa/media-releases/growing-welfare-dependency-requires-honest-debate-and-urgent-action "Approximately 2.1 million Australians (aged 15+) are currently receiving welfare through either the NDIS, Disability Support Pension (DSP), Jobseeker, or Youth Allowance." "Many Australians receive welfare for valid reasons, however there is a rapidly growing cohort who could work, but do not. This is placing an enormous burden on our nation’s stretched finances and ballooning debt levels,” said Mr Wild."

Australia desperately needs tax reform, housing reform, and electricity reform, just to name a few, but these would be at the top. In relation to tax reform, implementing more of the Henry Review would be a good start. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Tax_Review "Rudd endorsed and implemented only 3 of the 138 recommendations." In relation to housing reform, negative gearing has to be rolled back, back politicians from both major parties and many smaller parties have investment properties. https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/article/politicians-and-their-property-portfolios-how-many-do-they-own/udjlx1qle In relation to electricity, it should never had been privatized. In 30 years, Australia went from having one of the cheapest electricity prices in the world, to having the most expensive electricity prices in the world. https://www.leadingedgeenergy.com.au/blog/highest-electricity-prices-world/ "Australian households and businesses are paying the highest electricity prices in the world, a drastic reversal from the 1990s when energy bills in the country were the cheapest in the world." It's that bad that Australia's electricity prices are causing what's left of Australia's manufacturing industry to go offshore. Neither the ALP or LNP have done anything of substance to change the above issues that have a big impact on every Australian citizen, thus, it didn't really matter who won the election, Australia will still continue down the same path to record debt, so much so, S&P issued a warning that Australia could lose its AAA rating, and if / when that happens, it's 15 baht to $1AUD.

I posted this link in another thread, but it's also on topic in this thread. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/mar/24/australian-budget-2025-where-does-the-money-come-from-and-where-does-it-go 37% of Australian's budget goes to "Social Security and Welfare." It's unsustainable.

It just keeps spinning faster and faster. http://australiandebtclock.com.au

Because 3 years of rubbish feels like 4 years.