That was fast. <a href="http://www.skype.com/products/skypein/">SkypeIn</a>, Skype&#39;s connection of &quot;real&quot; phone numbers to your Skype account, is live.

They are offering numbers from Hong Kong, the UK (well, sold out, apparently), France, and the US. I&#39;ve seen <a href="http://blog.larixconsulting.com/blog/_archives/2005/3/12/427517.html">people say they want to wait for Canadian numbers</a> -- I&#39;ll probably just try a US number and get a Canadian one later.

So, looking at the list of US area codes, I was trying to figure out what area I would want a number from. I copied out all the area codes and looked them up <a href="http://www.bennetyee.org/ucsd-pages/area.html">here</a>. Below is the list of SkypeIn area codes and what area of the US they are connected with:

203 - Connecticut: Fairfield County and New Haven County; Bridgeport, New Haven<br />
240 - W Maryland: Silver Spring, Frederick, Gaithersburg<br />
248 - Michigan: Oakland County<br />
267 - SE Pennsylvania: Philadelphia<br />
301 - W Maryland: Silver Spring, Frederick, Camp Springs, Prince George&#39;s County<br />
302 - Delaware<br />
310 - S California: Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, West Los Angeles<br />
312 - Illinois: Chicago<br />
347 - New York<br />
408 - Cent. Coastal California: San Jose<br />
415 - California: San Francisco County and Marin County<br />
508 - Cent. Massachusetts: Framingham; Cape Cod<br />
562 - California: Long Beach<br />
586 - Michigan: Macomb County<br />
626 - E S California: Pasadena<br />
631 - New York: Suffolk County, Long Island; Huntington, Riverhead<br />
646 - New York<br />
650 - California: Peninsula south of San Francisco<br />
678 - N Georgia: metropolitan Atlanta<br />
706 - N Georgia: Columbus, Augusta<br />
707 - NW California: Santa Rosa, Napa, Vallejo, American Canyon, Fairfield<br />
718 - New York City Metro Area, New York<br />
734 - SE Michigan: west and south of Detroit -- Ann Arbor, Monroe<br />
773 - Illinois: city of Chicago, outside the loop<br />
774 - Cent. Massachusetts: Framingham; Cape Cod<br />
805 - S Cent. and Cent. Coastal California<br />
815 - NW Illinois: Rockford, Kankakee<br />
817 - N Cent. Texas: Fort Worth area<br />
903 - NE Texas: Tyler<br />
978 - Massachusetts: north of Boston to NH

Hmmm...where to pick? Does it make sense to pick a number in your own timezone? Or should I pick a number &quot;close&quot; to some clients in Chicago or Northeast Ohio? When looking at SIPPhone, I was going to get a Silicon Valley number...far cheaper than opening an office down there.

Skype&#39;s list of numbers will likely change. The only list is from actually going through the sign up process and copying out the list of numbers, so I&#39;ll update this as I can.

<strong>Update:</strong> OK, I picked. You can call me at (415) 367-3595 -- a San Francisco number. It will go to voicemail if I don&#39;t pick up, with this great Norwegian lady telling you that I&#39;m not available.

I was thinking that I could use the voicemail instead of my cellphone voicemail, but it would mean paying long distance charges to San Fran. Of course, this might still be cheaper than my $8/month voicemail and caller display charges.

In my test (I called the number from my cell phone), SkypeIn does Caller ID as well.