The downside is that Skype drops about one in 50 calls. "But hey, it's free. Just call back," Curd says. "You complain about Skype, but who hasn't had a dropped call or call quality problems on a cell phone?"

He says he is aware of the lawsuits against Skype over its code. "There's uncertainty. The [suits] could in effect shut them down," he says. "It would be disappointing, let's put it that way." But Maxim would still have the Nortel phone system to fall back on.

He says the company could use Google voice --– another inexpensive VoIP peering service -- but likes the fact that Skype makes money from its service, meaning that it has to deliver a certain level of service or fail commercially. "The problem with Google is it's not their business, it's their hobby. I might consider them when they're making money at it," he says.

Meanwhile, as the lawsuits make their way through the courts, experts advise caution, since a ruling might at least temporarily halt Skype's use of necessary code. "If you're considering using Skype as the most important part of your business voice, you're going to want to wait and see," says William Sofega, an analyst with IDC.