I understand skype is bad on bandwidth.  But it doesn't make any sense to me how I can have 900 kpbs average download and still can't hear voices coming in. Or how I can't stream a one meg file thru windows media or real player. 

I am in Afghanistan and the satellite services on the base performs better with skype and streaming files than the more expensive satellite services provided by the retailers.  But I can surf the web faster with the commercial providers.  A trade off would be nice.