It's Been Coming For Years, But Now..

[threegee]

Skypezones, now free calls worldwide from your pocket.

http://www.skype.com/intl/en-gb/allfeature...CFQOTMAodWXmyJw

Watch Newsnight on BBC2 tonight.

[Monsta®]

Skypezones, now free calls worldwide from your pocket.

http://www.skype.com/intl/en-gb/allfeature...CFQOTMAodWXmyJw

Watch Newsnight on BBC2 tonight.

skype is not free! it was initailly but the big companies have now twigged and the prices are risen!

like they say you divint get out for nowt!

[threegee]

Now this IS news!

I use it several times a day to make international calls, and have done for almost a year.

Skype Out may be what you are confused by. It enables you to call an ordinary phone in any country, most often for for far less than the cost of a local call. Both are fabulous services. Though the new 3 Skype mobile has to prove itself, it looks very promising, and really is free at the point of use.

[Malcolm Robinson]

skype is not free! it was initailly but the big companies have now twigged and the prices are risen!

like they say you divint get out for nowt!

[Monsta®]

Now this IS news!

I use it several times a day to make international calls, and have done for almost a year.

Skype Out may be what you are confused by. It enables you to call an ordinary phone in any country, most often for for far less than the cost of a local call. Both are fabulous services. Though the new 3 Skype mobile has to prove itself, it looks very promising, and really is free at the point of use.

skype to skype is free for the moment! but everything else is not! and you can have video chat on messenger so whats the point!

if skype was such a groundbreaking thing why do people still use other technologies? cause its rubbish!

[threegee]

The point is that it builds on the existing telecoms infrastructure - to the vast majority of the World that isn't even Internet aware.

Many commercial outfits are saving thousands on international calling using Skype, my own company included. This isn't possible using locked-in systems like MSN. And, who in their right mind would want to mortgage their future to Microsoft anyway!

SkypeOut and SkypeIn undermine the existing telecom franchise to an extent Bill Gates could only dream about. But this is just the start, and there will be many more of the same.

That was the entire point of my starting this thread. Mass use of VoIP is coming, and faster than anyone could believe.

Skype isn't the only VoIP service in the field, but it has the highest profile. Extending the *free* use to mobiles is the breakthrough. The current near 10 million worldwide daily users will rapidly multiply. It's great to see that the UK has been selected for the initial roll-out.

[Mr Darn]

The point is that it builds on the existing telecoms infrastructure - to the vast majority of the World that isn't even Internet aware.

Many commercial outfits are saving thousands on international calling using Skype, my own company included. This isn't possible using locked-in systems like MSN. And, who in their right mind would want to mortgage their future to Microsoft anyway!

SkypeOut and SkypeIn undermine the existing telecom franchise to an extent Bill Gates could only dream about. But this is just the start, and there will be many more of the same.

That was the entire point of my starting this thread. Mass use of VoIP is coming, and faster than anyone would believe.

Skype isn't the only VoIP service in the field, but it has the highest profile. Extending the *free* use to mobiles is the breakthrough. The current near 10 million worldwide daily users will rapidly multiply. It's great to see that the UK has been selected for the initial roll-out.

So, let me get this right, skype is bringing out a mobile that will enable free calles over an internet connection?

dont you pay for the connection anyway?

[threegee]

Not quite. It's Three that is marketing the phone and the service. The hardware is a freebie if you sign a monthly contract or £49.99 if you want one on PAYG. Heavily subsidised either way.

You don't pay for the connection. How Three earn revenue is that to maintain the free connection to the Internet (and to Skype) you have to have paid a minimum top-up of your mobile in the previous month. Likely you'd be doing that anyway.

Next launch will be Australia then Italy.

Why it is significant is that it's the very first time that a telecom major has retreated from the cost-per-call model for other than local calls on their own network. There have been a few very limited harbingers that this was going to happen, but VoIP is what is known to economists as a "disruptive technology". In layman's terms: Directly paying for phone calls to wherever is a long-ingrained idea that is dead on its feet!

[Malcolm Robinson]

Not quite. It's Three that is marketing the phone and the service. The hardware is a freebie if you sign a monthly contract or £49.99 if you want one on PAYG. Heavily subsidised either way.

You don't pay for the connection. How Three earn revenue is that to maintain the free connection to the Internet (and to Skype) you have to have paid a minimum top-up of your mobile in the previous month. Likely you'd be doing that anyway.

Next launch will be Australia then Italy.

Why it is significant is that it's the very first time that a telecom major has retreated from the cost-per-call model for other than local calls on their own network. There have been a few very limited harbingers that this was going to happen, but VoIP is what is known to economists as a "disruptive technology". In layman's terms: Directly paying for phone calls to wherever is a long-ingrained idea that is dead on its feet!

I registered with Skype a couple of years ago but have hardly used it, why, because the “free” call package I get with my broadband connection makes it unnecessary and the people I want to talk to don’t have to be Skype registered. If you are sitting in front of a computer all day working that may well be a different matter of course.

Isn’t it true that Skype didn’t attract the numbers it hoped for at its launch and roll out?

Having said that I can see a mobile “free” service attracting more take up, it had to come once the web was available to mobiles, but it will be a race like VHS and Betamax was because the providers paid something like 26 billion and want to see their profits protected.

[Monsta®]

how can skype a free service improve the telecoms infastructure? the telecoms are so far behind it would take billions to fetch it up to europea

n standards! they have speed upto 100mb

and were stuck with upto 8mb or 24mb if your in the right area! so skype wont be helping at all infact its

probably a step backwards!

[Denzel]

Skypezones, now free calls worldwide from your pocket.

http://www.skype.com/intl/en-gb/allfeature...CFQOTMAodWXmyJw

Watch Newsnight on BBC2 tonight.

Well let's roll over and !*!@# Mars Bars.