Internet Business News from The Industry Standard - Skype's Net calling service reaches beyond the PC - Internet News
I feel like a recent Skype convert. After a comment on this blog to try it out, and it is amazing. I talked with a friend in Toronto (almost across the continent) and it was clearer than regular phone. Of course now that I want to use it more, the plug for the microphone for my headset went south. I’ll have to make due with the built-in laptop mike for a while.
_Skype Technologies SA, a company that offers free software for making phone calls over the Internet, is introducing a new version of its application on Tuesday that includes a prepay service for making calls to any fixed line or mobile phone around the world at local rates.
Skype for Windows Version 1.0 is an updated version of the Luxembourg-based company’s flagship offering, which lets broadband Internet users make free phone calls and chat with other Skype users over a peer-to-peer (P-to-P) application. The new software adds a service called SkypeOut, that lets users call mobile and fixed-line phones worldwide at discounted rates because the calls travel through the Internet and only connect with the public phone system at the last mile.
“We have a very different offering – a software application that uses the Internet as a carrier for the voice,” said Skype Chief Executive Officer and co-founder Niklas Zennstr?m. “The impact is that you cannot charge for phone calls the same way, just as you can’t charge for an e-mail or visiting a Web page.”_