» Skype Announces Free PC-to-Phone VoIP Within North AmericaTelecommunications Industry News

Telecom News Editorials Reports Glossary

Skype Announces Free PC-to-Phone VoIP Within North America

7:30 am on May 17, 2006 | Category: VoIP, Web Services

Online VoIP provider, Skype, has taken an aggressive step to make its service more competitive. Users will now be able to make free calls from to landlines and mobile phones in the U.S. and Canada, rather than paying 2 cents a minute.

This move is likely intended to boost the companyâ€™s user base in North America, where competition is growing fiercer by the month as companies big and small try to grab their share of the fast-growing internet telephony pie.

Now that Skype has made PC-to-Phone communications free of charge, it probably wonâ€™t be long until other such online communications services follow suit. AOL has already started offering free phone numbers for incoming calls to AIM VoIP and instant messaging users.

As internet communication services continue to cross the barrier from cheap to free, Skype will likely try its hardest to remain at the forefront. Keeping ahead of the competition will allow it to meet targets set by auction giant, eBay, which bought the service last year.

Skypeâ€™s co-founders, co-owners, and executives stand to get a major windfall of incentives, amounting to as much as $1.5 billion, if certain profit and market share targets are attained in the years to come. Although making PC-to-Phone calls free within North America will probably damage profits in the immediate term, executives seem willing to take the gamble, in order to stay ahead of rivals and cash in on future opportunities.

Telecommunications Industry News