Skype launches unlimited international calling

Internet telephony provider Skype this week introduced a flat rate, unlimited calling plan to landline numbers in 34 countries.

It is the first time Skype has offered a single, monthly flat rate for international calling to landline numbers.

The new subscription options have no long term contract, and the prices top out at Eur9.95 per month. European users can get unlimited calls to landlines in 34 countries across Europe, the Americas and Asia for Eur8.95, while US users can get the same deal for Eur6.95.

Stefan Oberg, VP and general manger of telecoms at Skype, said, "For example if you live in London, for just Eur2.95 a month, you can call your grandmother in Poland, whenever you like, talk for up to six hours at a time, and not worry about how much it's costing you. Your grandmother doesn't need to understand the internet. You just use your Skype subscription to make the call and she just picks up the phone. And if you have friends and family spread over the world, you can reach them all for as little as Eur8.95 a month. When you combine the free features Skype is known for - from instant messaging to conference calling to video calls - with our subscriptions, it's hard to find a better alternative."

Last week it emerged that Skype's parent, online auction house eBay is considering selling off the internet telephony operation, unless it finds a better stratagem for integration of the two businesses by year end.

John Donahoe, who assumed the role of chief executive officer of eBay at the end of March, said that the company is focusing on the synergies between Skype and its main business. But if those synergies aren't regarded as strong enough, Skype's position in the eBay portfolio would be reassessed.

eBay's acquisition of Skype in 2005 is largely regarded as a $2.6bn blunder. An outlook given further weight after the auction house wrote down the value of the purchase by $1bn last year.

eBay's efforts to monetise Skype have largely fallen flat, and the unit's main source of revenue remains user purchases of Skype-out minutes, allowing subscribers to call non-Skype numbers.

Nevertheless, Skype itself continues a strong growth curve. The operation announced $126m in revenue for the first quarter of 2008, representing 61 per cent year over year growth. The VoIP player added 33 million registered users in the quarter, ending the period with more than 309 million registered users around the world. Skype is even expected to turn a profit sometime this year and the introduction of flat rate tariffs looks set to help it do just that.

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