Skype Moves Forward in Mobile Phones

Written by: Francisco Acevedo on April 2, 2009 at 7:29 am

Francisco Acevedo
Staff Writer

Skype, an important and reliable internet service that now has more that 400 million people around the world, is making an aggressive movement into mobile phones.

Beginning in May, Skype will have fee software available for Apple’s iPhone, iPod touch as well as various BlackBerry phones. As when using Skype in computers, users of Skype with mobile phones are able to make calls and receive instant messages with other Skype users free, and pay lower rates the they would pay with other companies when they use Skype to call landlines or other mobile phones.

“The carriers are in the business of selling voice minutes. For a long time they saw products like Skype coming along and they were concerned,” said Ben Wood, director of Research at the London-based CCS Insight, a market research firm. “But it turned out a little bit different than they expected.”

The idea of bringing Skype to mobile phones was viewed from many cellular companies as potentially threatening because they are afraid of people using Skype to make calls using Skype rather then the more expensive voice minutes that carry their cellular network.

In the last two years Skype network was tested in London using Hutchinson 3, a British network, and made an impact because many people started to join this network and use their mobile phones to make calls using Skype that high calling rates would have discouraged otherwise.

However, chief operating officer,  Scott Durchslag, hoped Apple and AT&T would relax and let people make calls using Skype anywhere they roamed.

Until then, Skype will continue to pursue it’s interests in mobile phones.