verizon and skype partner up for application
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
today at mobile world congress in spain, verizon wireless and skype announced that they have partnered up to provide a nifty application to their smartphones which will allow for free international calls, is free to specific smartphones users with data plans, and will not use your monthly minutes. one of those smartphones is as you've probably guessed, the motorola droid. yay or who cares?
According to Verizon, the application will allow smartphone users to make unlimited Skype-to-Skype calls around the world; call international numbers at more favorable Skype rates; send/receive instant messages to/from Skype users; and see contacts' presence to know when they are online. Calls made from the Skype Mobile app will transit Verizon's cellular circuit-switched network, but won't use a subscriber's monthly minutes. The application will not work over Wi-Fi via VoIP. The application and its use will be free to smartphone owners who subscribe to a monthly data plan. The application will be available for the BlackBerry Storm 9530, Storm2 9550, Curve 8530, Curve 8330, BlackBerry 8830 World Edition and the Motorola Droid and Devour, and the HTC Eris. It will be available starting in late March.they have already established a web address (http://phones.verizonwireless.com/skypemobile/) that should be live at some point today. anyone out there a big skype users? i myself have used the service once, maybe twice, but i guess i'm still excited to know that we'll get this app for free. can't beat that right?
(via phonescoop)
8 comments
this is kind of a disappointment.i was hoping verizon was going to position themselves as a leader in the future of making phone calls.instead you have an application that is really only useful to skype fanatics and those making international calls.true voip calls would have been amazing but from a financial standpoint I guess that time has not arrived yet.
ReplyDeleteFor my line of business I constantly use Skype (daily in fact) for support calls, etc. I work from home and this is really awesome.
ReplyDeleteI'm happy to see that it will also be available for the BB Tour as that's what the wifey has.
ReplyDeleteNever used Skype, but assumed this would work best for phones with front facing cameras.
ReplyDeleteSo with Skype, I could use my Droid to make calls if I were in Spain? Since its not a world phone
I have family in South Africa who we would definitely be in touch with more if and when this becomes available.
ReplyDeleteThe article says that it uses Verizon's network, so you would not be able to use it while you're overseas, but you would be able to reach others overseas for a lot less cost.
ReplyDeleteBeing able to use it would've been a good idea and eliminated one of the downsides to CDMA.
Would have been great to see skype over wifi on the droid. I was recently in Buenos Aires and most shops had free wifi. Guess a small netbook w/bluetooth not running android would be more useful in that situation.
ReplyDeleteI'm thrilled about the development. I'm using the cheap 450 minute plan, and that's limit is hard to live with on some months (most of my business contacts and my family back home aren't Verizon customers). I have been really disappointed with fring and Nimbuzz (for both SIP and Skype) due to their lack of functionality (e.g., fring has no keypad and Nimbuzz doesn't allow calling arbitrary numbers) and terrible performance (e.g. latency that makes calls feel like the "10 at 10" on Leno's "old" show). So it's excellent that I'll be able to use Skype minutes (which are not as cheap as SIP minutes, but still pretty cheap) to make those calls. The performance should be good specifically because it's not using WiFi.
ReplyDeleteSo this development basically adds a fraction of a Spring feature (i.e., unlimited minutes anywhere) in order to compete more with AT&T.