Monday, April 21st, 2008
Skype Hype
I saw a lot of activity over on the Skype blogs this past 24 hours so I wanted to make sure it got a nod here on Ink. An interview with new Skype president, Josh Silverman, after his first month on the job included a reference to today’s announcement around unlimited long-distance service:
“…we’ve just announced unlimited long-distance calling to over a third of the world’s population. For those who haven’t heard about it yet, you can basically make worry-free calls any time of the day and not be tied down by a long term contract – or high cost. You only pay a flat-rate monthly fee and you can make calls to landlines in the country of your choice to up to 34 destination countries worldwide. While these subscriptions are a great value, the main thrust was actually to make it even easier for people – not worrying about keeping the clock ticking while talking with your girlfriend in Prague, or running out of credit and having to recharge the account.”
Villu posted his take on the announcement, complete with a break-down of the subscription models.
One important thing to note, and it looks like someone has already asked the question over on the Skype blogs, is that this subscription-based model is also an upgrade/replacement to the existing Skype Pro service. Although Skype Pro will no longer be offered to new customers, existing Skype Pro subscribers can continue to use their subscription but may want to upgrade to the new service because of the expanded choices it provides. If a Skype Pro user wants to upgrade to the new subscriptions model, Skype will turn on the new service and automatically reimburse any Skype Pro days not used in the form of Skype credit.
Tagged: , calling plan, interview, josh+silverman, long distance calls, president, skype
Formerly Known As MarikaBooksOn 04.21.2008 at 11:08 am Said:
Nobody cares about Skype. The word on the street is that Ebay is going to try and dump it anyway.
permacrisisOn 04.21.2008 at 3:37 pm Said:
I would go one notch further and say that Skype is the reason we are in this mess. 1.6 billion dollars could have bought a lot of TV ads- or ID verified each and every member of this site. As for telephony VoiceStick does a better job of VOIP and is platform-agnostic anyways. And NetZero phone does VOIP over dialup.. a technology that would have been a much better ebay fit. Power of three, my foot. They just wanted another pay service to wire up to PayPal, is all.
Skype, pshaw… a couple tin cans and a string. They should have bought Kinko’s or mailbox Etcetera instead. Those are actualy relevant to ebays business– or were, when ebay was an auction company.
JJHOn 04.21.2008 at 4:19 pm Said:
I have to agree with Permacrisis. Skype was a waste of eBay’s money and an ego trip for Meg (”Look what I bought!”). I’m sure Skype is part of the reason she’s gone now. Oh sure, 10 year career spin, and leave on good terms, Uh-huh.
That 1.6b could have been spent in much better ways.
This is a non-issue.
HenriettaOn 04.22.2008 at 1:47 am Said:
Had Skype. Sounded like frogs croaking at the bottom of a well. Connection fell off after about 5 minutes. Can’t call a cell. Not exactly what one would call portable without buying a very expensive phone. Wiped it off my computer just this week.
Vonnage. Completely unlimited, talk 24/7 if you wanted to, includes any country I would need to call and multiple premium ‘extra services’ included at no cost.
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