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.