SkypeOut Free in America
Francis Turner
May 16th, 2006
Skype announced yesterday that its North American customers (USA & Canada) can now call North American PSTN numbers for free until the end of the year.
San Jose, CA, May 15, 2006 – Skype®, the global Internet communications company, today announced that all US and Canadian-based Skype customers can now make free SkypeOut™ calls to traditional landline and mobile phones in the US and Canada. Previously, Skype users in both countries were required to pay for Skype calls from their PCs to traditional telephones. Free SkypeOut calls to the US or Canada will be available to US and Canadian-based Skype users until the end of the year.
Skype has now removed any cost barrier for its American and Canadian customers to keep in touch with friends, family and business associates. Skype anticipates that completely free calling in the US and Canada will expand Skype’s increasing penetration in North America and solidify Skype’s position as the Internet’s voice communication tool of choice. More people will now have the chance to benefit from Skype’s premium services and online calling capabilities.
This is an interesting move, not least because of its discriminatory nature. Why should North American Skype users benefit from this feature and not the rest of us? It seems clear to me that this measure is intended to compete with other North American VOIP providers such as Vonage as well as the RBOCs themselves.
One obvious question is whether this cost can be sustained or if it is just an attempt to build a user base now. If it works we should see a large increase in the number of US subscribers but it will be interesting to see how many of them convert to customers who actually pay something to Skype.