Business VoIP

 

I recently wrote about how I thought Skype should be sold to Google and, in response, I received a very well-worded response from Skype (News - Alert) PR representative Chaim Haas. Here is an excerpt:

 

“[On] yesterday’s eBay (News - Alert) Q1 earnings call, where it was announced that Skype earned $126 million in revenue (it’s 5th straight profitable quarter) and added another 33 million new registered users in the quarter (there are now 309 million registered Skype users around the world). Keep in mind that, after 4.5 years in business, Skype’s entire revenue for 2007 puts it just about where Google (News - Alert) was at the same stage of its growth.

In addition, Skype’s new CEO is on the job for just over three weeks (he started on March 24th), so his vision for the company has not yet been shared publicly.”

The point was, basically, my comments may have been premature. It is very tough to argue with logic like the above, so I want to go on record saying I was likely too harsh on Skype and we should give the CEO more time.

Having said that, this past week I did get a chance to speak with Don Albert, VP and GM of Skype North America about a number of new initiatives at the company. During that conversation, I learned a great deal about the company’s new initiatives.

In fact, Skype is now offering flat-rate international calling, marking the first time Skype has offered a single, monthly flat rate subscription for unlimited international calling to 34 countries worldwide.

In case you are wondering — like many other service providers — the word unlimited has a definition as it equates to fair use. According to the company, all calls are subject to Skype’s fair usage policy which is set at 10,000 minutes per month (which equates to more than five hours of calling per day). Calls to premium, non-geographic, and other special numbers are excluded.

In addition, there is a new calling subscription for calls to Mexico now available, including unlimited calls to landline and cell phones in the U.S. and Canada, and to landlines in Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey.

The three subscriptions now available to consumers in the U.S. and Canada include the following:

 

Part of our discussion was focused on announcements about what Skype customers are up to. For example, the company’s users logged 14.2 billion Skype-to-Skype minutes in Q1 2008 and, in Q1 2008, SkypeOut minutes reached an all-time high of 1.7 billion.

An added bonus for each new plan is that each subscription also includes a Skype To Go number, which lets users make international calls at local rates from cell phones or landline phones. A user dials an assigned access number and the call is connected by Skype to overseas numbers. Calls are charged at standard Skype calling rates.

Part of our conversation also centered on how successful the company’s video service has become. In fact Skype sent me this graph so you could see how the percentage of video users is growing. In fact 28% of Skype to Skype calls are of the video variety. The graph below details the quarter over quarter growth in fact.

 
It seems, in fact, that Oprah Winfrey is responsible for part of this growth, as she has started using the service on her daily talk show and we all know that everyone seems to want to do what Oprah does.

From now until June 1st, 2008 Skype will offer a 33% off discount on 3-month and 12-month subscriptions.To purchase one these subscriptions, simply go to Skype's subscription page for more details.