Skype pricing has ups and downs

SKYPE HAS detailed latest European pricing with a service that seeks to attract users to sign up to regular payments and protect revenue streams for parent eBay.

The premium eat-as-much-as-you-can-and-go-large-with-that Skype Pro subscription package gets rid of per-minute SkypeOut domestic charges and has its roots in promo subs-based campaigns the company has run in the UK and north America.

The dialing rate to several countries is also reduced by up to 65 percent for SkypeOut. At the same time, Skype said that previously announced 0.039 euro (or local equivalent) connection rates have now gone live. Confused? Me too, it's hardly transapernt, is it, but there's a slideshow here.

Obviously, a lot of people won't like the feeling of being locked in to Skype and there is bound to be the suspicion that paying for connections sounds a bit pre-IP. On the other hand, if you're lucky enough to have lots of friends in lots of countries this could be a sweet deal. Anyhow, this is likely to be the shadow boxing in the next couple of years for some real action across VoIP, mobile, multi-play and the other spaghetti-linked sectors that touch voice telephony. µ

TRIVIA
Skype is based in Luxembourg, an attractive-sounding country that sounds a promising destination for getting away from the hubble, bubble, toil and trouble of life in London. But is Luxembourg imagined? Was it invented by a novelist to generate publicity? How do the people appear to visitors? Can food and drink be easily had? A pound sterling or drink of choice goes to the first INQUIRER reader who can tell us about life in this mysterious, landlocked country.