Largest US mobile operator embraces Skype on smartphones

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 17 February 2010 07:58

IT Industry - Strategy

The largest mobile network operator in the US, Verizon Wireless with more than 90 million customers has formed a relationship with Skype under which Skype functionality will be made available on a range of Smartphones on the Verizon network.

Verizon users who have data plans will be able to make free calls to any other Skype user anywhere in the world and will be contactable free of charge by any other Skype user. They will also be able to make international calls at standard Skype-out rates rather than international mobile rates.

The Skype software will be pre-installed on new compatible smartphones sold by Verizon and so long as users have a data plan Skype traffic will be carried without impact on the plan's data quota.

The two companies say they have created "an exclusive, easy-to-use Skype mobile offering for 3G smartphones." It is presently available on the BlackBerry Storm 9530, Storm 9550, Curve 8330, Curve 8530, 8830 World Edition and Tour 9630 smartphones, and a number of Android devices: the Droid by Motorola, Droid ERIS by HTC and Motorola Devour.

The range of phones supported is rather curious because Skype has failed to meet its promised deadline of delivering a generally available Skype client for the BlackBerry, but did release, in December, a Symbian version that runs on a range of Nokia devices.

As iTWire reported in late December

"Skype announced in February 2009 that it would have a Nokia N97 version of Skype available in the third quarter and it announced in April that it would have a 'thin' Skype client available as a free download for BlackBerry smartphones in May, initially a beta version for the BlackBerry Bold and BlackBerry Curve. However neither has yet appeared."

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