larryni.me.uk

I launched Skype on my mobile phone yesterday for the first time in a while and to my surprise my non-Skype contacts started to show up, before it would only let me call other Skype users. And in the Options menu is now an entry to check my SkypeOut credit balance.

I quickly found out that it is only to call landlines/mobiles outside the UK, but that’s pretty much all I use Skype for anyway. I hadn’t heard about 3 allowing their subscribers to make interntational calls through Skype until now. A quick search brought up an article on The Register saying that it started on 1 October:

UK operator 3 is to allow Skype users to make international calls with their SkypeOut minutes, bypassing the operator completely, while the VoIP pioneer’s desktop client continues its slow progress towards version 4 with a new beta release.

Punters equipped with a Skypephone, or compatible handset such as an N95 or C902 on 3, are already able to call up other Skype users for free. But from today they’ll also be able to make international calls using the Skype network with the rate being deduced from their SkypeOut minutes.

The customer will be able to choose if a call should be handled by Skype or the traditional 3 network, and will pay appropriate rates. Chief Executive at 3 Kevin Russell said: “Although 3 customers enjoy the best value international calling tariffs in the UK, we know that people are apprehensive about using their mobiles to call internationally, especially as international minutes aren’t typically included in mobile calling bundles.”