Skype Software along with Nokia phones

[prakashseth]

Internet calling company Skype has secured a deal with Nokia under which the world's biggest phone maker will preload Skype software into some of its new smartphones starting from the third quarter of this year.

Skype, whose technology has allowed legions of consumers to make practically free long-distance calls over the Internet on fixed lines, has been moving into the mobile arena with deals with operators such as Hutchison Whampoa's 3.

"We believe that mobile is incredibly important to our future," Skype Chief Executive Josh Silverman told Reuters in an interview at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the industry's biggest gathering.

Skype software is also available to download onto mobile phones after they have been bought, but is then less integrated into features like address books, making it less convenient.

Most mobile operators are wary of Skype, fearing they will lose revenue through consumers paying little or nothing for calls, but Silverman said 3 had actually seen its average revenue rise by 20 percent for consumers using Skype phones.

He said subscribers were encouraged to use their phones more by flat-rate data plans -- boosting usage of 3's other services -- and that customer loyalty increased. Skype also has deals with other operators but 3 is its most successful.

Silverman said more than 300 million minutes' worth of Skype to Skype mobile calls had been made so far, with current rates at about 1 million minutes per day. Skype had 405 million registered users in total at the end of last year.

Skype is revolutionizing the way people communicate around the world. Skype has more than 405 million registered users globally who use Skype software to communicate for free through voice and video calls as well as instant messages. Conversations over Skype can take place on computers, mobile devices and Skype Certified™ hardware. Skype is used in almost every country on Earth, and people have made more than 100 billion minutes worth of free Skype-to-Skype calls

For U.S. customers this is going to be a very tricky situation. AT&T currently has very expensive plans for international calls and bringing in Nokia phones with integrated Skype is going to be a huge lose of revenue. So I expect that most U.S. carriers will bring Nokia's new mobile devices to market but strip them of the Skype integration.