John Lamansky

According to an announcement email from Skype:

Calls to friends and family on Skype have always been free. Now we’ve made calls within the US and Canada to all phones totally free till the end of the year.

Starting from today it doesn’t matter if it’s a Skype-to-Skype call or a call to landline or mobile phone - it’s free as long as you’re calling from within the US or Canada to US or Canadian phone number.

Neat-O!

I do wonder how SkypeOut purchasers are taking this news, though.

You may have received an email from Skype today (if you’re a user of their VoIP software), saying that they’re offering 10 free minutes of their SkypeOut service, which allows Skypers to call people who are using landlines.

Just in case you missed the email, here’s an excerpt:

Sometimes not all of the people you want to talk to are on Skype. That’s why we have SkypeOut, a pretty cheap way to call landlines and mobiles around the world at local rates. What’s more, we’re giving away 10 minutes of Skype Credit today to anyone who would like to try SkypeOut for free. We’re nice like that.

You can claim 10 minutes of Skype Credit today and try SkypeOut for free.

Hurry, you need to claim your free credit before midnight tonight

If you’re in the USA, you’ll find a “Get a free Skype gift” button on your account page. Hurry. You need to click on the button before the offer expires tonight, then, ‘hey presto’, your account will be topped up with the extra credit. It’s our little gift to you. We hope you like it.

Don’t worry if you’re too late to claim your gift. We’ll be offering SkypeOut Gift Days throughout February and March, so keep checking back on our blog, where we’ll post details as the next one is approaching.

Looks like they’ll keep offering free Skype minutes during the next two months. Keep your eyes peeled; these free minutes could add up.

According to this PCWorld article, EBay recently bought out internet telephony company Skype for $2.6 billion. eBay said that they hope their acquisition of Skype will improve communication by allowing auction buyers and sellers to talk to each other. It’s also likely that users of Skype’s premium services will be able to make payments using eBay’s Paypal.