Users will be given a mobile phone with Skype pre-installed.
Skype, the fastest growing Internet Communications Company and Hutchison 3 Group, the leader in 3G mobile services, today announced an agreement to enable Skype communications on 3G.
The first company to announce a full-fledged deal with Skype has been Hutchison 3G who will trial the service in Sweden, followed by Austria, Australia, Hong Kong, Italy and the UK by the end of the year. With Skype installed on your mobile there would be a flat, and very cheap, rate to call anywhere in the world. Geography is irrelevant, and telecoms providers cannot charge users hefty premiums for overseas calls.
Working together, Hutchison 3 Group and Skype plan to give people the freedom to enjoy Skype anywhere they go, whether at home, in the office or on the move while on Hutchison’s 3 networks. Hutchison views Skype as an attractive value added service, providing customers with more choice and thus further accelerating the uptake of the Hutchison’s 3G services.
The Skype and Hutchison 3 brands compliment each other, representing innovation and high value offerings to consumers. This partnership will enable Hutchison to directly tap into the 75 million people using Skype across the Hutchison territories and promote to them the benefits of using Skype on Hutchison’s networks.
With Skype on mobile devices, people can keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues wherever they go. This takes Skype beyond the PC into the mobile world, said Niklas Zennstrom, Skype CEO and co-founder. I believe this will accelerate the adoption and use of Skype to new levels.
Pioneering 3G mobile operator Hutchison 3 Group is expected to be the first to market the Skype-enabled mobile devices. Hutchison is running user friendly trials to optimize the user experience and plans to launch later this year, following its trials. Trials will be carried out using enabled mobile phones from leading phone manufacturers.
3 Sweden is already offering a Skype bundle with a 3G flat-rate subscription and 3G data card. With a mobile flat-rate data plan from Hutchison 3, users can make unlimited Skype calls.
Customers of Hutchinson 3G will have the same freedom to use Skype as if they were sitting in front of their computer, while Hutchison gains revenue from a monthly subscription.
Skype on 3G smartphones, datacards and other devices is a service that our customers will be thrilled to use. With Skype they can talk for as long as they want with their friends around the world. It will be a great addition to our existing wide range of multi-media mobile broadband services.
Christian Salbaing, “MD of Europe Telecommunications at Hutchison 3,” downplayed concerns that Skype traffic would cannibalize its voice services. He described it as an attractive value-added service that would help tempt more customers onto its network.
We believe Skype is yet another reason for people to choose 3 – customers demand a choice of innovative services and we are delighted to be working with Skype to deliver that, said Salbaing.
We look forward to offering it to our subscribers in our key markets starting with Sweden and then in our other markets as soon as user trials are concluded.
Skype for mobile devices offers a number of key features and benefits:
- Skype-to-Skype and SkypeOut calls
- Instant Messaging and group chat
- Presence–including online, offline, away, call forwarding
- Voicemail
- Easy contact search
- Contact request authorization and new contact addition
Hutchinson also positively emphasized that the inclusion of Skype would actively allow it to attract more customers and sell data packages.