Skype : 25% Share of International Calling Minutes

Skype share of international calling minutes has increased. TeleGeography show that growth in international call traffic has slumped while international traffic from Skype users continues to accelerate, and that Skype’s share of international calling minutes has grown to an estimated 24.7% during 2010.

This clearly proves that people are now switching to Voip for their calling needs. People are now saving money by making voip calls. It will be interesting to know the comparison between normal telephone calls and voip calls. What percentage of international calling minutes does Voip calls share !

TeleGeograhpy reports : "Cross-border traffic routed by Skype, by far the largest provider of Internet-based voice communications, is projected to grow by an astonishing 45 billion minutes in 2010—more than twice the volume added by all of the world’s phone companies, combined."

Source : http://www.telegeography.com/mail/tg_press_2011.html

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Quality : Skype Voip Phone Calls

Just received an email from Skype voip blog "It's all about quality". I really liked the content of the mail where it talks about the quality the Skype offers and always want to offer to customer.

Let me share some snippets of the mail with you all.

"While Skype wasn’t the first company to allow Internet calling, Skype was one of the first companies to make Internet calling work for the masses. Whether doing a Skype-to-Skype call for free or calling any phone for very little, people have spent over 520 million minutes on average every day talking to people with Skype. "

"our average monthly connected users grew from 91 to 124 million in the last year alone (June 2009 - June 2010). We will continue to build products and features with the level of quality that keeps our community connecting with one another."

"In fact, one seemingly simple feature that the Skype team hears loudest is our end of call customer feedback, where everyone has the opportunity to rate their experience after they make a Skype call (depending on which version you are on). Every score we receive is used to rate customer experience for our different desktop products. For people making paid calls to regular phones, we use the feedback to rate our carrier partners."

"One good example is Argentina. Average feedback scores for calling Argentina were lower than overall scores in South America. This prompted us to start looking for local options. After establishing cooperation with a major local network operator, we saw feedback scores rise sharply - from 3.5 to 4 out of 5 maximum. At the same time, call volumes increased over the next three to four months."

Customer feedback is the best way any company could improve upon, and its really nice if Skype really takes action depending on the customer response. I wonder how many other voip provider do the same. Cheers to Skype !!

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Skype 20% discount on 12 months subscription plans

Voip providers have once again started coming with new offers, new plans to enable your make very cheap international calls. Last week we announced a promotion offer (with coupon code) by Rebtel so that you get some free bonus credit and make cheap calls to India, and now Skype is offering some discounts.

Just now I received a mail from Skype, about offering 20% discount on 12 month subscription plan. Many people use Skype as a primary voip provider and others as secondary, having a permanent account with Skype using it now and then. For those, this discount offer is really good. But for those who are looking for pay as you go options and not for monthly subscription plans (that too annual), then Rebtel is a good option.

So below is the content of the mail.
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When you think of Skype, you probably think of video calling – rightly so as 40% of all Skype-to-Skype calls include video. At the same time, you still want the flexibility to call your friends, family and colleagues wherever they are – which is why Skype makes it possible for you to call any phone, almost anywhere, at unbelievably low rates.

Whether doing a Skype-to-Skype call for free or calling any phone for very little, people like you around the world have spent over 520 million minutes on average every day talking to people with Skype.

For the next week only, we are offering a 20 percent discount off all 12-month subscriptions. Sign up right up now and enjoy talking to your contacts longer, for less.

With over 3,600 types of subscriptions to call over 170 countries, you can stop watching the meter and talk for longer. A monthly subscription gives you the freedom to reach one or multiple countries for as cheap as €0.89 ($1.09/£.69)* per month, with rates as low as €0.01 ($.01/£.01) per minute to almost any destination around the globe.

For example, you can call the following destinations from virtually anywhere in the world for as low as:

€ .01 per minute to China ($.02/£.01)
€ .01 per minute to the United Kingdom ($.02/£.01)
€ .02 per minute to India ($.02/£.01)
€ .03 per minute to Mexico ($.04/£.03)

That means you can call these destinations cheaply whether you are in San Francisco, Buenos Aires, Cape Town or almost anywhere in between.

And if you prefer the flexibility to pay as you go, you can buy Skype Credit to make calls at low rates.

*.€1.02, $1.25, £0.79, including VAT where applicable
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Skype launches Click and Call service

Voip leader, Skype has once again brought something new. A new service, Skype has launched its Click and Call services. Skype Click and Call service is specially targeted for its advertisers (pay per call).

Skype is enabling advertisers to generate inbound calls from Skype customers – at no cost to our customers and at affordable rates for participating advertisers. Skype can also call some phone numbers for free as the call is sponsored by advertisers. As written on Skype blog "Click & Call Advertising with Skype works simply by allowing participating advertisers to have their phone number highlighted with a blue Free Call button anywhere online that their numbers are displayed. When the button is clicked, the Skype software launches and the call is connected – at no cost to the caller."

I really like the idea of click to call, where the customer can directly get in contact with the advertiser/seller and the customer does not have to pay anything for the call. In return, advertisers have one more way of advertising and this was they also get direct contact without the need of any mail iterations and chat discussions. Lets see how big this Skype Click and Call service becomes with time.

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Skype offers Cheap Calls to India

Here is an update from Skype: Skype is now offering cheap calls to India so that you can throw away your international calling card. Hey but hold on, are these calls really cheap ?? or you can get cheaper calls to India.

Skype subscriptions start from $1.79/€1,39/£0.99 per month for 60 minutes of calls to landlines and mobiles in India. Which works out at just 3¢($)/2.3¢(€)/1.7p per minute.

$2.05/€1,59/£1.13 including VAT where applicable
3.45¢($)/2.65¢(€)/1.96p including VAT where applicable

So, basically you are paying 3 cents per minute to make calls to India. Well, when there are so many other voip provider offering much much cheap calls to India, don't know why is Skype calling the rate cheap. We have nymgo offering calls to India at 1.1 cents per minute, Rebtel at 1.8 cents, Indiald at 1-1.5 cents, LocalPhone, betamax, pingo and so many other voip services offering calls to India in range of 1 - 1.5 cents per minute.

I guess for those, who have been using Skype for all long and don't want to shift this is a great deal. There is No hidden fees, and no long term contract needed. Skype is surely a trusted voip provider. Many make their first voip call with Skype :)

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Download Skype for Windows mobile : version 3.0

A large number of people all over the globe use Skype for making national and international calls. Specially, Skype has been very popular in USA and Canada. Skype is widely known for making cheap Pc to Phone calls using the Skype (skype softphone).

Skype offers wide range of plans for various destinations. It offers unlimited calling plans, cheap international voip calling rates. It also offers free calls to USA Toll free number. That means you can use Skype for making free calls to USA toll free numbers.

Now the question arises that you always need to remain connected to their PC. Is there any mobile option. Yes Skype is offering its Windows version 3.0 for free download. That means you can use the latest version of Skype mobile in your windows phone.

You can Send files. Also send texts (SMS). For the best call quality, we recommend you sign in to Skype from a WiFi connection. You can also sign in from a 3G connection, but your operator's data charges will apply.

You can download it directly on to your phone and install it straight away, or you can save it to your PC and transfer it on to your Windows® Phone device.

Cheers to mobile voip...!

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Download Skype Voip iPhone Application : Launched

As we mentioned in our last post about Skype going to launch its iPhone application, the news was true and Skype has now released its iPhone Voip application.



Skype, owned by eBay is already the leader in voip phone calls, will capture more market share with this iPhone voip application launch. Mobile versions of Skype are already available for Nokia, Windows Mobile, and Google Android phones. Though it has been a latecomer to the App Store, which features several other VoIP applications, but I am sure this application will be most downloaded very soon.

You can make free Skype-to-Skype-user calls, or use SkypeOut credit, a paid service by which you can call landlines and mobiles via Skype. SkypeOut is also a very cheap service offering very low priced international and domestic phone calls.

Though the application is very good but I guess it has some drawbacks too, users won't be able to place calls over cellular networks, but only via WiFi. But yeah as many of you are always connected to a Wi-fi network, Skype will help you avoid your regular provider and make very cheap international calls using Skype.

• Call phones and mobiles from your iPhone contacts at great rates.
• See who’s online and send and receive instant messages on the move.

Skype also works equally good on your Ipod touch too. But they would require to purchase a microphone, or headphones with built-in microphones.

Overall, a must download for all iPhone users. Its Skype, its free, its easy to install, easy to use and yes it works great.

READ MORE - Download Skype Voip iPhone Application : Launched