free

So, SkypeOut calls, inside North America, are free, at least until the end of the year.  That means you can call any landline, or cellular phone, from Skype, at no charge.  I just chatted with my mother in Victoria for 20 minutes (forgot to call yesterday, although we did send flowers). 

Readers of this blog will be unsurprised.  If you live in the US, go get yourself an AOL free DID, too, and now you have toll free telephony.  The Voice 2.0 Manifesto predicts that this will happen.

Skype is calling this a promotion.  They’re reserving the right to go back to a toll based service at the end of the year.  They’re obviously hoping that a promotion will result in a flurry of new sign-ups. Two questions immediately come to mind: what do they have in their backpockets to replace the lost revenue, and what will they do if this promotion has now established the new baseline for long distance as free? 

And how will AOL respond?  AIM Phoneline is a free DID (which costs about $4 / month on Skype), but unlimited LD costs $14.95/month. 

Me? I plan to attach my Skype ID to Phonegnome using the new GnomeLink, and have unlimited LD, plus all the great PhoneGnome features.

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