The new Skypephone from 3 is great for business

There is a lot of excitement in the industry today about the announcement of a [new Skypephone from mobile operator 3.](http://www.skype.com/3skypephone)

Why is there so much excitement? Because for the first time ever, a mobile operator is allowing Skype users to make free Skype-to-Skype calls and send free Skype instant messages directly from a mobile phone.

If you are already using Skype for business, or considering Skype as a way to reduce your company’s phone bills, the 3 Skypephone provides complete flexibility. Whether you are in the office or on the road, you can continue to stay in touch using Skype.

So, where can you get it and what’s the cost? The 3 Skypephone will be available this year in the UK, Australia, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Italy, Ireland, Macau and Sweden. Skype-to-Skype calls are free from your 3 Skypephone as long as you are on contract or your pay-as-you-go 3 credit is topped up monthly. In the UK the 3 Skypephone is £49.99 on a pay-as-you-go tariff or free on a contract.

If you have a number of people in the company who use Skype, then providing each of them with a 3 Skypephone means you need never pay for internal company calls, they can be completely free from anywhere; the office, the home or on the road. Now that must be good for business.

See the [press release](http://about.skype.com/2007/10/3_skypephone_delivers_free_sky.html) for more details.

Comments

Skype is mistiming its phone launch.............Skype timing of PC-to-PC calling in 2003 was great because broadband had arrived. The type of mobile VoIP offering that Skype is enabling and its related phone launch with Italy’s 3 is mistimed, however. And that is because wireless broadband has not truly arrived yet. If you look at consumer mobile VoIP market, it is being approached by three broad types of offerings: mobile callback, FMC, and (what I call) Voice over Wireless Broadband (VoWB). Mobile callback is plain old voice. FMC can be about multimedia provided there is continuity of multimedia sessions. Companies like Azaire and Stoke are able to offer that. Other vendors like OnRelay who make your cellphone your only phone are also able to facilitate this. However within the mobile VoIP offerings it is the VoWB offering that will ultimately prevail on the consumer side.

http://www.ilocus.com/2007/10/skype_is_mistiming_its_phone_l.html

Not true, the vice quality of mobile broadband is simply amazing I challenge anyone out there to dial my test account and see for themselves just how good the call quality truly is, call the test number 011-44-20-3014-0888 YOU WILL BE PLEASANTLY SURPRISED

I've been using Skype on 3 for sometime now using an X Series phone. The service is excellent (though I hope this news means we'll also get Skype chat on the X series soon) - I can be walking down the street talking to a colleague in Zambia and it's totally free. I don't think this announcement is mistimed at all.

Not as good as it seems... we took a plunge as we use SkypIn to handle our customer calls. Unfortunately Skype on 3 does not allow ANY SkypeIn incoming calls!!! So what is it for? Just to call my mum? Or my sister? It supposed to be aimed at business users!Certainly I cannot call our suppliers in USA nor they can contact me on the SkypeIn number we have specially set up for them. Our UK customers cannot get through to me either unless they have their own skype account... so. It's back to HTC - they always work. Thanks 3 for selling AGAIN something that doesn't exactly do what it says on the tin. I wonder - how did Skype agree to let 3 use their services in such a limited way?

tintdesign - You are on the money there, its the principal reason for buying a 3 skypephone. Whilst I love the design and its solidity. I think that having the skypein feature would certainly prevent me from taking the phone back and canning the contract as I was told in the 3 store that it would work with skypein.

Am I understanding correctly that SkypeIn does NOT work with the 3 Skypephone? My local 3 store couldn't tell me, and the Skype FAQs are vague. Non-availability of this function puts me right off - like tintdesign, I want my business contacts to have one number to use, wherever I am, and this looked like a sensibly priced way to achieve it. Oh well, we won't be moving to 3.

Me too! Except having read what I could find about the Three offering I took the plunge and bought one only to find afterwards that my mainreason for having Skype at all - the SkypeIn feature, would not work. I've been palmed off by Three telling me to read the forums - as if they are marketing blurb. Basically it's misrepresentation it seems to me.

Iam fascinated by, and passionate about, the new mobile skpyephone. I am wondering when, or if at all, it will ever reach the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) or Uganda, the two countries where I work/reside. I use skype-skype calling a great deal, but from pc-to-pc for business, and online studies. Going mobile would be great for me.

Will this mobile skype facility operate in Africa soon, especially in Uganda and the DRC? Please advise.