New flat-rate calling subscriptions from Skype are great for business

Today we have [announced]( http://about.skype.com/2008/04/skype_announces_unlimited_long.html) some new flat-rate [calling subscriptions]( http://www.skype.com/go/subscriptions) which provide great value calling to regular phones. The new subscriptions offer unlimited* calling to landlines in 34 countries as well as mobile phones in selected countries such as the US, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore and China.

Skype to Skype calls continue to be free and unlimited, but now you can also call landlines without having to worry about time or cost. The new subscriptions cover almost a third of the world’s population ([see a full list of countries](http://www.skype.com/go/subscriptions)). Depending on your location and calling destination, there are several subscription levels to choose from:

What does unlimited* actually mean?

There are no hidden costs or additional connection charges. You will only pay one flat monthly fee, as long as you don’t call premium, non-geographic and other special numbers. You can call at any time of the day or night and any day of the week.

There is of course a [fair-usage]( http://www.skype.com/intl/en-gb/legal/terms/fair_usage/) policy to protect us against fraud. It won’t take effect until you have exceeded 10,000 minutes per month, which is the equivalent of about 5 hours of calling per day.

How do businesses sign-up to the subscriptions?

There is a limit of one Subscription per Skype Name, so each of your employees wanting to make unlimited calling will need to select the subscription that suits them best and sign up for their own subscription. You can use the [Business Control Panel]( http://www.skype.com/intl/en/business/features/controlpanel/) to centrally purchase Skype Credit and assign this to each of your members. Your members can then use the credit to sign-up to the subscriptions.

Currently it is not possible to centrally purchase the subscriptions through the Control Panel, but we are working on a solution to this. In the meantime, please assign credit to members who require the subscriptions.

There are no long term contracts - you are free to sign up for a minimum of one month. However there is an early bird discount, so if you sign up for a 3 or 12 month subscription before June 1st, 2008, you will save 1/3rd.

More information available on the [subscriptions pages]( http://www.skype.com/go/subscriptions).

Happy calling!

Comments

This is great, Skype!! I bet if you include India in "Unlimited World" coutries, you will get 2 million subscriptions very easily. This is based on my assumption that 2 million Indians live in US & Canada, who would want to get on a flat rate scheme. But I may be wrong and you may even get more business from Indians in Europe, Australia among other places. Want to try this ?

Dear shrenik_n_rajul,

The reason why Skype cannot offer this to the Indian Diaspora to "phone home" is that India (and other countries) make HUGE amounts of foreign income from the "Interconnect Settlements Regime". Inbound calls to a country are charged to the calling telco operator and so it's a great way to earn money for doing nothing except terminate a call in the country. (One guide is the cost of calls to that country. Phone cards offer cheap calls by using large volumes (or a VoIP carrier).

Skype has to negotiate each of these contracts with the interconnect gateway owner in the country. Hence, the reason it is so expensive. If you want cheap calls to India you must plead with Bharat Mata.

Namaste!

That was a funny response sysman! I have also been following skype announcements and praying to Bharat Mata and skype for subscription based cheap calls.

Namaste

I have just signed up my wife for unlimited world, but nothing has changed on her SkypeOut calling screen. She's calling one of the countries on the list and the SkypeOut credit keeps decrementing. Is there a special way to call land lines with the unlimited world plan?

Thanks -- Bob

Interesting it needs to be on business control panel as soon as possible.

Should be something which came before individuals. It will save us money!

Really fascinated by skype`s in roads in telecommunication space keep up the negotiations with Land and cell numbers around the world and especially Africa. My particular interest is in Ghana. What is the road block? Ghana`s population of 20million makes an average of 10min of international call a day and receives not less than an hour response from over 10millions contacts from every corner of the Earth. Additionally though Ghana may be classified a 3rd world country it is in really an emerging market a treasure to entrepreneurs investing in this market.
I hope skype will aggressively make Ghana the 35th unlimited world partner as a gate way into the African market.

Best Regards,

Justice Wrappah, New York.

Yea Its really a good scheme for business who has connection with another country and free calls makes it more easier...

I wanna know one more thing... I'm working in a company in Singapore where we have lotso f calls coming from and going to Malaysia... Incase If we get this skype flat fee subscription plan for Singapore and one for Malaysia, calling between them is counted as Skype to Skype free and not limited to 10,000 call units right?

Do let me know... We have other VOiP providers, but we are thinking to shift to Skype. So need some help.

Regards
Kesavan

Egypt please soon - though I fully appreciate what you're saying about the income generation for the countries not yet included.

In the meantime, what would be the possibility of having a single set number in a country not included which could have some really good deal on? For example, if I wanted my calls fowarded to my Cairo landline - some good deal just for that one number - and even making it so you could only change it once a month or something?

This morning I had to get a UK client (phone user not skype) to call my SkypeIn and forward the call to my Egy landline because the Skype quality in Egypt this morning was very poor. This cost me 4Euros for 30 mins. It would be great if there were a cheap deal available for a single nominated landline number.

ps should point out it was probably my broadband connection in Egypt rather than Skype itself that was the problem this morning.

I've been a Skype user for a while now, but only on a personal basis. However i'm in the process of setting up my own business and this naturally caught my attention. That said, 90% of calls these days to the businesses i'll be dealing with in the UK are 08** numbers - and as I understand it all national rate numbers (0870) are to be replaced with 0844's or local call rate numbers soon. Are there any plans to launch a fixed fee service that will incorporate these numbers?

why not you guys works out specail rate to call Asian country etc:
Veitnam,singapore , cambodia,malaysia,Phillipine ,laos ,burma,bunei and indinesaia.Most of the skype user is in this country. I have been using for skype many years and i dont see that the rate specail.
Please look into it or monthly specail rate.

Thanks

Just bought the unlimited world subscription two months ago but am having trouble accessing it now. The previous 25 euro increment just ran out and I don't know how to switch over to the new subscription. Also is there a number I can call to access live tech support? I'm not the most computer savvy guy so I could use a little help.

I have subscribed to Unlimited World expecting to have unlimited access to landline calls and get charged on a monthly basis. To complicate matters I have also adopted the aut-recharge system. However I have already bought credits twice this month, send out emails for help all to no avail.

If you do not reply I will have to cancel my subscription