June 2008

Something we always get asked by business users is "how can I display a phone number when making a call from Skype". Calls that show up as 'unknown', or perhaps a non identifying combination of numbers such as '0000123456', are less likely to get answered. It also makes it impossible for the person to return the call if they can't see the number it originated from.

The good news is we have a solution for you. It's called 'Caller identification (Caller ID)'.

Caller ID allows you to display your online number or your mobile number when calling phones from Skype.

You can use mobile numbers from any country, with the exception of Japan and Mexico.

You can use online numbers from Denmark, Estonia, Hong Kong, Japan, Poland, Sweden, United States and the UK. Hopefully we will be adding more countries to the list shortly.

How to set up caller identification:

Caller identification, as we call this feature, is easy to set up. Simply sign in to your account and follow the on-screen instructions.

Please note that if you have previously set up your mobile number to show when sending SMS messages you don't need to verify the number again. Just choose to use the same number to show for SkypeOut calls.

You will see a screen similar to this:

In this case you can choose between using your online number or the mobile phone number associated with your Skype account.

If you have not previously associated a mobile number with your Skype account, you will need to verify the mobile number by following the instructions sent to you in an SMS.

Associating multiple numbers with your Skype account

It is possible to associate multiple online numbers with your Skype account. For instance you may have one number in New York and one in London. By associating both these numbers with your Skype account, caller ID will choose the one which is local to the person you are calling and display that number. If neither number is local to the caller, it will use your default number as the caller ID.