Presenting at the Burton Group conference in Barcelona earlier this month, Ted Davis, group telecom director at BP, said, "During the hurricane season we lost telephony, but the internet was OK."

This meant staff were able to use BP's e-mail and applications. To cope with a failure that takes out a datacentre, the company is deploying a "road warrior" kit comprising Skype and eFax, internet-based faxing software.

Although Skype is not a replacement for your ordinary telephone and can't be used for emergency calling, many businesses and other organizations are finding out in a manner similar to BP that at times of need, Skype helps people and business units painlessly re-establish communications when it's most vitally needed. We've received many similar stories from Skypers around the world, about Katrina and other such situations.

This need not be about disasters and emergencies only. Skype has struck a special chord with travelling small business folks and "road warrior" types, who are constantly on the move and need to establish communications with their "home base", partners and customers from wherever they may be. All you need is your computer or a Skype WiFi phone and an Internet connection, and you can then talk without worrying about the cost, as it is the same from wherever you call (free with Skype calls, or cheap with SkypeOut to ordinary phones).