The head of Skype in France, Jérôme Archambeaud, did a stint on French TV channel LCI's popular 'Plein Ecran' program last Friday. Subject: how Wifi networks are changing the way people communicate both in and out of their homes.

Amongst all the talk of convergence between different ways of calling (mobile, internet and landline), conversation turned specifically to the new Netgear SPH101 wifi phone and how this fitted in with Skype's vision of the wifi world. Jérôme's explanation gives a really clear idea of how Skype is working with hardware partners...so here's my quick translation (and any French readers please feel free to improve!):

We work with big brands like Netgear, Phillips and Sony. We have around 100 partners and around 250 products around the world, of which around 70 are sold in France. These partners are really important quite simply because with the Skype program running on the PC, on the phone and soon through Wifi-enabled GSM phones (notably with Nokia who we will be making a big launch with towards the end of the year), we have to really make the Skype ecosystem come to life and forge partnerships where we can.

Some big numbers from Jérôme as well: nearly 120m Skype users worldwide, 250,000 new ones every day, and 5m Skype users in France alone.

Jérôme also alludes to the potential size of the market for wifi phones such as the Netgear, and the stats back him up: Wifi hotspots have now surpassed the 100,000 mark globally, and over 380,000 wireless routers were sold in the first quarter of 2006 alone
. Apparently 20 percent of US and European broadband users now access their network via wifi (an impressive 8.4 percent of total households). China is also going wifi crazy, too, with the wifi market forecast to be worth Rmb10.3 billion by 2008. That's a lot of potential customers for manufacturers such as Netgear, Belkin and their peers, so it doesn't seem unreasonable to expect hardware manufacturers to concentrate on this area.

For all those French speakers, check out the full version here, and for more info on the Netgear SPH101 check out The Register's excellent review. Merci beaucoup, Jérôme!