Ever tried logging onto the net in a public hotspot? If so, the cost may have surprised you. That's "surprised" as in "made you snort food out your nose in horror". At around £6 an hour, hotspots look like a very bad deal indeed compared with internet cafes that rarely charge more than £1 a pop.

Skype is helping to bridge the gap with Skype Zones, a beta service that allows you to access Skype and make calls from your own laptop in more than 18,000 Skype-friendly hotspots around the world, including 8,000-odd in the UK. The fees – just $2.95 (£1.60) for two hours or $7.95 (£4.20) unlimited for a whole month – put other commercial WiFi services to shame.

Skype Zones’ billing service is provided by Boingo, though Skype itself has developed the software. Download it in addition to your existing Skype software, and you'll be able to make and receive Skype calls from any of the world's thousands of Skype-friendly hotspots.

The service is currently being tested, so you'll be one of the first to give it a go. At the moment it's only available for Windows XP and Windows 2000 – Mac OS X, Linux and Pocket PC are not supported.

And with that, I'm going home. I've got the cold from Hell and I want to go to bed.