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The Ultimate Guide to Skype Mobile Phones
Exciting Skype Phone deals
MobileShop.com is a completely independent comparison site, comparing mobile phone deals from all the major retailers, bringing you the best deals in the UK!
And now we’ve teamed up with Skype to bring you the best of the best deals on Skype Phones. Check out the latest offers on the 3 Skypephone, brought to you by the only site you’ll ever need, MobileShop.com!
Skype’s brand new mobile phone!
The super-cool 3 Skypephone is unique amongst mobile phones, as Skype Phones are the first to give you completely free Skype access, built into the phone itself, straight out of the box! So, if you have a friend with a 3 Skypephone, calls between you, using Skype, are totally, utterly, 100% free!
Who, or what, is Skype?
To understand Skype, you need to go back a little bit and understand what it is. Skype is a VoIP application, so to understand it, you first need to understand VoIP. Which leads to the question: what’s VoIP? In fact, it’s an acronym, standing for “Voice Over Internet Protocol”. Or, to normal people like you and me, phone calls over your internet connection, not over a normal phone connection.
Skype is the leading VoIP application out there. And it’s also the name of the company who makes that software, hence the “who or what” in this section’s title. It’s a cool, easy to use program that lets you make calls over the internet, but also does much more, as you can chat with text through it as well.
Skype is not just limited to your PC. Skype made the jump to mobile phones as well, culminating in the launch of its very own Skype phone, the 3 Skypephone, which gives you all the benefits of a great mobile phone, combined with the ultra-cheapness of Skype’s internet-based phone calls.
In essence then, Skype is the king of VoIP; the emperor of internet telephone calls! (And to avoid any confusion, it’s also the name of the company who make the program; so Skype, the program, is made by Skype, the company, who also make the Skype Phone).
Skype
Skype is a little bit of software that is designed to make your life easier, more productive and more fun. Once the software is installed on your PC (a process that will take all of 5 minutes of your time), you choose a Skype name for yourself, that will become your unique identity. That’s step 1.
Step 2 is just as easy. You make a test Skype call to check your microphone and speakers/headphones are working properly. The final stage in the setup process is adding people to your contacts. You can search by name, location or email address… or if you already know their Skype name, you can add that.
Then the fun stuff starts, as you start chatting and calling through Skype. From sending and receiving files, to live video calls using your webcam, and conference calls, Skype can let you do that and much more!
Oh, and did I mention it’s TOTALLY free?! That’s your basic free messenger, and you’ll agree, you already get a lot! But for a tiny cost, you can get loads more useful features, such as:
SkypeOut
Make cheap calls to any phone in the world, not just other Skype users, with SkypeOut. No monthly subscription needed!
SkypeIn
Get a proper phone number for your Skype account so that other phones, anywhere in the world can call you. Just $30 (about £15) for a whole year!
Skype Voicemail
Send and receive voice messages from your friends, with Skype Voicemail. Just $20 (about £10) per year!
Skype SMS
Now you can send SMS (text messages) to any mobile phone in the world, with Skype SMS.
3 Skypephone
Available through the 3 network, the 3 Skypephone is the first mobile phone to let you take your Skype friends list and contacts round with you, straight out the box. And it can do that, because as the name suggests, it has Skype built into. Heck, Skype is the very reason for this phone’s existence!
However, just because it’s separate from your PC, that doesn’t mean you have to input all your Skype contacts again, because you can log in to the 3 Skypephone using your existing login details, letting you keep the exact same contacts list as on your PC!
Not only that, but the Skype Phone is available in 2 colours:
How big is Skype’s company/market?
To put it simply, the market for Skype messenger is vast. Given that the number of internet users in the world was about 1.3 billion in December 2007, that’s a lot of people who can potentially use Skype. In fact, I’d argue that there’s a big proportion of the world’s population who already uses Skype!
What about the 3 Skypephone? Well, put it this way: with over 65 million mobile phones in the UK, and given that the UK population rightly want cheap calls, that’s at least 65 million people who would potentially benefit massively from the 3 Skypephone! And you could be one of them!
The history of Skype
Skype began life in 2003, when Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis founded the company. That was when the first little bit of code was laid down to create a fun, easy to use bit of software for calling your mates on the internet. The following events were instrumental in the world of Skype:
Source: Wikipedia
| September 2002: | Investment from Draper Investment Company |
| April 2003: | Skype.com and Skype.net domain names registered. |
| August 2003: | First public beta version released. |
| September 2005: | SkypeOut banned in South China. |
| October 2005: | eBay purchased Skype (Oct 14). |
| December 2005: | Video-telephony introduced. |
| April 2006: | Number of registered users reaches 100 million. |
| October 2006: | Skype 2.0 for Mac is released, the first full release of Skype with video for Macintosh. |
| December 2006: | Skype announces a new pricing structure as of January 18, 2007, with connection fees for all SkypeOut calls. Skype 3.0 for Windows is released. |
| March 2007: | Skype 3.1 is released, adding some new features, including Skype Find and Skype Prime. Skype also released a 3.2 beta with a new feature called Send Money which allows users to send money via PayPal from one Skype user to another. |
| August 2007: | Skype 3.5 for Windows released with additions such as video in mood, inclusion of video content in chat, call transfer to another person or a group, auto-redial. |
| August 15, 2007: | Skype 2.7.0.49 (beta) for Mac OS X released adding availability of contacts in the Mac Address Book to the Skype contact list, auto redial, contact groups, public chat creation, and an in-window volume slider to the call window. |
| August 16/August 17, 2007: | Skype users unable to connect to full Skype network in many countries. Skype reports the system-wide crash was the result of exceptional number of logins after a Windows patch reboot ("Patch Tuesday"). |
| November 2007: | Skype users are set to lose their 0207 numbers after 20 December 2007. |
| December 2007: | The first phone from Skype is released – the 3 Skypephone |
| January 30, 2008: | Skype released for the Sony PSP handheld gaming system. |
What is Skype’s address, and how can I get in touch with them?
Skype Technologies S.A, 22/24 Boulevard Royal, L-2449 Luxembourg
Trade register number: R.C. Luxembourg B96.677
VAT number: LU 20180441
- eBay (parent company):
- eBay Europe S.à r.l.
- 15, rue Notre Dame
- L-2240 Luxembourg
- Company number: R.C.S. Luxembourg B.120781
- VAT number: LU 21416127
- Business licence number: 114463