3 UK promises free mobile Skype calls until the end of time
By Ross Miller 
posted Apr 25th 2009 7:44PM
posted Apr 25th 2009 7:44PM
[Via GigaOM]
posted Apr 25th 2009 7:44PM
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Thank god. Maybe i wont go over my Long distance minutes now and rack up another $350 bill.
I find it very difficult to believe that any of our greedy US based cell providers of limited vision will have the farsight to allow this to happen in the near future. It *will* happen at some point, but I'm not counting on it happening anytime soon.
There's really not enough competion over there for this to happen.
In the UK all our towers and handsets use the compatible bands, which means if our carrier dicks us around we take our handset and jump to another carrier. Your number can be ported in 24-48 hours some times.
I expect VoIP will open up on other networks now. As soon as the public at large start to use it.. If one company is doing something that attracts customers, the other will also offer it.
Alex is right, The CDMA/GSM split has really held back progress on wireless pricing and competition in the United States..
Hopefully the launch of LTE changes that somewhat when AT&T, Verizon and eventually Tmobile will all be on the same system. Sprint will either die or end up converting their CDMA towers into LTE and either dumping Wimax or keeping it on the side.
The EU was actually responsible for ensuring that there was only one single technology and band (GSM 1800) used for mobile phone communications in all member states several years ago. It's definitely helped with advancing phone technology and services.
My girlfriend and I have had free skype-to-skype calls on 3UK for at least the last year. As her phone is fairly basic I assumed that the feature was available on all phones as well so what's the story here?
For the last year or so on 3, Skypes been free if you topped up £10 or something every month/3 months or if you're on certain contracts, this change simply means that you get free skype no matter how much you've topped up/what handset you have/what contract you're on.
I live in the UK, and this is shocking news to me that a carrier would allow such things in Ripoff Britain.
Well, 3 often complain that the other big carriers are trying to muscle them out of the industry, so they're desperate to appear on the consumer's side and get more subscribers.
Still it's good news. I hope O2 follow it up soon and it's enabled on an iPhone update.
This is what we need to see. Mobile networks opening up to "dumb pipe" usage. My HSPA T-Mobile is fast as fuck... but NATed, it's a LOT less useful. :(
That is one scary "3"
yeah but you have to agree. that is definitely one of the cooler logos i've ever seen. then again, my basis for comparison is the worst of them all.
http://www.targetmarketnews.com/verizon_logo.jpg
It looks firefoxy. I like it.
YAY!! YAY!!!! YAY!!!!!!!
It is about time! I'm honestly looking forward to a world without paying for minutes at all. Data and VoIP are all I need...........PLZ Verizon put everyone else out of business in the US and do this
Now we just need 3 Australia to play along...
3 Australia already give you 4000 Skype minutes for $5 AUD (2 euro) per month.
Wait........................now Im confused. Just Skype-to-Skype? So no Skype to Cell phones for those of us that pay for that service from skype?
I know in australia with the skype app you get the included mintues (usually 4000mins) when you get a data/content pack (AU$8-$30) and everything that you pay for in your account is accessible and all unmetered. 3 is an amazingly great phone company, too bad I am too cheap to buy a data pack.
Awesome! this will make call back home much easier when I travel
Wait, scratch that. Did a quick search and applied a bit of common sense and it seems that using the skype service you can only make skype to skype calls. Of course I could, yet again, be wrong, but it would seem a little odd considering that 3 supply the service and they wouldn't want people bypassing their service. Well, I just don't know anymore.
Yes - you can call phones abroad using Skype credit or a subscription on your 3 phone - as you do on your computer.
Sorry forgot to include link, scroll down to 'Skype Call Phones Abroad':
http://www.three.co.uk/Internet_Services/Call_chat/Call_chat_service
Not sure where you were searching, or how common your sense was Tom ;)
The Skype client on my N95 with 3UK can only see Skype contacts - not my entire address book.
If you're with 3 Australia then it shouldn't cost you any more to call home when travelling in countries that have a 3 network because 3 don't charge global roaming rates if you are on their network. For instance, I was in Rome recently and was able to call home, send text messages and access the internet and all the costs came off my contract and didn't cost me any more than if I was at home. The same applied when I was in Melbourne a couple of years ago.
I think that VOiP on mobile handsets is the future. It just makes sense to combine the two infrastructures, as well as the growing numbers of households dropping traditional landlines to be replaced with mobile phones and naked DSL. This is the way personal communication is going and if companies don't keep up with what consumers want, then they risk being left behind (how many people have now switched to 3 because of this announcement?).
Hear that mobile providers? It's the future calling, and resistance is futile.
this is awesoommmeee.... my contract finishes tom and the only thing i was gonna miss was skype service... trust me... it saves a helluva money... woooooo hoooo...
Indeed, too bad 3 is the worst 3g network in Ireland...
3 is expensive in Oz, and I spoke to one of their sales and she said that they only had 3G (so it won't work on my 2G iPhone -- that's what she said). compared to, say, vodafone, it's only cheaper if you use their mobile broadband dongle or you're calling to people who's on 3.
3 in Australia give you free Skype-to-Skype minutes (plenty of them) on Pre-Paid and Post-Paid plans.
So, the UK will probably just make it unlimited...
Skype Out is available on 3 UK and 3 Ireland, however you can only use it to call contacts that are outside the country you're currently in. I specifically switched to 3 for the ability to use Skype-Skype and Skype-Out without a laptop.
Also, their Irish 3G coverage is great, up to 95% + of the country is covered as they share the Vodafone 3G network. Their speeds however are not great if you use the 3G modems, although that's more a limitation of the technology and how much they've oversold mobile broadband.
@ omonii I'm a customer of 3 ireland and i find the mobile net + free msn quite usefull! (i have a c905) also for txt messages they are by far the cheapest (3c a txt, http://three.ie/priceplans/3pay.htm) so far i haven't used the skype feature as most of my friends are on msn and none are on skype, and none are on 3 so free skype to skype would be pretty useless unless i convince all my friends to get a skype account and a 3 phone.
@Spoon! i think that refers to 95% of the population, not the geographical area of ireland. It'd be nice if it was the latter though (i visit the remote countryside once a year if i can, sadly no 3G coverage :`( )
ok, so it's skype-to-skype calls. What about skype-to-landline/mobile calls? Is it also possible to do that? Because if I wanted to call someone in the same country I'd just ring their phones -- since they might not be online all the time.
It would really be a saving if it can call to overseas landlines/mobiles and receive calls over skype.
I'm throwing my Wi-Fi Skype phone out then!
They should have at least specified a minimum top up like £10 every 6 months.
Had a 3 phone for about a year. Until this update you got free unlimited free skype on contract and for pay-as-you-go needed a £10 a month top-up. So this is a positive change for pay as you go fans.
You can call phone numbers simply enough, just need to add credit on the website.
If anything helps expand the number of people I can call on skype though, would be nice.
Worth mentioning Skype sound quality is noticeable lower than standard phone though, so generally because of that I opt for the standard credit first. Also 3 customer support is via india in the UK and as terrible as you would expect.
Just a few info that was not mentioned in the article:
- Skype from 3 can also call landline and cell numbers, but it's not free; your Skype account gets charged (as it would when calling from your PC).
- 3s' Skype is NOT VoIP. It uses the 3G network to connect the to skype service, but uses normal cell network voice from your phone to the server. From there on the the service becomes VoIP.
- 3s' 3G connectivity isn't all that great, even in London, and it seems that Skype takes forever to connect, so it's fairly useless if you want to make a quick call. Unless you keep Skype connected all day long.
"3s' Skype is NOT VoIP. It uses the 3G network to connect the to skype service, but uses normal cell network voice from your phone to the server. From there on the the service becomes VoIP."
Interesting.
So that's kind of an "assisted" Skype...
But it's still possible to use Skype on a mobile phone in the SAME way as using Skype on a PC, right?. Aka: you just pay for the bandwidth/data that you use. Or am I missing something here?
How can a provider stop you from doing that? You could still scramble/mask the data if they wanted to filter it out, just like for p2p programs...
What is so special about it? I have Nimbuzz on my Symbian phone and I can make Skype to Skype and Skype Out calls on 3G with my data plan. Or on WiFi.
yup, exactly what I was thinking...
Same here! But the quality is a bit better on 3, since they use voice instead of data. I'm assuming that will change as mobile connections get better and better.
This has been available for quite some time in Ireland. Whether you're on pay as you go or bill, you get free Skype and Windows Live Messenger regardless
Sham they cant do much for the reception, they continue to sell phones to people in areas that cant use them, how silly but good on them for this.
Shame*
Before you all go buying "3" handsets now let me just caution you that they are possibly the worst network EVER. Bad coverage, and the customer service is ever worse.
I had a Skypephone for a few months and was very disappointed, a lot of the time I could not log into Skype and calls were dropped all the time.
This may well be one of those instances where "if it looks too good to be true, it probably is" applies.
Pointless without SkypeOut.
It has SkypeOut. Read the comments.
@Dan:
No it doesn't. It has partial SkypeOut support for _overseas_ calls, but you can't use SkypeOut to call numbers in the same country. Since SkypeOut allows you to call any country including your own (with the appropriate subscription, or Skype credit) it therefore doesn't have SkypeOut.
I've been using this service on 3 for quite a while now in the UK - it's great!
As others have said, it uses the cell network to connect you to the server, which means you can also use it in places where there isn't 3G coverage. 3's 3G coverage actually seems pretty good to me though, even in my small town of Barnstaple.
You have unlimited Skype-to-Skype calls, and you can also call NON-UK landlines and cell phones. This is great - I can call people all over the world using my Skype credit, and 3 don't charge me a thing. The rule is that you can't use Skype to call phones in the same county that you're in.
It's been mentioned that Skype also don't charge you for roaming on their network, so I can be in Italy, Austria, Hong Kong etc, and use my minutes, texts, data etc as I can at home with no additional charges. I can also use Skype to call the UK from roaming countries, since I'm then not calling the same country that I'm calling from. So Skype-to-Skype and International Skype calls are all unlimited - fantastic! For UK calls all 3 customers get unlimited 3 to 3 calls anyway, and I've got tonnes of minutes to use for other UK calls. Unlimited data is included in my contract too, so I never pay more than the £20 of my contract. And the phone's free too. Moving from Orange a few months ago was a very good move!
Is this an actual VoIP service or does it use the 3 version of the iSkoot Skype client that makes a voice call to a server that connects to the Skype network? If it's a VoIP service, then you're as well to use Fring which won't limit you to Skype-to-Skype calls and QoS will be comperable.
I'm very very wary of 3 after the terrible year I spent using their service in Ireland. The call quality, data speed, coverage and cost were all acceptable, but their customer service is beyond horrible. They cut me off three times in my first six months of service after repeatedly taking my bank account details incorrectly (once at a storefront and twice over the phone). They refused to accept payment with Visa and Mastercard credit cards from non-Irish banks when I called to reconnect (I hadn't gotten around to changing from US cards at that time). It took them 3 months to properly provision my data services so that ports other than 80 were open, despite charging me for "full internet" the entire time. Their technical support staff were utterly untrained and unable to provide any kind of assistance and they were frequently rude on the phone. When I finally discontinued service and they sent me a bill that I paid by posting a cheque immediately, they called me every single day for the 8 days it took for the cheque to reach them and be processed by their billing system to ask me if I would pay by direct debit.
Cool logo and sweet sounding offers aside, 3 suck more than I could possibly have imagined. Just sayin'
skype is cool.
Skype with Unlimited Skype to Skype calls is impressive, Data and VoIP are all we need, but it still has along way to go. I can see many new entrants vopoium coming in.
Try bueno.com its the new most advanced social network with free calling and real phone numbers.
Bueno.com the best