LUXEMBOURG-Oct. 25, 2005 Imagine never having to pay for a phone call again. Savvy college students all over the world are leading the 61 million people jumping on the fastest-growing communications revolution in history.
Students everywhere are Skyping friends and family worldwide using their computers, cell phones and PDAs. Today, Skype announced that families, sororities, and rotary clubs can catch the wave and buy pre-paid minutes to distribute among any group that wants to receive one bill for multiple calling plans.
Skype, the Global Internet Communications Company, makes computers ring just like a phone and allows free calls between any callers who have downloaded the software. Skype is global, which means that students can spend hours speaking to family and friends worldwide at no cost.
Worried about calling your boyfriend who is studying abroad? Don’t. It’s free. Additional inexpensive services such as SkypeOut let you call old school phones, and SkypeIn gives you a regular phone number to receive incoming calls, so you can forward free calls to your cell phone or Sidekick.
When people use Skype call each other, the call travels directly between computers. Skype’s technology cleverly finds the person you want to speak to, and the quality is much better — you aren’t going to worry about dropping your call. Skype calls are also end-to-end encrypted, ensuring that no one can listen in to your conversation.
Skype is simple to use — all you need to get started is a broadband connection and a basic PC headset or handset. It takes less than a minute to install and requires no special configuration. It can be used behind most firewalls and gateways, without any security risks.
Skype works on Linux, Mac, Pocket PC and Windows. You can use Skype anywhere with a Wi-Fi connection, perfect for students on the move. You can use Skype with your Pocket PC, PDAs and laptops, or forward calls to your cell phone.
By Skyping someone, you can save money while experiencing the best sound quality for talking, laughing and sharing stories. Skype lets you do things beyond the limits of ordinary phones, like instant messaging, conference calling and transferring files securely.
Inexpensive pre-paid services provide an economical way to connect to old world phones and cell phones worldwide — since they’re pre-paid you never have to worry about billing surprises.
SkypeOut lets you call ordinary cell phone and landlines for competitive rates, less than $0.02 a minute to most destinations.
SkypeIn lets callers obtain a personal SkypeIn number and receive incoming calls from ordinary telephones. So even if you’re in college at Berkeley you can still get a phone number from your hometown outside Chicago.
Skype Groups lets anyone buy pre-paid minutes and distribute them among family members, across the sorority or any group that wants to receive one bill for multiple calling plans.
Skype Voicemail lets you leave, send and receive messages up to 10 minutes long and customize your voicemail with a variety of personalization and privacy features.
Personalize Skype lets you show off your individuality with original pictures, ring tones and sounds.
Skype Zones offers affordable access to Skype over Wi-Fi at 18,000 convenient locations
Skype Call Forwarding lets you forward your incoming calls on to cell phones, landlines and to other Skype Names so you never miss a call, even if you’re offline.
Once you’ve downloaded Skype, you can immediately instant message with others, set up group chats, and transfer files. With an inexpensive headset, you can take advantage of all that Skype offers, including Skype’s free, high quality voice calling.
Skype is as easy to use as launching a web browser. Skype even offers a ‘Getting Started Wizard’ that walks callers through some of Skype’s most popular features.
With Skype, you can instantly make conference calls and host group chats for work and study groups, or to connect with your high school friends across the country. You can even collaborate with friends at other universities for great research help — these smart tools help you get your homework done so you can get on with your life.
For more information about Internet voice communications, visit www.skype.com. To download Skype to your computer, simply click the download link at www.skype.com and save the installation file to your computer.