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Skype Unleashed Onto Cell Phones

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the phree-as-in-phones dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Today Hutchinson announced that it would provide unlimited cell phone to cell phone Skype calls via a 3G connection. This new service, called X-series, is part of a new alliance made up of Skype, Sling Media, Yahoo, Nokia, Google, eBay, Microsoft, Orb and Sony Ericsson. According to the article, users will also be able to 'search Google and Yahoo, send MSN instant messages to their friends, watch their TVs from a Slingbox, access their computer at home with Orb and buy or sell stuff on eBay.' Users will only get charged a monthly fee for access, in a similar way to broadband charges."

6 of 74 comments (clear)

  1. Fine print... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Prob is that the fine print for unlimited data plans says no voip!

    1. Re:Fine print... by mypalmike · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Ah but many PDA phones and some of the new Nokia phones (E61, E80) have WiFi. You can run VoIP over a WiFi either at home or through local hotspots supplied by your provider (or anywhere else).

      But then you're not running it over 3G, which is what this news is about.

      --
      There are 0x40000000 types of people: those who understand 32-bit IEEE 754 floating point, and those who don't.
  2. This is so cool! by Slithe · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now I will be able to use my phone as . . . a phone!

    --
    ---- "XML is like violence. If it doesn't fix the problem, you aren't using enough."
    1. Re:This is so cool! by Firehed · · Score: 3, Funny

      Better talk really quietly then... that'll make everything smaller!

      --
      How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
  3. Call me when Google Talk implements SIP..literally by Vellmont · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Skype.. the propritary, we don't speak any accepted standard VoIP provider. They might as well be AOL or Compuserve before they realised that this "internet thing" meant they had to use SMTP for email.

    Google on the other hand has standardized on an open standard for VoIP (Jingle), and has said they'll support SIP at some future point (currently the most widely supported VoIP standard).

    --
    AccountKiller
  4. Actually.. by apollosfire · · Score: 3, Informative

    That's Hutchison, not Hutchinson.