The development team at Skype has announced that its iPhone-specific application, Skype for iPhone, has reached another important milestone in its development process – Skype for iPhone 2.0 has been released. The big news with this latest release is that it allows you to make calls over 3G.
“The wait is over. You can now make and receive calls with Skype for iPhone using your 3G connection. We’re very excited about this, as we know that being able to use Skype when you're away from your home or office is important to you,” commented Skype’s Peter Parkes.
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As Peter Parkes explained, the sound quality the iPhone app provides is “near CD-quality” for Skype-to-Skype calls. You can make Skype-to-Skype calls over 3G free of charge, but only until the end of the year. That’s the bad news. You can now make Skype calls over 3G, but they will cost you – not until the end of 2010.
“Over the coming months we'll be working out what pricing options might be – and don't forget that Skype is all about great value. Calling over 3G will be no exception. In the meantime, Skype-to-Skype calls on 3G will be free until the end of 2010, so download and enjoy*. Skype-to-Skype calls over WiFi will remain free – and you can make calls to landlines and mobiles around the world at our incredibly low rates,” added Peter Parkes.
If you are not familiar with the Skype for iPhone story so far, here’s the lowdown, in brief. In the spring of 2009, Skype released a dedicated app for Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch devices. With the app, you could perform VoIP calls via WiFi and 3G – but AT&T did not allow VoIP apps to perform calls on its 3G network, so you were stuck having to find a WiFi hotspot. Then in the autumn of 2009, AT&T announced to the world that it dropped its “VoIP calls over 3G” restriction. The catch was that you still couldn't make Skype calls over 3G, this time because Apple would not allow it. This fact was emphasized by Skype when they rolled out Skype for iPhone version 1.3. No sooner had Skype released version 1.3 of their iPhone app, that Apple dropped the bomb. The Cupertino-based software developer updated its SDK and the big surprise was that Apple dropped the restriction to make VoIP calls over 3G. Skype, after touting the fact that it got an app up their sleeves, did not release one after news broke out that Apple would allow VoIP calls over 3G. It just now released Skype for iPhone 2.0 that allows you to call over 3G.
If you would like to get Skype for iPhone 2.0, you can download it straight from the App Store here.
The development team at Skype has announced that its iPhone-specific application, Skype for iPhone, has reached another important milestone in its development process – Skype for iPhone 2.0 has been released. The big news with this latest release is that it allows you to make calls over 3G.