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Skype launches new service on first anniversary here

On the first anniversary of its launch of the popular Skype and SkypeOut telephony services in Taiwan, PC Home Online (網路家庭) yesterday introduced a new service, "SkypeIn" to round out its Internet telephony suite.

To date, "PCHome-Skype" has been downloaded more than 7.1 million times in Taiwan, with more than 2.3 million registered members.

The penetration rate in the local market over the past year grew at the fastest pace in the world, while the number of local Skype users is second only to that of the US, Niklas Zennstrom, chief executive officer and co-founder of the peer-to-peer (P2P) telephony company Skype Technologies SA, told a press conference in Taipei yesterday.

PC Home Online, the nation's fourth-largest Internet portal, last year became the Luxembourg-based company's first global partner in promoting the Skype software, which enables users to make free calls to fellow clients over an Internet connection. The package also allows making conference calls with up to five users.

Last November, the alliance launched the "SkypeOut" service, which enables users to make domestic or international calls from computers to fixed-line or mobile phones for one-eighth to one-third the price charged by fixed-line carriers.

The number of SkypeOut users has grown to 150,000 people in Taiwan, the pilot market for the global development of Skype.

The SkypeIn service launched by PC Home Online yesterday allows users to receive international phone calls. Skype members can apply for a phone number that can be dialed from a conventional phone in one of eight countries or territories -- Hong Kong, the US, the UK, France, Poland, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. The call will then be directed to their computers.

Local Internet phone numbers are expected to become available this quarter, pending approval by the Directorate General of Telecommunications, said Sam Tsai (蔡文雄), a manager of PC Home Online.
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