Skype says time is not ripe for cell phone version

Skype believes the cell phone world is not ready for a version of its Internet telephone service that can be downloaded on any mobile phone, because of high carrier charges. Reuters reports.

"... Eric Lagier, in an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show , said that while development work is being carried out, most of the other telecoms network operators had not yet created attractive flat-fee wireless broadband packages that are needed to take full advantage of Internet calls.

In fact, most carriers charge significant amounts of money per megabyte downloaded and sent to a mobile phone.

"We don't want to be in a situation where we say: 'Skype is free' and then at the end of the month the user gets this huge broadband bill," Lagier said.

emily | 7:54 AM | News, Buzz |
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