If you are a Verizon Wireless Smartphone user, the world just got a little brighter with free Skype calling. Yesterday, Verizon Wireless and Skype announced they would bring the free Internet calling service Skype to nine of the carrier’s 3G smartphones, including the Motorola Droid and several BlackBerry models, beginning in March, 2010. With the free Skype Mobile application, Verizon smartphone users can make and receive unlimited free calls to other users who have Skype, anywhere in the world!
You will also be able to use it to call any international phone number at Skype’s standard rates, which are much lower than Verizon’s international wireless calling rates. Calls abroad through Skype start at 2.1 cents per minute, and monthly unlimited packages are also available. The app will also let Skype users exchange instant messages. The offering will allow Verizon customers to make and receive unlimited Skype-to-Skype voice calls to any Skype user; 
call international phone numbers at Skype Out calling rates; send and receive instant messages to other Skype users; and stay continuously connected and clued into friends’ online presence.
The phones that can get this will be the BlackBerry Storm 9530, Storm2 9550, Curve 8330, Curve 8530, 8830 World Edition and Tour 9630, as well as the Motorola Droid, HTC Droid Eris and Motorola Devour — before later extending to other models.
“For AT&T and other carriers, the previous introduction of iPhone Skype will create additional downward pressure on the prices they charge for cellular voice calls,” Mawston said. Charles King, principal analyst with Pund-IT Research, added that VOIP is only one issue eroding the demand for carriers’ standalone services. “Many people — particularly younger consumers — are replacing traditional wire line services with cell phones which has hurt traditional carriers like AT&T but benefited wireless providers like Verizon.”
“Rather than dropping voice calling prices outright, I’m seeing carriers of every sort, along with cable companies, working hard to bundle voice into larger data service packages. In such cases, the actual cost of voice calling — or high-speed Internet access, TV services, etc. — often remains essentially opaque. It’s part of a bigger bundle.”
