There are a few notable caveats to the free application, which is available now in the Android Market or from Skype’s website. It’s only tested on HTC and Motorola handsets running the version of Android called Eclair, it doesn’t seem to work on the Samsung Galaxy S, Skype says, and the service isn’t available in China or Japan.

Outside the US, the new Skype app for Android works over both Wi-Fi and 3G, features free Skype-to-Skype calls and group IMs, and paid US or international calls to any mobile or landline number using Skype credits or a subscription plan.

If you use a carrier inside the US, however, 3G calling is disabled, as was initially the case with Skype for iPhone. Video calling, which is supported on Skype’s desktop apps, is not available for mobile. It also doesn’t appear that you can receive calls on Skype for Android — only IMs.

Another significant limitation: You can make calls from the app, but you cannot receive calls unless you purchase a Skype Online Number, a separate for-fee service.

But it’s a huge step in the now seemingly inexorable march to unleash internet telephony on the perfect delivery system — a mobile phone — without the caller using a telco’s dictated terms. In a world where our ‘phone number’ is our Skype name, calls are dirt cheap and it doesn’t matter where you are.

It’s been a busy year at Skype. In March it joined with Verizon to let its mobile app run on some of the carrier’s phones. But the calls are routed through Verizon’s network (except for international), you can’t receive calls placed to your online numbers, and you can’t use Skype (and its cheaper calling plans) to place calls to other telephones. Skype on Verizon doesn’t even work under Wi-Fi, where Skype sort of lives.

Skype’s iPhone app earlier this year added 3G and background support, and Skype for Nokia — which has the largest market share globally — launched in the Ovi store in March for handsets running Symbian^1. Android for Blackberry remains available only from Verizon.

The good news is that the price of a phone call is rapidly trending towards “free.” But the bad news is that, because calling minutes are becoming increasingly commoditized and people increasingly use text alternatives instead of just picking up the phone, telcos are forced to look elsewhere for revenue.

So while making phone calls may get cheaper are will for the foreseeable future be paying more for the metered, telco-provided 3G and now 4G data plans you will use outside hotspots for all that glorious audio and video streaming (and don’t forget your Skype video calls) you can’t get enough of. We are already seeing that happen in a big way: AT&T, the exclusive U.S. carrier for the iPhone and iPad, ended unlimited data plans just at the Apple tablet came to market. Verizon said in June it was likely to follow suit.

And if Google and Verizon get their way, the mobile internet will nothing like the all-you-can-eat terrestrial broadband playground we have really only just gotten used to.

Authors: John C Abell

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