Skype continues to work in the direction of getting more people to dial out via their service. Now they have opened the lightly used Skype to Go service to all PAYING users, meaning those that have Skype Out credit in their account.
Basically this is a credit card calling replacement or a way to compete with services like Gizmo5 or Truphone, Rebtel, Mobivox and others who all offer a mobile dial around solution.
For Skype it’s an economic move, as having all those dollars/credits on their books is treated as a liability on the balance sheet. What’s more they also have lots of reciprocal compensation from inbound calls they also need to chew up.
Now for the downside of this move.
Skype used to make this a valued feature in their UNLIMITED plans. Now they have further diminished the value of that by a factor of one. When you offer items in a bundle as a bonus those services are attractors to people to sign up and in the case of unlimited plans, actually pre-pay for them at times.
Unfortunately the more Skype makes moves like this, the more they are behaving like a telco, as this move is very much like what MCI or Sprint used to offer when they were alternative long distance carriers.
Is it time for Skype to admit they are a telco and conform to the same requirements as everyone else? Or should they keep being one of the rogues of telco?