London and Luxembourg, 18 July 2005 – Skype, The Global Internet Telephony Company™, has partnered with The Cloud™, Europe’s leading WiFi network provider, to offer low cost WiFi access and internet voice calls at 6,000 of The Cloud’s hotspots in the UK and Sweden.
The partnership with The Cloud is a key component in the UK and Sweden of Skype’s global roll-out of the new ‘Skype Zones’ beta service, which enables Skype calls and access to its rich features via WiFi for low rates at thousands of hotspots across the world.
As part of a special initiative only available through this partnership, Skype users are automatically connected to Skype as soon as they turn on their Wi-Fi enabled device in a Cloud hotspot. Allowing users to instant message for free over Skype, without needing to log on to Skype Zones, further enhancing a truly mobile experience and adding another dimension to Skype over WiFi.
Skype Zones access to Skype’s feature-rich Internet telephony via WiFi is just €6.18* per month for subscribers or €2.50 for a 2-hour connection, superior quality voice calling, chat, conference calling, and premium services, SkypeOut, SkypeIn and Skype Voicemail. Skype Zones users are able to sign up for unlimited monthly access at any Skype Zones hotspot, allowing users to roam globally across multiple networks for one low monthly fee. The Skype Zones client is for Windows computers available immediately and can be downloaded from the Skype Store at www.skype.com.
Skype Zones will be available in the Cloud’s 6,000 hotspots in the UK and Sweden, ensuring that Skype’s more than 45 million users will always have a hotspot nearby. The Cloud’s network has broad geographic reach in a wide variety of location types, with more than 300 locations in London alone. Skype users on the move will find convenient access to a location on almost every high street in the UK, including coverage in 27 universities around the country, and wide area coverage around payphones, city councils and libraries. The Cloud’s extensive network coverage in both the UK and Sweden is ideally suited for travellers, students, home workers and mobile business users and includes hotspots in more than 75 train stations, 300 hotels and conference centres, airports, libraries, coffee shops, pubs, sporting stadiums and public spaces.
“We believe that the mobility offered by Skype Zones and has the power to revolutionise modern communications,” said Niklas Zennström, CEO and founder of Skype. “Skype is bringing affordable WiFi and voice calls to millions of users, enabling them to talk, IM and surf conveniently and cost-effectively from thousands of great locations. Our users in the UK and Sweden will benefit from The Cloud’s extensive network coverage in places where people really want to use it.”
George Polk, founder and CEO of The Cloud, said: “The Cloud’s network was designed from the ground up to be able to support innovative new applications like Skype Zones. Skype is the global leader in easy to use, superior quality Internet telephony, and we are very excited to be part of their ground-breaking WiFi roll-out. Skype has become mission critical for its millions of users, and we are looking forward to seeing this new service drive traffic in our vast range of sites.”
*Current exchange rate equivalent to $7.95
About The Cloud
The Cloud offers sophisticated national WiFi coverage in nearly 6000 hotspot locations throughout the UK, Sweden and Germany. The Cloud's infrastructure is a multi-service provider platform, which allows providers such as ISPs, mobile operators and cable companies to offer a fully branded WiFi experience to their customers. With The Cloud, site owners maximise their revenue potential by supporting all major service providers at their location and customers enjoy the best possible experience and maximum ease of use. Launched in mid 2003, The Cloud actively partners with O2, BT, Vodafone, Ericsson and Intel among others to facilitate the growth of wireless broadband services across Europe. The Cloud's investors include 3i and Accel Partners Europe.
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