Internet phone company Skype Technologies said on Friday it had signed deals with four companies to connect calls from its free calling software to telephones around the world.
Skype offers users free calls between computers that have Skype software and fast Internet connections. About 17 million copies of the software have been downloaded from Skype, which was designed by some of the same software engineers who created the Internet file sharing service Kazaa. The service is averaging about 400,000 users at any given time.
Skype said the deals will support its launch of SkypeOut software, to allow users to dial mobile or landline telephone numbers from their computers. Skype said SkypeOut would be a pre-pay service, and its Web site lists preliminary prices of 0.12 euros per minute for calls to North America, Western Europe, China and Australia, with higher rates for other countries and mobile phones.
The company has said it was working on a service to allow incoming phone calls to its users, but that it would take more time for such a service to be developed.
The four companies -- COLT, iBasis, Level 3 and Teleglobe -- will provide the call termination services to Skype.
