Interesting article in Business Week about Skype's plans to launch a mobile phone this month. The initial service will be through the "3" network, in Britain, Italy, Hong Kong, and Australia. "There are no immediate plans to bring the device to North America, though the companies may try to license it to other carriers or sell versions straight to consumers for them to use on other networks."

With this phone, which works like a regular cell (i.e., doesn't require a wifi connection), you could call other Skype users free, or make very cheap calls to regular phone numbers. The phone will also provide multimedia and web browsing. From the story:

quote:

What may be most striking about the device is that it's being pushed by a mobile carrier at a time when most of the wireless industry is anxiously fighting to preserve its business model against a siege of new technologies and players. The major wireless carriers are fearful of upstart technologies that are slashing once-robust revenue streams from traditional home and office telephones, so they've made it impossible to use Internet phone services on most of their phones.

And of course, Google is also working on some kind of cell phone platform: see story.

It will be very interesting to see how this all shakes out -- and how long it takes for the new technologies to push out the old ones, and punish companies like the US cell networks that put the consumers last. Read Walt Mossberg's recent column for a real diatribe on how far behind the times and out of touch US cell phone companies are.

- Roz