The Big Blog

lodevermeiren commented Wednesday, May 10

Any chance of this coming to Mac? I know Mac users need to be patient to use video, but I don't see a technical reason for sms to be Windows-only.

mantoz commented Wednesday, May 10

Just to let you know, I tried sending an SMS to a landline Italian phone (my house) and it fails, even if the phone should receive it, directly on the screen if you have the correct/enabled phone, or by an automated voice system if you have a standard phone.
In Italy, the greatest part of landline phones is by Telecom Italia, an SMS from the landline can go to every phone (fixed/mobile) but can be received only from other TI's landline phones or by TIM - Telecom Italia Mobile cellular phones.
Probably this is the problem.

stoffershorty commented Friday, May 12

Great article and I hope people take the time to read it and that they become less critical of Skype for charging for the service. I'd much rather pay a small fee for a reliable service than use a free unreliable one.
Here in Spain, to send an SMS from a mobile phone to another one OUTSIDE of Spain (to the UK across the water) cost a whopping 0,60€ +IVA (that's like 70 US cents + tax), ie. daylight robbery! So a service that Skype are offering for only 0,08€ to the UK is a darn fantastic deal and saves me a fortune. It's the country mobile phone operators that people should be complaining to, not Skype. There seems to be a huge problem with Spanish Amena network delivering SMS to UK Orange network for example. The more people get on the case of their mobile phone company for their ridiculous charges then hopefully they will be forced to reduce them and companies like Skype can reduce their fantastic rates even further.
Just my thoughts for what they're worth. Cheers.

davidmarkpugh commented Saturday, May 13

My family members live in various countries around the world, with skype to skype we can talk to each other for free, skypeout is inexpensive, the ability for webcam and sms. it keeps getting better and better. I am a fan, my whole family are fans. The big crooks here are phone operators putting massive profits before customers and then trying to defend their actions with talks of system investments/upgrades etc etc. governments cashing in on the billion pound fees paid for licenses, its a joke. Skype is the only provider who is not trying to rip off 'joe public'.............Thanks Skype

wdoerner commented Tuesday, May 16

re: "Why not make Skype SMS free/cheaper?" please see my post at http://forum.skype.com/viewtopic.php?t=53071&highlight=.

Yahoo!Messenger offers free SMS to most #s in the USA (dont know about elsewhere).

Many cell phone companies have free SMS messaging on their own websites that do not require you to have an account with them or to even provide a phone number.

I do not see much validity in the argument that Skype is trying to drive down SMS costs. The "connection cost" (or going from IP packets to the PTSN) is already passed on to the holder of the cell phone for a nominal fee or absorbed by the companies. The only fee that Skype is supposedly encountering is sending the IP packets to the PTSN...BUT you cannot justify charging clients when a few quick Google searches show that it's easily done already for free online through multiple cell phone companies' own websites.

Now, the goal should be figuring out how to tie Skype in with those websites or their technology to also offer it for free.

If the next release doesn't do that, it will appear that you're trying to generate revenue for an already free service. I'm not going to pay for it. That's why I switch over to Yahoo! to send SMS and Skype to make outgoing calls. Maybe now I'll use AOL IM to get a free incoming line...looks like I don't even need SkypeIn anymore.

timborino commented Wednesday, Jun 14

The prices seem competitive to average rates for mobile operators in major markets, but not for other IM network providers. I regularly send SMS for free via AIM (and can receive replies), and it looks like MSN, Yahoo, and ICQ also let you send messages for free from their IM clients (and websites). Why would I pay to send SMS via Skype if there are free alternatives?

http://www.aim.com/triton/plugins.adp?aolp=
http://join.msn.com/messenger/features#7
http://messenger.yahoo.com/mobile.php
http://www.icq.com/icqtour/advanced/sms.html

Those are pretty big companies. How do they provide free SMS? Do they just give it away at a loss to attract users?

tobymurdock commented Wednesday, Jun 28

i would agree with 'wdoerner.' this is a big feature that i was looking forward to. to have it be this costly is disappointing.

i've stayed away from yahoo voice (despite its integrataion with yahoo email, calendar, addressbook and IM, all of which i use) in order to stick w/ skype, but this news regarding skype means that i might be giving yahoo and its free SMS a try now.

be honest about your competitors . . . and be honest to us, your users! when you say:

A smaller company might be able to offer free SMS through its website but they are hoping to make money somewhere along the line. For example from advertising; perhaps by sending you SMS spam – check the fine print in the terms of use!

that's just not true! kudos to skype and your ebay acquisition, but yahoo is not smaller than you! and they are not trying to SMS spam me. they don't even have ads on their IM client! they do ultimately try to make money via advertising, but i gladly receive those ads instead of paying $0.11 per SMS!

i happily pay for skype in and skype out now . . . your rates there are in-line with the market, and i generate revenue for you that way, gladly. please keep up with the market so that we, your users, can stay with you!

jdstroy commented Monday, Sep 11

Guess what? The behemoth AOL also offers free SMS through the AOL Instant Messenger service. (To try it, send an IM to the phone number in question, prefixed with a plus sign, e.g. +19998887777)

jdw-home commented Saturday, Oct 14

I take it you guys are all in the USA? Try using any of those "free" SMS services when you're based in Europe. No way to do it. Skype SMS at 0.13 eurocents (inc VAT) a go is great value, particularly if you are sending from say Spain to the UK where it would normally cost 40 eurocents a shot, mobile to mobile - now, that's a real rip-off!

sezer.yalcin commented Thursday, Dec 11

Any word on reply-back feature? I see this article posted on May 9, 2006 but I still don't have ability to receive sms from skype in US.

If you add ability to use my skypein number as sender in SMS I sent, and when it's replied, you add ability to convert sms to a skype chat message and display in my client, that would completely solve this problem.

Then I will say goodbye to my voice line, will get data-only line with my cellphone, skypein and skypeout! This is the best ever local and fully global phone.

ebenedu commented Saturday, Nov 27

hi,
i've been trying to send bulk sms to 10 people at a time, and it does not tell me the status whether it is delivered/sent or failed. is there any way to check this? I need to know for exactly which recipients are still pending in this mass SMS message. How do I check the status of each recipient? I can then call them directly since the sms is not going through!

and it takes very very long for the sms to go through, even for individual sms. any way to fasten the process?