EBay division Skype and mobile phone group 3 have launched a mobile handset that allows Skype users to make free Internet calls to each other while on the move.

[1] The companies said on Monday the new 3 Skypephone could also send free Skype instant messages, and that they hoped to sell “several hundred thousand” units worldwide in the fourth quarter of this year.

“We are optimistic that if you look at one or two years, (we will sell) millions rather than hundreds of thousands, but in the fourth quarter (2007) we are looking at several hundred thousand worldwide,” Frank Sixt, finance director of 3-owner Hutchison Whampoa, told reporters.

The phone is being launched in nine markets including Britain, Australia and Italy, with a roll-out into other countries under consideration.

In Britain, the phone will cost 49.99 pounds on a pay-as-you-go basis, and will be free for 3 contract users. It will be on sale in 3’s stores on Friday November 2.

3 have said the phone’s non-Skype tariffs are the same as on its other phones, with call minutes and texts priced the same way. The phone will have a special Skype button.

Source: [2] Yahoo News

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