VoIP giant Skype is planning a public beta for group video chat where up to five people can sign into a live video call.
VoIP provider Skype is looking to re-invent the party line: the company is planning to launch a public beta next week of a group video calling feature that will let up to five people participate in the same video chat. While the feature will undoubtedly be welcomed by businesses and other professionals who use Skype for online collaboration, the feature will no doubt find many adopters among folks who use Skype to stay connected with friends and family…any by those who use the service for purely social purposes.
The public beta of the service will be available for free, but Skype apparently plans to start charging for the service one it leaves beta. The group video chat feature will appear first for the Skype client for Windows PCs, with the capability due to launch on the Mac later in 2010. There’s no word yet whether Skype plans to bring the capability to other platforms or mobile devices.
In other news, Skype has also unveiled new calling plans that significantly reduce calling costs compared to pay-as-you go options. Starting May 6 Skype users in more than 170 countries will be able to select from subscription plans that range from 60 minutes to unlimited calling in one, three, and twelve-month packages: users just need to select the countries they want to call, indicate whether they want to call landlines or mobiles (or both), then choose among available plans. Pricing varies depending on countries, but the new rates are as much as a 60 percent savings over pay-as-you-go options.
Skype still offers computer-to-computer calling for free; however, subscription plans are required to connect to landline and mobile phones.
