Google goes after Skype introducing calls from Gmail
Date: August 25, 2010 | No Comments
(Prices in US Dollars)
Google has introduced a new addition to its extensive list of communication tools. Starting today, Gmail users can call any phone right from their Gmail accounts. Gmail users, who already had a Google Voice phone number, will have that number displayed as the outbound caller ID while making a call from their Gmail account. Moreover, they can also receive calls made to that number right inside Gmail. Calls to the U.S. and Canada will be free for the rest of the year and calls to other countries will be billed at the existing rates.
Tarifica’s take
Google has been working on voice-over-IP services for a long time, an industry where Skype is currently the dominant player. Google Voice hasn’t gained yet massive acceptance, but including it as a Gmail feature should help the search giant to increase dramatically their user base. In their press release, Google directly points out to Skype, showing a comparison chart with tariffs to different countries. Additionally, Skype is charging a connection fee ($0.039 for calls inside of the global rate destinations and $0.079 for calls outside of the global rate destinations) while Google users don’t have to pay any extra fee to start talking.
However, Skype still offers very attractive packages for unlimited international calls to specific countries that may this option more interesting for some users. Since Google Voice is still in their early stages compare to Skype, we will have to wait to see what kind of bundles and discount schemes they will offers to their users. The table below shows Google’s and Skype basic tariffs for different countries:
| Country | Skype | |
| United States | Free | 0.02/min |
| Canada | Free | 0.02/min |
| India | 0.06/min | 0.09/min |
| UK landline | 0.02/min | 0.02/min |
| UK mobile | 0.18/min | 0.25/min |
| Mexico landline | 0.10/min | 0.09/min |
| Mexico mobile | 0.19/min | 0.33/min |
| France landline | 0.02/min | 0.02/min |
| France mobile | 0.15/min | 0.20/min |
| Germany landline | 0.02/min | 0.02/min |
| Germany mobile | 0.17/min-0.23/min | 0.24/min |
| Russia landline(Moscow) | 0.04/min | 0.02/min |
| Russia mobile | 0.06/min | 0.07/min |
| Brazil landline (Sao Paulo) | 0.02/min | 0.02/min |
| Brazil mobile | 0.15/min | 0.20/min |
| Australia landline (Sydney) | 0.02/min | 0.02/min |
| Australia mobile | 0.14/min | 0.20/min |
| Japan landline | 0.02/min | 0.02/min |
| Japan mobile | 0.11/min | 0.15/min |
| Singapore landline | 0.02/min | 0.02/min |
| Singapore mobile | 0.02/min | 0.02/min |
| United Arab Emirates | 0.19/min | 0.26/min |
| United Arab Emirates | 0.19/min | 0.26/min |
| China landline (Beijing) | 0.02/min | 0.02/min |
| China mobile | 0.02/min | 0.02/min |
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