Ten year anniversaries are always special. And Microsoft wants to make the tenth birthday of Skype even more special by giving away free goodies to every Skype user.
Free goodies in this case being 30 minutes of free WiFi access — two pulses of 15 minutes each — to be used on any of its two million hotspots around the world.
The first version of Skype was launched on August 29, 2003 by five fine people from Estonia, Sweden and Denmark. In the 10 years since, the service has expanded its reach manifolds to become one of the most popular software programs of all time, let alone VoIP service.
Redmond acquire Skype back in October 2011 for $8.5 billion, and since then the technology titan has been busy integrating and expanding the Skype service into many of its products, most recently Outlook.com.
Microsoft detailed the giveaway in a blog post:
“It’s our anniversary, but you get the present. Each and every Skype user will receive, as of today, 30 minutes (two connections of up to 15 minutes each) of free WiFi at any of our two million Skype WiFi partner hotspots. The offer begins at 12:00 AM on August 29 and ends at 12 AM on August 30.”
Additionally, the technology titan has released an interesting new infographic to emphasize the success the VoIP service has recorded all over the world. The image highlights how regular consumers and celebrities both use Skype.
The company claims that Skype now boats more than 300 million connected users, and a third of all international telephone calls now go through Skype. In fact, over the past 10 years its users have spent more than 1.4 trillion minutes using the service.
Happy birthday Skype — wonder what the next 10 years will bring!
