Unlikely partners, Verizon Wireless and Skype, today held a press conference at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. According to Verizon's Chief Marketing Officer, John Stratton, the two companies have been working on a Skype application specifically deisgned for Verizon devices, which will be appropriately called Skype Mobile.
Skype Mobile will run on a variety of BlackBerry devices, as well as the Motorola Droid, Devour and the HTC Eris. The service will be available for download in March.
Stratton said that Skype Mobile was a nice compliment to Verizon's portfolio of services but that customers will still be required to purchase a voice and data plan.
Mobile Skype rates and plans will be identical to existing Skype services, however this application will be circuit-switch-based and run over Verzion's network, as opposed to Skype's traditional VoIP technology model.
Stratton wouldn't comment on the specifics of the deal, but said that it was a "wonderful deal between Verizon Wireless and Skype."
When asked whether this would lead to a Skype application for Verizon's FioS TV service, Stratton was cryptic.
"Close your eyes and picture how wonderful that would be, and then we'll get back to you...There are a lot of great things that we are thinking about...but for us it's about making sure that we deliver this first generation of this product in a great way," Stratton said.