Skype does away with proposed iPhone mobile VoIP charges

Skype users – and the mobile phone market – had been long awaiting the arrival of a Skype app that would work over 3G on the iPhone. But when it arrived in June, the disappointment was palpable: the app didn’t work in the background, making it practically useless, and came with a small charge from Skype, a big surprise in a market that seemed to be driven by essentially free calling.

This week, Skype corrected both of those seeming problems. In a new release of its iPhone app, Skype added support for multi-tasking – not to mention higher quality sound – and did away with any supplemental fees. Said the company on its blog, “this means you can receive Skype calls while other apps are running, even when your iPhone is locked. And during a call, you can keep the conversation going while you switch to another task, such as checking a movie listing or reading an email.”

Although Skype said it would not implement a charge for iPhone app calling, it did recognize that many operators – including U.S. iPhone provider AT&T – are in the process of implementing caps on data usage.

While voice calling wouldn’t likely represent a huge bandwidth hit on AT&T’s network, if it counts against a data cap, Skype users may have to keep track of and likely limit their use of the app to stay under their caps. That fact, along with the lack of video support – at least for now – makes the service more palatable and affordable to support for both Skype and AT&T.

The new app essentially makes Skype on the iPhone a realistic replacement for regular voice calling (especially if users have Skype accounts with an associated telephone number for incoming calls), a move that AT&T seemed to have been strongly resisting (with Apple’s help via approval delays and Skype’s less-than-aggressive release providing even further assistance).

By comparison, Verizon Wireless went another route entirely, working closely with Skype on an application that Verizon not only supports but which delivers calls over Verizon’s voice network, rather than over the top on 3G.