Skype Journal, 15 November 2005
Tony Steinegger, Vienna, Austria
The huge Spanish Telecom Telefonica partners with Skype to bring SkypeIn numbers to Germany. This was announced in the German mediaearly today
The SkypeIn Beta service is available for all German residents effective immediately. Every German customer will have the possibility to obtain a SkypeIn number. Here is the twist, for the area he is living in (e.g. a person living in Hamburg will receive a number for the Hamburg area).
Due to the regulatory situation in Germany, a few other special requirements apply:
1) Every user has to provide his personal name and address information. As mentioned earlier, you have to live in Germany to be eligible.
2) Numbers can not be chosen, they will be assigned. Subscription is again available for 3 months and 1 year.
3) All data provided will be verified. After Skype received the payment, they will report the customer information to their service provider and will inform the user via email about the process and status.
The entire process should normally take 1-2 days to complete. Update: A German friend did a live test and it took only 10 minutes!!!
So what is the advantage! The economic incentive is now Skype users can consider dropping their 20 to 30 Euro per month landline.
Need help? German-speaking Skype users can also find help in the support forum Our German Skype Forum has over 3200 active members.