Internet telephony company Skype on Friday announced the public beta launch of SkypeIn and Skype Voicemail. The two new premium services are available in the latest download versions of its software for Mac OS X and other platforms.
Skype users can call each other around the world for free, and can chat online and send and receive files using the client software. The company also offers a service called SkypeOut to call regular phone numbers.
With the addition of SkypeIn, Skype users can be assigned a regular phone number that will allow them to receive calls wherever they are. SkypeIn numbers are sold on a subscription basis — €30 for 12 months (US$38.61), €10 ($12.87) for 3 months. Users can purchase up to three numbers from their home country in Denmark, Finland, France, Hong Kong, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States during the beta period, according to Skype.
With the new SkypeIn service comes a free Skype Voicemail account, which provides an online-accessible voice mailbox for you to use when you can’t (or don’t want to) take calls. Users can customize a greeting, as well.