wi-tribe, Skype bare partnership

wi-tribe announced Thursday a commercial agreement with Skype to promote Skype and its related products over wi-tribe’s networks in Jordan and the Philippines; two key markets for wi-tribe.

Under the agreement, wi-tribe, a provider of wireless broadband Internet, will enable subscribers in the respective markets to easily download Skype software and connect with their family and friends.

“wi-tribe's collaboration with Skype is further proof of our commitment to finding innovative ways of delivering superior broadband experience to consumers. Through partnering with a world-class organization like Skype, we are further enhancing the value of the service that we provide to wi-tribe customers” said Sohail Qadri, wi-tribe Group CEO.

To kick off the partnership, Skype and wi-tribe will distribute Skype credit vouchers in the Philippines and in Jordan. These vouchers will enable customers to enjoy free calls to landlines and mobiles over Skype using the wi-tribe broadband network.

Skype had 145 million average monthly connected users for the three months ended 31 December 2010 and according to TeleGeography in January 2011, Skype to Skype calling minutes in 2010 were equivalent to approximately20% of total global international PSTN and Skype-to-Skype calling minutes. With today’s partnership announcement, more users in the Middle-Eastern and Asian regions will enjoy easy accessibility to popular Skype features such as free Skype-to-Skype calls, instant messaging, low cost calls to landlines and mobiles as well as the recently launched Group Video Calling.

“wi-tribe is a high performance wireless internet provider with a customer centric approach, much like Skype. We look forward to working with wi-tribe and support the growth of the internet ecosystem,” said Russ Shaw, Vice President and General Manager for Mobile, Skype.