HispanicBusiness

Ebay Inc.'s Internet calling subsidiary Skype is pushing the business envelope, unveiling calling software for corporate phone systems on Monday, according to published reports.

Skype for SIP allows employees to make calls with their regular office telephones rather than using a headset plugged into a computer. SIP stands for Session Initiation Protocol, a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) utilized on many business telephony networks.

According to Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal, the charges are 2.1 cents per minute for calls made to cellular phones and landlines, and free for calls made from computers to other Skype networks. A beta version is available today and the software will be fully launched later this year, the journal reported.

San Jose, Calif.-based eBay acquired Skype in 2005, and it has been considered one of the best VoIP systems on the market. However, competition heated up when Google Inc. last week announced technology/headlines/2009/3/12/google_voice_takes_on_telecom_voip.htm">Google Voice, the latest version of a phone system previously known as GrandCentral. Google Voice's new features include transcripts, international calling and conference calling.

Although most of Skype's users are consumers, the Wall Street Journal reports that about 35 percent of Skype's customers use the service for business reasons. The company said it has 405 million users worldwide, with 276 million of them regular users of its service.

Skype's business package will include the ability for companies to put a "click-to-call" button on their Web sites, PCWorld reported. Calls made from the site will be routed to the companies' PBX systems. Companies may also purchase phone numbers from Skype.