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Comment by iamdave | Hacker News Reader

I'm intensely curious who's pulling the strings behind this, is Skype really to blame or is it the mobile carriers putting pressure on them to collect more ARPU by creating yet another fee to collect from subscribers.

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Skype was sold for multiple billions of dollars. The purchasing group must have seen some untapped opportunity to generate revenue that eBay was not able to effectively address. So, I think its realistic to think that this turn of events is tied to the purchasing group's revenue strategy, and not carrier action.

With that said, if this ends up only applying to AT&T, and not other countries iPhone apps, then its clear who's to blame. I didn't see anything in the article that noted this was limited to AT&T.

my bet is on the mobile carriers putting pressure on them, especially AT&T. The last I checked, Skype was still plenty free for Verizon. In fact, it seemed like Verizon and Skype took time to make sure their system worked wonderfully together, forcing local calls to go through Verizon themselves, international to have the option of going through Skype, and Skype to Skype going through a special phone number. In fact, I just tested Skype on my Motorola Droid on Verizon's service. It works wonderfully and said nothing of a soon ending of the free service.

If it was the carriers, Skype had all the hand--no one wants to hear that their carrier wants to make you pay more money. They could have announced that carriers were looking for ways to try and get you to pay but that Skype told them they wouldn't play ball. Instant win.

This stinks of a money grab on Skype's behalf.

Most, if not all pay-as-you-go plans have an expiration date.

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