Voice phone calls to be free within years: eBay CEO

Executives at SBC, Verizon, BellSouth and elsewhere are feelin' a bit queasy; Meg Whitman, eBay's chief executive, predicted Wednesday that in a few short years, consumers can expect to make telephone calls for free, with no per-minute charges, as part of a package of services through which carriers make money on advertising or transaction fees. Perhaps not coincidentally, Whitman was defending eBay's purchase of Skype which allows high-speed Internet users to make free phone calls. The company is betting that by combining electronic markets, online payment systems and Web-based communications, eBay can emerge as a leader in all three businesses.
[SOURCE: Reuters]
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2005-10-20T194855Z_01_SCH009971_RTRUKOC_0_US-TELECOMS-EBAY-SKYPE.xml&...

* OK, I was kidding about SBC... SBC sees little challenge to its traditional telephone business from services such as Skype that offer free phone calls over the Internet, SBC's chief financial officer said on Thursday. "I don't see it as a significant threat," SBC CFO Rick Lindner said in an interview with Reuters. "The fears of what may happen there are overblown."
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2005-10-20T204510Z_01_BAU074680_RTRUKOC_0_US-TELECOMS-SBC-SKYPE.xml