Start-up slashes cost of international wireless – Cambridge firm uses Skype technology to make cellphone calls

In just one year, computer users around the world have downloaded 140 million copies of the Skype program that lets them make free phone calls over the Internet to other Skype users.

Now a Kendall Square start-up is pushing Skype into a new frontier: cellphones. Through a $10-a-year software rental that goes on sale today, iSkoot promises to let people make international calls to other Skype users for nothing more than the price of local air time for the link from their cellphones to their broadband-connected home computers.

Just as Internet phone technology has slashed the price of making conventional landline long-distance calls and enabled unlimited calling for as little as $20 a month, the iSkoot technology could put pressure on still-exorbitant wireless international calling charges.

By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff

Full Story: http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2005/08/01/start_up_slashes_cost_of_international_wireless/