Wi Fi provider Tomizone makes deal with Skype

Steve Simms. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Local wireless internet provider Tomizone has partnered with Skype to promote the global giant's new web access product to New Zealand users.

The Auckland company has about 20,000 Wi-Fi hotspots across New Zealand, Australia, China, India and the Pacific, as well as sales support in Bangalore, Beijing and Sydney.

It has joined forces with Skype to promote Skype's new software.

For one week from today, users will be able to download the Skype software and surf the web at Tomizone's wireless portals free.

Tomizone chief executive Steve Simms said he hoped the service would remain free after the promotion ended as it would make Skype's voice and video calls to other Skype accounts completely free from Tomizone access points.

Simms said users making calls from Skype accounts to landlines or mobiles needed to buy Skype credits but calling through the internet was much cheaper than using telephones.

When travelling he used Skype's iPhone application to make international calls because it cost cents per minute opposed to dollars on other networks.

"Skype will become a natural way for people to search the internet."

Simms said the collaboration between the two companies would "open up the internet gateway" and make people more aware of the hundreds of wireless zones available across New Zealand, especially in the cities.

Millions of businesses and individuals use Skype every day to make free video and voice calls, send instant messages and share files with other users.

About 23 million users are logged into Skype accounts at any given time.

The software is available in 29 languages in almost every country in the world.

In the first quarter of 2010, about 37 per cent of Skype's 142 million users said they used the service for business purposes.