Lure of free Skype calls to NZ firms

Blair Glubb

Users of internet calling service Skype have three months of free calls to New Zealand businesses under a deal with Yellow Pages.

Yellow Pages online listings will be available in Skype's directory service and links on yellow.co.nz will connect Skype users to business land lines for free - normally a 4c-per-minute call.

Yellow Pages Group, formerly part of Telecom until its sale in 2007, is increasingly focused on its digital businesses, including online business directory Yellow.

Yellow director Blair Glubb said the tie-up with Skype was designed to get the best possible return on investment for advertisers and make it easier for people to contact New Zealand businesses.

When questioned about who would use Skype rather than a regular phone service to call a Yellow pages number, Glubb said he was convinced it would be a popular option among Skype users.

"If people are used to using Skype to do their calling, it's just going to be an easy thing for them to do at home," said Glubb.

"Our expectation is the uptake of it is going to be really quite big."

He said the trial would assess demand for the Skype hook-up, but the expectation would be to continue if it worked well.

"Online is obviously a huge part of the future of our business, and a huge part of what we want to do as a business is take the information and the content that we've got and actually distribute it far more broadly," said Glubb.

"Skype is one thing, and I think it will be an interesting trial, but essentially the future for us is actually taking the information we've got and pushing it out via a whole bunch of channels."