Skype hits 100 billion minutes online

Online telecommunications company Skype has clocked up 100 billion minutes worth of free Skype-to-Skype call, iTWire reports.

Skype provides telephony services via the internet, allowing free calls between Skype users and low cost calls by Skype users to conventional phones.

Predictions have varied about Skype’s prospects since it was founded in 2003, with some forecasting the imminent demise of traditional telephony and others seeing it as little more than a flash in the pan.

But having passed the 100 billion minute mark, not to mention 276 million registered users, it’s probably safe to say that Skype has at least carved a niche for itself in the communication sector.

Skype’s Villu Arak doesn’t seem to quite know what to make of the whole thing. “This figure is so mind-numbingly large that it’s nigh impossible to wrap my head around it,” he says.