eBay's newly acquired Skype said it is working with Netgear on new products, including the first Skype wireless mobile telephone and a router equipped to optimize Skype. The Netgear Skype WiFi phone will work wherever a consumer is connected to a wireless Internet access point - in the home, office, cafe, open public hotspot, or any open municipal wireless access point.

The Skype experience remains the same, in that users can make free domestic and international calls, as well as host conference calls and chat, with other Skype users anywhere in the world, and to non-Skype users for a small fee. With this device, headphones or USB phones plugged into a laptop or PC are not required.

The Netgear phone is pre-loaded with Skype's software, ready out-of-the-box to use with a wireless network. All a user needs to do after turning on the phone is enter a Skype username and password. The Skype software pulls up the user's full contact list, displays the connection status on the phone screen, and allows the consumer to connect to any other Skype user for free. The phone will also allow users to connect to non-Skype users with the SkypeOut feature. More information on NETGEAR's Skype WiFi phone, including pricing and availability, is planned for the first quarter of 2006.

Skype and Netgear announced the new phone at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas on Wednesday.

Skype also announced a deal Wednesday with D-Link for a D-Link Skype USB phone adapter that allows consumers to use existing corded or cordless telephone to take advantage of Skype's free calling features. The adapter will cost $69.99 and will be available at skype.com/store and at the D-LinkShop (http://www.dlinkshop.com), as well as major U.S. retailers such as RadioShack and select retailers in Europe.

Skype also made announcements about agreements with other companies at the Consumer Electronics Show on Tuesday, including Panasonic and Kodak (http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m01/i04/s03).

http://www.skype.com

http://www.netgear.com