Skype, Hype and the new generation

I was at my friends house this week when her daughter, who is 11 years old and quite tech savvy, asked me about Skype. Her friend has it and would like to set it up on her mobile (she is on her third handset). I set an account up for her and ran through the basics.

She was positively surprised that she has this free phone network within a network and of course her network '3' (not '3G' as every single mobile phone shop worker seems to think it is) allows free Skype calls over their network on their handsets. Even on pay as you go.

Actually the Acceptable Usage Policy is 4000 minutes per month. My really poor maths tells me that's about 133 minutes over 30 days. I have never heard of anyone being notified of using the service too much either.

After the obligatory 'test' phase where I made a few random calls to 'check it works' , I got into thinking, After a reasonably aggressive campaign to promote Skype, why are youngsters not informed? I have a Skype phone, Skype on every computer I use and still have only a dozen friends or so. What's wrong with Skype?'.

You can Skype me the answer: gs_london

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