danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com> wrote in
news:g0l1dc$7ag$2@reader2.panix.com:

> Can they still pull that off given ebay purchased them?
>
I've never been charged a dime in addons and taxes.

Ebay holds controlling interest in Skype, the company. Just because Bill
Gates owns most of some water company on Tuvalu, that doesn't subject the
water company to American taxes and other ripoffs. Skype is not "pulling
off" anything. They are a legal, registered business in Luxembourg and
subject to its low taxes, in one of the richest countries on the planet.

>
> Just wondering... does skype interconnect to
> the Cuban, North Korean, and PSTNs ("regular phones")
> in the other countries the US pretends don't exist?

http://skype.com/prices/callrates/
These are rates w/o VAT (US)
Cuba is $1.025 to phones.
Korea Dem People's Rep $ 0.684
Check the huge list for rates to other places, many of whom most never
heard of. Skype is not limited by any US bureaucracy because it is not a
US company.

One of the misdialings I made on Skype resulted in a call to Hanoi. They
were very nice and said lots of Americans now come to Hanoi, mostly ex-
servicemen, and are very welcome in Hanoi without their weapons and jets.
Vietnam desparately needs the money.