However they did manage to find time to do selective interviews with Australian media in an effort to "Hype" a new service.  Skype which is Luxembourg-based Company - run by Kazaa founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis – is attempting to attract more Australia traffic by delivering a local VOIP service. To date no press releases have been issued despite executives of the Company claiming that the product is officially launched in Australia.

"We don't do marketing its all viral communication and we already have more than 200,000 local customers" said Hong Kong based Skype general manager for Asia Geoffrey Prentice. He added "We are working with a small Telco called Symbia to deliver a new Skype service in Australia called SkypeIn, which fully integrates Skype into traditional phone networks. SkypeIn users can buy an Australian phone number for an annual fee of $50, which allows incoming calls from mobile and fixed-line customers.

Prentice added" My focus is on building the business in Australia and while we have no presence in Australia we have launched a service". Skype which is owned by E Bay believes that they grow their business in Australia without an in Country presence an example they say is Brazil and Japan. The new service works in a way that if an Australian SkypeIn user is logged on to Skype while overseas, a local call to his Australian number will be automatically diverted to wherever he is without any overseas or long-distance charge to the caller. Users can have 10 numbers, resulting in people from 10 countries being able to call them at local-call rates.

And if Sype's local call business fails they cal always turn to ring tones after  the Company joined the burgeoning ringtone business this week announcing a deals with record labels EMI, Sony and Warner Music to sell song clips to customers for $1.50 each. The Internet telephone company owned by eBay will begin offering Madonna ring tones next week, with more artists slated to follow.

The ringtone business continues to flourish, raking in over $4.4 billion in 2005 alone. Skype hopes it can capitalise on the market by selling the clips to its more than 100 million users. However, unlike on their cell phones, Skype users can already import audio clips directly from their hard drives.