Not satisfied with just capturing the hearts of everyday consumers, Skype will offer SIP trunks to attract more enterprise users. In a partnership with SBC and Acme Packet, Skype opens this beta program to enterprises that wish to save money and provide employees with a familiar VoIP client to communicate at work. The offering won’t support video yet, but we all know Skype excels in its wideband audio codec. Eventually video will be supported for sure.

Sorell Slaymaker writes about the immediate values with SIP trunks:

1. International Customer Calls–Supporting toll free internationally is expensive and difficult, especially for customers who call a lot. Skype offers a simple click to call application that any company can add to its web site. When a customer wants to talk with the company, they hit the click to call app, enter some information, then wait for a call. This gives the enterprise the ability to find the right resource and the right network to most efficiently and effectively interact with the customer.

2. Interaction with Colleagues–For conference calls of just a few people, where some of the people are offsite, Skype works well. If connectivity is not robust, colleagues understand. Most users with decent Internet access find Skype “good enough”.

3. Airplanes–As WiFi becomes available on more airplanes, users will demand voice communication, even if the quality is poor.

But for a good and updated read about this offering, check out Dan York’s post about this.