Microsoft has completed its US$8.5 billion acquisition of Skype, officially bringing the Net telephony household name under its fold.

On October 13, Skype was formally inducted into the Redmond family as a separate division helmed by Skype CEO Tony Bates, who will report directly to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

In a media statement, Microsoft said the Skype division will continue to offer its current products to millions of users.

Over the longer term, Skype will also be integrated across Microsoft products to broaden Skype’s reach and accelerate its growth as a fundamental way people communicate online, Microsoft said.

Though Microsoft did not reveal what those integrations might be, products that could be bolstered by Skype include Bing, where users can call phone numbers in search results directly. Skype could also be integrated with the Xbox Live, Lync, Outlook as well as Windows Phone.

According to Gartner, a research firm, Skype would help Microsoft advance its consumer efforts and gain global communications capabilities without entering the regulated telco market. On the other hand, Skype can extend its VoIP presence into enterprises through Microsoft’s brands and consumer channels.

“Skype is a phenomenal product and brand that is loved by hundreds of millions of people around the world,” said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. “We look forward to working with the Skype team to create new ways for people to stay connected to family, friends, clients and colleagues — anytime, anywhere.”

Skype was first acquired by eBay in September 2005. eBay subsequently sold a 70 percent stake in Skype to an investment group led by Silver Lake in November 2009, after it failed to reap the synergies it had hoped for.

It is unclear if Microsoft would be able to stomach a Skype that had been slow to convert freeloaders to premium customers who would pay for call credits and online phone numbers. Last year, Skype recorded a net loss of US$7 million.

Skype employees will continue to be based in existing offices located in Estonia, the Czech Republic, Russia, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Luxembourg, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and the United States.

Facebook fired the latest salvo against Google yesterday when it announced a partnership with Skype to allow its users to make Skype video calls on the social network site.

The latest move by the Facebook marks the growing rivalry between the two internet giants in online social networking.

Earlier last week, Google unveiled its own social network, Google+ that includes a video calling feature called Google Hangouts.

Skype says the partnership with Facebook “makes fantastic business sense for Skype and gives us an unprecedented opportunity to offer Skype’s voice and video calling products to more than 750 million active users on Facebook.”

While Google Hangouts supports group video chats, Facebook’s Skype-powered Video Calling, which will be rolled out to users over the next few weeks, only allows one-on-one chatting.

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg hinted during the annoucement that multi-party calling could be available in future, though he noted that most video chats take place between two people, for now.

Besides Facebook and Skype, Microsoft, which is set to acquire Skype for US$8.5 billion, also stands to gain from this partnership.

By boosting usage of Skype among Facebook users, Microsoft could be paving the ground for adoption of products sporting Skype’s technology.

If you can’t wait to try out Facebook Video Calling, visit Facebook Videocall to give it a shot.

Video calls can be initiated directly from the Facebook Chat box. Or, click on a friend’s profile and if they are online, a Call button appears at the top right of the profile page. You can also leave video messages if calls are not answered.

All you need to do is sign up with an email address here, and Skype will give you a special voucher code in which you can claim your free 30 minute Skype voucher.

The fine print lists certain caveats though. It is only for the first million, and only one voucher per email address. The free 30 mins is based on a calculation of a single call to a landline at the rate of €0.02 per minute. Actual talk minutes will depend on actual destination.

Still this is a good freebie to take note, especially if you’re already on a Skype account. Happy Hari Raya folks!

The ash clouds from Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull have created air travel chaos all over Europe for the better part of almost a week and a half.

Things seem to be clearing up over southern Europe (for now), but if you’re one of the few unlucky ones still stuck in a transit airport or hotel around the world, at least here’s one small consolation: Free internet Wi-Fi access!

Skype is waiving internet access charges for Skype Access until the end of the week so that travellers can surf the net, check their email, and make free Skype-to-Skype calls at over 100,000 WiFi hotspots in airports and hotels worldwide.

From 1200hrs GMT on Wednesday 21st April to 2359hrs GMT on Friday 23rd April (0700hrs Saturday 24th April Singapore time), Skype Access will be completely free to use. Typically, Wi-Fi access is charged per minute using Skype Credit.

Skype Access is powered by Boingo through WiFi hotspot operators around the world, and a complete list can be found here.

And well, if your wedding plans are scuppered by the travel disruption, don’t fret. You might be inspired by what this couple did, and throw a wedding bash via Skype!

Singapore’s very own Net telephony provider Mediaring has an under-advertised service called Mediaring Talk which lets you call from your PC to any phone – both mobile and landline – in Australia, China, Singapore, UK, Canada, Taiwan, Hong Kong and USA – for ABSOLUTELY FREE.

It works just like Skype, you download the client to your PC, turn on the speakers and mic and start yakking away. We all know nothing is free in this world so Mediaring limits it to 10 minutes per call. But you can always make multiple calls of 10 minutes each.

So how is Mediaring gonna monetise this? Well for one, it hopes to make from the calls you make to other destinations that is not in the list of eight. Secondly, Mediaring has developed a special “skin” that integrates customised banner ads into the Mediaring Talk user interface and are charging advertisers – like SIA – $X for every mnute that a MediaringTalk user is connected to a call.

Nothing is really for free in this world, but who cares if you are saving big on your IDD bills in the meantime. The promotion is supposed to end this month, but the CEO of MEdiaring has assured me he will extend it for a long long time.