BENTONVILLE Ark. — Starting this week, Wal-Mart Stores is offering pre-paid cards for Internet voice and video calling services in the U.S. from Skype, an Internet communications company based in San Jose, Calif., the companies said. Wal-Mart is also offering Skype hardware and will have the products in 1,800 of its 3,800 stores throughout the country. “The Skype hardware and pre-paid cards are a great fit with Wal-Mart because they offer long-term money-saving solutions at the right time for many customers — parents, grandparents, college students and military families,” said Kevin O’Connor, vice president and general merchandise manager, Wal-Mart Electronics. According to the Telecommunications Industry Association, Arlington, Va., 9.9% of all landlines in the U.S. were Voice over Internet Protocol [VoIP] lines in 2006, and this will rise to 34.1% by 2010. In addition, Skype is the No. 1 software-based VoIP application in the U.S. by market share, according to a March 2007 report by In-Stat. Skype is +owned by eBay, also in San Jose.

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