Getting people to pay for something that they are used to getting for free is nearly impossible. The newspaper industry is finding that out the hard way as it tries to get people to pay for online content.

Skype, the voice-over-IP product owned by Ebay (EBAY), has several hundred million registered customers. At any one time 15 million or 20 million of those people are online using the service.

Since Skype does not bring in much money for a business with such a large roster of customers, it is going to try to enter the corporate phone market where paying for phone service is the norm.

According to The Wall Street Journal, “Skype plans to announce a version of its Internet calling software that connects to corporate phone systems.” The product will cost about two cents a minute.

The trouble with the offering is that corporations already use Skype for free. To do that requires hooking the service up on a PC, by 99% of businessmen have a PC, so using Skype on a computer is not a major hurdle.

Skype also faces a market where large telephone companies offer sharp discounts to keep corporate customers from moving to other providers. Regular phone service is probably not much more expensive than the Skype product.

Leaving those few things aside, Skype has a great idea.

Douglas A. McIntyre

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