ZOL continues to be an innovative and pioneering ISP. Check out this letter they sent to their clients this week:

Here is a quick tip from ZOL that can save you up to 90% on your phone bill and get cheap Intenational phone calls and SMS messages. You can even get a UK or USA landline number that rings on your computer in Zimbabwe! And to make it really easy to top up your Skype account, ZOL is now selling $5 and $10 Skype recharge cards.

If you haven’t heard of Skype (www.skype.com) you are about to enter a new world! If you have, then are you aware of all the features including cheap calls to phones worldwide, cheap SMS, foreign landline numbers ringing in Zimbabwe and the ablity to set your caller ID to your cell number? To get the best from Skype you need a Broadband connection. However, Skype does work over a good quality dialup connection.

Skype is a global communications company, bought by eBay in 2005 for US$2.5 billion, that uses highly advanced encryption and compression technology to route voice and text communications over a global peer-to-peer network to effectively reduce the cost of phone calls to zero in many cases.

Skype-to-Skype calls and text are always FREE. However to make outbound calls to regular phones costs a fraction of the price of existing providers. More importantly ZOL has convinced a company in the US to sell Skype recharge cards in Zimbabwe. Topping up Skype has always been difficult for Zimbabweans - but this has changed! It’s now as easy as topping up your cell phone. Just buy a recharge card at one of our offices or payment points.

Undoutedly the most exciting feature of Skype is that you can set your caller ID to your Zimbabwean cell number! This means you can call and SMS from Skype, at a huge discount, and the other party will see it coming from your Zimbabwean cell number - so they can call or SMS you back just as if you used your cell phone!

When viewing Skype rates please look at “excluding VAT” prices as this refers to European VAT and not payable if you live outside the EU.

Skype has a Global Rate of just 2.1 cents per minute to landlines in 30 countries - including most of Europe, Asia, North America, Israel and Australia. www.skype.com/prices/callrates/#globalRateTab You just cannot beat International phone calls at 2.1 cents a minute and certainly highlights the profit margin of some carriers!

For a flat fee of $12.95 per month you get UNLIMITED calling to 30 countries in the world and for $30 per year more you also get an incoming phone number that can be based in one of 20 countries, including Europe or the USA. This means your friends and family living outside Zimbabwe can call you for free. Learn more about this great deal here www.skype.com/allfeatures/subscriptions/rowworld/

To see a full list of all call rates check www.skype.com/prices/callrates/#allRatesTab Some highlights on per minute rates: South Africa 6.8 cents, Zimbabwe 8.9 cents, Zambia 11.6 cents, and of course the “global rate” for most developed countries is just 2.1 cents.

SMS rates are even more exciting: Zimbabwe is just 7.7 cents, South Africa 11.6 cents. USA 11.2 cents. All SMS rates are here www.skype.com/prices/smsrates/?currency=USD

So how do you get started? If you are already on the Internet, you are ready to go. Here are the steps:

1. Visit www.skype.com and download the Skype application
2. Install Skype and choose a username
3. Visit a ZOL office or payment point and buy a Skype voucher for $5 or $10
4. Top up your account and start saving!

Please reply to this email if you have questions or need help. If you wish to resell Skype recharge vouchers in your shop or cafe please reply to this email. These cards are being sold at face value - there is no profit in selling the cards and ZOL makes no profit. We are simply helping make it easy to top up Skype.

Best Regards
The ZOL Crew