Starting today, Skype is setting out to make travel a little more pleasant this holiday season by offering a free hour of Internet access to third-party wireless hotspots within the Skype WiFi hotspot footprint in select airports across the U.S. From December 21st thru December 27th, travelers passing through or delayed in over 50 airports across the U.S. will be able to access third-party hotspots using Skype WiFi and connect with loved ones via a Skype video or voice call for free. Unfortunately, this free service requires Skype WiFi which is only available to travelers on PCs, Macs and iOS 8iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad) devices.

To get started, users have to downloaded the latest version of Skype for Windows or Skype for Mac or have downloaded the Skype WiFi app on your iOS device; unfortunately Skype WiFi for Android is not yet available and it seems Skype's latest client for Android isn't good enough to sign-in with a valid Skype ID and check the wireless network connection to see if in a supported hotspot. Also, even if Skype is now owned by Microsoft, there's still no Windows Phone 7 client released nor is it part of the Windows Phone OS yet.

Cheers ~ Arne