Skype, the global Internet communications company, Language Line Services, the world’s leading provider of language services, and Voxeo, the leading provider of standards-based Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and Voice-over-IP (VoIP) platforms, announced a joint solution that makes it easier than ever for businesses and individuals to communicate cost-effectively from English into more than 150 languages (www.languageline.com/skype). Using an innovative mix of Internet calling technology and world-class personal interpreter services, the revolutionary service gives Skype users the ability to talk instantly to anyone, anywhere in the world, at any time, regardless of language.

Skype subscribers can now – within seconds – be on the phone in an up to a five-way conversation with other Skype users and a live, professional Language Line Services interpreter. Whether for business or personal use, the Language Line® Personal Interpreter, pay-as-you-go service allows quick and easy access to highly skilled interpreters from English into over 150 languages. The most commonly requested languages include:

• Arabic
• Armenian
• Bengali
• Bosnian
• Cantonese
• Farsi
• French
• German
• Haitian Creole
• Hindi
• Hmong
• Italian
• Japanese
• Khmer
• Korean
• Mandarin
• Polish
• Portuguese
• Punjabi
• Russian
• Somali
• Spanish
• Tagalog
• Vietnamese

"Skype is committed to providing its millions of global customers with excellent service regardless of the languages they speak," said Saul Klein, vice president of marketing for Skype. "Language Line’s ‘Personal Interpreter’ service greatly enhances the Skype experience for our growing multilingual customer base. Our consumers can now use the Skype technology to easily communicate in the languages their customers and friends prefer to speak."

Language Line interpretation services over Skype can be made for only $2.99 USD per minute. The service is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Interpreter costs are automatically charged to the caller’s SkypeOut balance.

"Every day, virtually all of the Fortune 500 multinational corporations, and businesses of all sizes around the world, depend on Language Line Services to assist them in communicating with their customers in their own languages," said Louis Provenzano, Language Line Services senior vice president of sales and marketing. "Now, by using SkypeOut, this inexpensive service is available to individuals and small businesses from anywhere in the world, at a moment’s notice."

To provide a seamless interface to the Skype Network, Language Line Services has partnered with Voxeo Corporation. Language Line’s Personal Interpreter Service uses Voxeo’s Prophecy voice platform to automate the process of transferring the call from Skype to Language Line Services.

"Language Line’s ‘Personal Interpreter’ service demonstrates perfectly the power of VoIP platforms like Prophecy to change the way we communicate with each other, both personally and professionally," said Clegg Ivey, Voxeo’s vice president of operations and strategy. "This partnership works so well because Voxeo, Skype, and Language Line Services all share one simple goal: to reduce the barriers to global communication."

Language Line Services’ "Personal Interpreter Service" is available at www.languageline.com/skype.