The Washington Post reports that Skype will introduce a plan that lets customers pay $30 per year for unlimited SkypeOut dialing to US and Canadian phone numbers. The rate has been 2.1 cents per minute, but for most of 2006, the calls have been free as part of a promotion to entice more customers to try SkypeOut. For anybody who expects to make SkypeOut calls within the US and Canada exceeding about 30 hours (which would be just about anybody using Skype as their business phone, as I do), this is a good deal.

The free dialing deal has been available in other countries, but no flat fee is planned outside the US and Canada when those promotions end with the new year.