Skype Doubling Connection Fees

If you use Skype to make international calls, be warned that starting Sunday, you’ll be paying more for the service.

According to Wired, Skype is raising its international connection rate from 3.9 cents per minute to 7.9 cents per minutes for most countries.

he connection fee remains 3.9 cents for calls to so-called Global Rate Countries, a selection of countries that includes Germany, the U.K. and the United States. Calls to those countries cost 2.1 cents per minute after the first minute, which will cost 6 cents in total.

Skype is doubling the rates as part of a normal process of looking at prices and making any necessary adjustments, according to a Skype spokesman, who points out that Skype subscribers won’t see a price increase, and Skype-to-Skype calls remain free. The rate change was quietly announced on a hard-to-find page on Skype’s site.

“It’s not just about price, it’s about value,” a Skype spokesman told Wired.com, citing Skype’s free audio and video calls and its new “ultra-wideband” audio codec — which delivers high-quality sound using less bandwidth.