In the wake of the recent tragedies that rocked France to the core, a good few companies have provided free contact to and from the area to facilitate keeping tabs on loved ones who may have been affected. Skype and T-Mobile are joining that list for the remainder of this weekend on T-Mobile’s part and “for the next few days” via Skype.
T-Mobile customers will be able to enjoy free calls and texts to and from the United States and France. Normal long-distance and roaming charges will appear on customers’ bills, but will be accompanied by a corresponding credit. For now, this deal is only supposed to last until Monday, with no current mention of extending it out further. Presumably, this is just to ensure subscribers can check on friends and family in France and make sure they’re OK, or spend the day comforting them in the wake of witnessing such a horrible tragedy. Interestingly, it seems only postpaid customers will get the bill credit. There’s been no word on any efforts for prepaid customers.
Skype is also offering free calls to France using its service in the aftermath of the attacks. There wasn’t an exact date mentioned for the end of the promotion; only a roundabout “for a few days” was listed on their site. Skype has announced that this will exclude calls to non-geographical, special and premium numbers and that abuse of this outreach will result in your account being closed. If Skype is used over a metered connection, charges for the use of that connection will still apply. Aside from those restrictions, Skype users can call landlines and mobile numbers throughout France for free until the deal ends on an unspecified date. It is truly heartwarming to see the wireless industry, among others, gathering together in the wake of this tragedy to help everybody as much as is in their power. Naturally, one could argue that once the first company did it, anybody caught not doing so would suffer a serious PR blow, but even hardcore cynics would be hard-pressed to paint such humanitarian actions in a bad light considering recent events.