Skype, the very popular Internet telephony company, has signed its first agreement with a mobile operator, taking its low-cost services beyond the desktop and on to the road.

Skype will next month deliver flat-rate services to E-Plus, Germany's third largest mobile operator which has 9.8m subscribers. Skype said it is also working with handset manufacturers, including Motorola, to offer its services on devices.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has bought privately held company Teleo, with plans to integrate Teleo's service into Outlook and Internet Explorer for "click-to-call dialing" and to supplement VoIP in MSN Messenger.

Google also signalled its intention to become an internet phone-call player last week, with the beta release of GoogleTalk, a VoIP /instant messenger client.