Making its debut today at the DEMO technology conference, EQO Communications (pronounced "echo") announced the immediate availability of its EQO Mobile Internet Phone Service for Skype, a new offering that enables individuals to take their Skype buddy lists with them on their wireless phones. With the EQO Mobile Internet Phone Service, users can access Skype, view presence and availability of their buddies, and initiate and receive Skype calls from their mobile phone.

Using a combination of a phone-resident J2ME client and a carrier-grade standards-based signaling network, EQO bridges Skype to more than 150 million J2ME-capable mobile phones already in use worldwide. With more than 227 million downloads and tens of millions of active users, Skype is the dominant player in VoIP and Instant Messaging communications services worldwide. While the company has developed its technology to first work with Skype, EQO intends to extend peer-to-peer communications to mobile devices with other high-profile providers in the near future.

EQO expects its Mobile Internet Phone Service will have particular resonance for young adults and teens worldwide, who increasingly live online-centric lifestyles and communicate via instant messaging networks and within such communities as Yahoo!, MySpace and LavaLife.

"Too many people are disconnected from their online buddies when they leave the PC behind," said Bill Tam, CEO of EQO Communications, "Our goal is to allow the countless number of online communities worldwide to stay connected using mobile handsets and for users to, virtually, take their buddies with them."

Current supported devices include

Sony-Ericsson: D750, J300a, K500, K506, K508, K600, K608, K750, V600, W550, W600i, W800, W900, Z520a, Z800

Nokia: 3230, 3250, 6230, 6260, 6600, 6620, 6630, 6670, 6680, 6681, 6682, 7610, 8801, N70, N91

You may get the beta version at www.eqo.com