It is now possible to make Internet-based phone calls directly from your mobile phone, allowing great savings on the exorbitant international phone rates applied by most cell phone providers.

The new solution, which for now works only on Windows PCs, does not require any special hardware or adoption of a special mobile phone plan and it allows Internet phone users to call ordinary phone numbers, either traditional landlines or mobile phones, all over the world at local rates.

All that is required is that you have the free Internet phone software Skype installed on your PC, as well as an open SkypeOut account which allows Skype users to call any mobile or land line telephone number around the world.

The new service-software bundle creates a seamless bridge between your preferred land line or mobile phone and your SkypeOut account allowing you to dial local or international phone calls from your selected telephone device while being automatically routed through the Internet-based VoIP network.

The new service is called iSkoot and if you have a Windows PC it is rather straightforward to install and configure (a Mac version is expected soon).

iSkoot gives mobile access to users of the Skype Internet phone service, which enables phone calls over the Internet. iSkoot enables Skype users to make and receive Internet phone calls from any phone, not just at their PCs.

iSkoot offers you three main functions to enhance your Internet phone experience with mobile telephony:

• Automatically forwards VoIP calls from your PC to your mobile phone
• Calls your Skype contacts from your mobile phone
• Switches a VoIP call from your PC to your mobile phone without disconnecting

For now, iSkoot only supports the Skype VoIP service though support for AIM, Yahoo, and Microsoft services has also been announced as coming soon.

The key difference between using SkypeOut and iSkoot is that while with SkypeOut you can use your Skype account to call ordinary phone numbers all over the world, you are always physically tied to your computer. With iSkoot, you can instead call anyone’s phone number using Skype's VoIP service, but from any phone you want. A broadband Internet connection is obviously strongly recommended.

To make a call from your mobile phone when you are away from your computer, you need only to send a text message to dial@iskoot.com as the destination for the text message.

iSkoot offers a free 30-day trial of its service and its only requirements are that you are running Windows 2000 or XP with Skype version 1.3.0.57 or higher.

You can also buy an iSkoot yearly account for $ 9.95/month.