Skype has released SILK, its latest codec that greatly improves voice quality on all Skype calls. The other good news is that this codec is being distributed for free and is already available on Skype 4.0. Skype's GM, Jonathan Christensen, is quoted as saying "the company will make the new codec available for anyone to use for any purpose without license fees or restrictions."

Industry experts have described the improvement in voice quality as being "enormous". Skpe describes SILK as offering "super wideband" at a sampling of 24 KHz and if one juxtaposes this to the PSTN sample at a mere 8 KHz, the impact of the latest codec becomes clearer.