Skype and Verizon announced a partnership Tuesday to bring a new application to nine of their Smartphone's, enabling its users to make international calls at Skype rates and call Skype users on PCs.

Under the deal, the Skype mobile software will be available on a variety of smartphones: RIM's BlackBerry Storm 9530, Storm2 9550, Curve 8330, Curve 8530, 8830 World Edition, and Tour 9630 and Motorola's Droid, Eris, and Devour.

This is an app that has been built collaboratively between Verizon and Skype from the ground up, said Verizon Wireless chief marketing officer John Stratton at the Mobile World Congress, according to PC Mag.

Customers will need to have a data plan to use the application. The app isn’t available as of now, but the companies say it will be out in late March.

Skype offers applications for iPhones and Android phones, but the data-access demands of voice chat have imposed compromises.

Future plans may include integrating Skype into FIOS TV or integrating Skype into Verizon's 4G LTE services, Stratton added.

There will be an array of service and devices that will come with [the LTE] launch, Stratton said.

There's exciting stuff that we'll be announcing with our partners at Skype at the time.

Software Microsoft