Free group calls to Skype for all

Recently, Microsoft made Skype group calls absolutely free for everyone. Moreover, from now on there is no Skype Premium subscription, as reported on the official website:

Now that group video calling * is available to everyone for free, we have stopped providing Skype Premium. But do not worry, you can still make calls at favorable rates to anywhere in the world within our subscriptions.

Quite a smart decision, considering that the Google Hangouts group call service was free from the start. But I also want to draw your attention to the fact that Microsoft squeezed everything out of Skype Premium: instead of removing any billing of group calls a few months ago, the company first held a rally in anticipation of the 2014 New Year holidays.