Why Skype won't save my mobile phone bills

I'm in the great position of being able to walk around my home making and receiving Skype calls on my mobile cell-phone for FREE (well, almost). How fantastic! I can do this because:

a. Skype is available for my model of mobile phone (an iMate JAM)
b. My mobile phone also has WiFi capabilities
c. I have broadband internet and WiFi in my home

So, the combination of a mobile phone, the internet, WiFi and Skype (or any VoIP) suddenly gives me this great ability to communicate with friends and family, using my mobile phone, but without incurring mobile phone charges. This is nice, but the potential for this combination gets much bigger when I step out of my home...

WiFi hot spots are popping up all over the place in the UK. Surely I'll be able to take advantage of cheap-as-chips phone calls from Starbucks, shopping centers and many other places?

Hmmm, apparently someone isn't too keen on this idea. As soon as I want to access Starbucks or an airport, I'm asked to pay BIG FEES. For example, an hour of WiFi access at Copenhagen airport cost me £5.50. £5.50! This is extortionate! My household broadband bill works out at £0.03 per hour. So, why am I being asked to pay £5.50 per hour to use the Copenhagen broadband connection?

I suspect this is because the big telecomms giants have it all worked out. I think it is them who install and profit from most of the WiFi hotspots. It would seem that they've anticipated the VoIP mobile revolution, and are working hard to make sure that even if we don't pay for as many mobile phone calls, we pay equally high fees for VoIP via WiFi.

Of course, this is all guesswork and suspicion talking. I had just hoped that in this age of communication, WiFi + Internet could make talking a very cheap thing. If this is to happen, I think someone has to knock the big telecomms giant out of the WiFi Hot Spot game. Otherwise buying WiFi access time is going to be just like buying Mobile Phone time. In fact, seeing the BT Openzone price list confirms this is how they want it to be!

http://www.btopenzone.com/buy/index.jsp

WiFi now has per-minute billing, vouchers, top-up accounts, monthly subscriptions... Does this sound familiar!?