Wireless carrier 3 recently announced the introduction of the high-end Nokia N97 to its offering. The UK operator already has the phone available for purchase since last week. The news might not be as interesting as it seems for some, yet those who are not yet aware of this should know that the operator has the N97 available with free Skype-to-Skype calls, which taps into the handset's pre-loaded Skype functionality.

As many of you might already know, not all operators agree with VoIP, yet 3 seems to be one of those who do. “As with all of 3's Skype-enabled phones, making Skype-to-Skype calls on N97s using this application in the UK won't cost consumers a penny,” the mobile phone carrier says. In other words, those who like Skype a lot can now enjoy it freely on the Nokia N97 available on 3.

When it comes to the price tag of the high-end device, we should say that it can be purchased for free upon the signing of a contract agreement with the carrier with a plan that starts at £35 per month. At the same time, the Nokia N97 is also available for purchase for the operator's pay-as-you-go customers, which will have to pay somewhere around £319 to get it.

The deal doesn't sound too bad, especially given the fact that N97 seems to be the best handset coming from the Finnish mobile phone maker this year. The device will offer users a large touchscreen display, a side sliding QWERTY keypad, HSDPA and HSUPA connectivity, a 5-megapixel photo snapper, Symbian S60 as the operating system, and much more.

The Nokia N97 box on 3 will include: the N97 handset, Nokia Battery BP-4L, Nokia High Efficiency Charger AC-10, Nokia Connectivity Cable CA-101, Stylus (attached to lanyard hole), Stereo Headphone + remote control, Nokia Video-Out Cable CA-75U, DVD-ROM (Nokia NseriesPC Suite) and Nokia Charger Adapter CA-146. More details can be found here.