I also live in Australia and use Whatsapp all the time. Skype is way too heavyweight. Facebook ... I do not trust facebook at all, and do not wish to tie up my messaging capabilities with them.

> Also, everyone I know wouldn't pay for a communications protocol, no matter how good it is.

Dude, it's a dollar. One dollar. That's your contribution to the infrastructure that is handling 27 billion messages a day.

Was your phone free? Are your phone calls and SMS free? Is anything else in life free? I don't get it.