Following Skype's announcement yesterday with mobile phone operator 3, Skype has announced today the launch of "high quality" video with the help of Logitech.

Skype hope that the new offering will challenge professional video conferencing packages for free.

The new "HQ" video setting will bump up the quality of the video from 320 x 480 to 640 x 480 making it possible to perform full screen video conferencing.

However users will need a dual-core processing chip and a broadband connection to benefit from the new technology.

The new offering will be available in version 3.6 of Skype, which is currently in Beta, but due for release in November.

However users looking to use the new HQ feature on other webcam's will be disappointed. The new software will only work with three of Logitech's high-end webcams.

"We wanted to blow people away, so it was a natural choice to work with Logitech", a spokesman for Skype told Pocket-lint.

The software will only be available to Windows users.