Skype announced it is launching the long anticipated Group Video Calling feature for individual and enterprise subscribers. Aimed for groups of 3 or more, the feature is offered as a part of Skype’s premium package available for $8.99 per month.

“Group video calling is also available in the new Business version of Skype, a desktop application for PCs, which gives enterprises the ability to control how Skype is used within the workplace, with the capacity to turn off or configure a variety of Skype settings.”

Enterprises that would sign-up 3 or 12 months subscriptions as well as Group Calling are offered incentives in the form of related hardware discounts – the same is true for individuals. Group Video Calling is supported only by version 5.0 and up. To initiate it however, the user who starts the group call needs to have version 5.1 or above installed on their PC.

In addition to offering yet another incentive for users to upgrade their software, Skype is tapping a very big market it hasn’t before – anyone who’s interested in video calling more than 2 people simultaneously. Skype reports video calling accounted 41.5% of all Skype-to-Skype minutes, meaning it already has a user base to tap into with its beta Group Video Calling feature.