Seeking a Level Four Skype Interconnection
Marcelo Rodriguez rounded up five products that connect Skype and SIP products in his post, Is a Skype-SIP Peace At Hand?
We all want interop, and these products are gaining loyal followings. They build audio pipes between SIP and Skype voice callers. We've been calling these Level Three Skype integration in our Skype Journal Connectivity Maturity Model.
- Availability and geopresence
- Mood messages
- Caller authentication
- Access to caller profiles
- Launching text chat or video in the same call
- File transfer and folder sharing
- Voice messaging
- Access to Skype voicemail
- Skype multichat and conferencing
- Broadband audio quality
- End-to-end encryption
- Chat/call permalinks
(e.g. skype:?chat&id=%23leedryburgh%2F%24evanwolf%3Bd5b446f89da627a3)
Skype Journal Connectivity Maturity Model
Level 0. No connection.
What's VoIP? What's Skype?
Level 1. Skype indifferent.
Devices doing nothing but input or output like the most basic of USB phones. On the software side, the only software is Skype.
Level 2. Skype aware.
Configurations are Skype-aware or Skype-smart devices, like the Kensington Vo300, the YapperNut YapperBox.
Level 3. Skype conversant.
Level 2, plus audio pipes between apps, especially across the SIP barrier. You call with your SIP phone, something happens in between, and my Skype phone answers.
The move from Skype to SIP at Level 3 costs you all the benefits of rich conversation. You lose:
Level 4. Skype equivalent.
Level 3, plus restoring most of the missing elements.
Does this model work for you? What's Level 5? What do you call it when the other system has capabilities beyond or different from Skype and you can't translate them?
Comments
Just this week a VOIP operator here in Brazil (Vono - www.vono.net.br) has revealed a beta function via their softphone client that allows phone conversations between their network (Vono) and Skype users. Vono users dial skypeusername#skype and reach the Skype user.
Posted by: Galileu | October 10, 2006 07:46 AM
you forgot to mention :
- www.wisecomtech.com
- www.spintronics.com
- www.zipcom.com.tw
Posted by: Jan Geirnaert | Tropicaljantie | October 10, 2006 10:14 AM
Nice article.
I think Gizmo Project is what I see "Skype-Equivalent" which you mentioned as Level-4.
Only problem for me, is yet to find any friends of mine who uses SIP. While some are as advanced as skype, a couple on Vonage, most are stuck with AIM/MSN/Yahoo IM & POTS/Cell phones. Too sad.
Posted by: Kazu | October 13, 2006 12:04 PM