Chris Libertelli:

“Skype is encouraged by today’s FCC vote, which is an excellent first step and an endorsement of our Carterfone position for ‘open’ wireless devices and applications.

We appreciate the Commission’s enforcement approach, which places the burden on the carriers to demonstrate they comply with Carterfone. We look forward to working with the Chairman and the Commissioners to make Carterfone a reality for consumers.”

Meg Whitman:

"eBay is encouraged by today’s FCC vote establishing 'openness' principles for wireless services in the context of the upcoming spectrum auction. We believe that ensuring greater choice for wireless devices and applications is a very positive development and we are very pleased that "Carterfone" principles are now part of the Commission’s spectrum policy. We will continue to work with the Commission to make openness a guiding principle throughout the broadband Internet access marketplace."

Full text below...

SKYPE APPLAUDS FCC’S VOTE SUPPORTING WIRELESS INTERNET “OPENNESS”

WASHINGTON, July 31, 2007 – Christopher Libertelli, Skype’s senior director of Government and Regulatory Affairs today backed support of “openness” for the wireless Internet and in a statement said “Skype is encouraged by today’s FCC vote, which is an excellent first step and an endorsement of our Carterfone position for ‘open’ wireless devices and applications.

We appreciate the Commission’s enforcement approach, which places the burden on the carriers to demonstrate they comply with Carterfone. We look forward to working with the Chairman and the Commissioners to make Carterfone a reality for consumers.”

This statement came following today’s Federal Communication Commission’s 700 MHz auction vote, a proceeding in which Skype reiterated its support for ‘open wireless internet services’ based on the landmark 1968 Carterfone decision. The FCC vote today establishes the rules for the upcoming 700 MHz auction scheduled to begin in January of 2008 and marks the culmination of the FCC’s proceeding.

In February of 2007, Skype filed a petition with the FCC to confirm a consumer’s right to use Internet communications software and attach devices to wireless networks. This petition sought to unlock the benefits of wireless price competition and innovation, while ensuring that consumers would retain a right to run the applications of their choosing and attach all non-harmful devices to any wireless network. The petition has subsequently gained support from consumer groups, high-tech industry trade associations, entrepreneurs and more than 4,000 individual consumers.

eBAY SUPPORTS "OPENNESS" PRINCIPLES FOR WIRELESS INTERNET

SAN JOSE, CA, July 31, 2007 – Meg Whitman, President and CEO of eBay Inc. today backed support of "openness" for the wireless Internet and in a statement said, "eBay is encouraged by today’s FCC vote establishing 'openness' principles for wireless services in the context of the upcoming spectrum auction. We believe that ensuring greater choice for wireless devices and applications is a very positive development and we are very pleased that "Carterfone" principles are now part of the Commission’s spectrum policy. We will continue to work with the Commission to make openness a guiding principle throughout the broadband Internet access marketplace."

This statement came following the FCC 700 MHz auction vote today, a proceeding in which Skype reiterated its support for ‘open wireless internet services’ based on the Federal Communication Commission’s landmark 1968 Carterfone decision. The FCC vote today establishes the rules for the upcoming 700 MHz auction scheduled to begin in January of 2008 and marks the culmination of the FCC’s proceeding.

In February of this year, Skype filed a petition with the FCC to confirm a consumer’s right to use Internet communications software and attach devices to wireless networks.

This petition sought to unlock the benefits of wireless price competition and innovation, while ensuring that consumers would retain a right to run the applications of their choosing and attach all non-harmful devices to any wireless network. The petition has subsequently gained support from consumer groups, high-tech industry trade associations, entrepreneurs and more than 4,000 individual consumers.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 07:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The FCC votes today.

UPDATE 3: Gigi Sohn of Public Knowledge writes: "It voted to require just two of the four open access conditions; open devices and open applications."

UPDATE 2: FCC voted FOR "Open Networks" and enforcement of Carterfone on the C-block part of the spectrum. YES to "Open Applications" (any software) and "Open Devices" (any gadget). NO to "Open Services" (wholesaling of bandwidth). YES on Public Safety provisions.

I've avoided writing about the Google wireless-net-neutrality and Skype Carterfone FCC issues. So much is at stake, today's vote shaping America's wireless communication environment, our civil liberties, public safety, and the competitiveness or our economy. I'm also reluctant since he language of telecom regulation is new to me.

Fact is, it scares my pants off. AT&T and its kin want to control access to Internet content the way cable companies choose what stations you see.

For all you global Skype Journal readers, this is an American story. Our strange politics are never more complicated, intricate or involved than at the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. The FCC regulates U.S. broadcast television and telecommunication.

So let's put this into two parts:

• a recap of recent events (Skype and Google advocating for consumer freedoms) and
• what we can do (short term support, longer term 'delamination').

The short version of the story so far:

1. The Big Bundle. Nearly all US mobile phone service comes bundled with a phone and a multi-year contract.

   • Because of this the average American must wait for two years to upgrade, unlike Japan and parts of China where many people buy new phones a few times every year.

   • The phones provided are often crippled, removing features.

   • Mobile phone companies don't compete on service and price, but on the bundle of service, price, and subsidized hardware.

2. February 2007 - Skype Carterfone. Skype's Chris Libertelli filed the five page "Carterfone Petition" 20 February 2007. ("Petition to Confirm a Consumer’s Right to Use Internet Communications Software and Attach Devices to Wireless Networks, RM-11361" pdf).

   • It asked the FCC to adopt a policy that anyone could attach anything to any mobile/wireless network so long as that thing does not hurt the network. So you can buy your phone and your service separately. So you may keep your phone when you switched services.

   • "Carterfone" was a similar ruling from the 1960s. It allows you to plug any phone into a landline, so long as you do not hurt the network. It worked well, created new technologies, new markets and didn't hurt the phone companies at all.

   • The FCC promptly posted Skype's petition for public comment.

3. Comment came.

   • Lots. I killed my inkjet printing out hundreds of pages pro and con. I still haven't read all the reams. You could tell the citizen comments (a few sentences or paragraphs, often with typos) from the lobbyists for Skype-Carterfone and the Google-Four-Conditions (a few, succinct pages) from the lobbyists representing the status quo (between white paper to novella length, with tables, charts, footnotes, citations of precedent, and a unique blend of FCCish, managementspeak, and dogma).

   • Love it, Hated it.

     • Citizens who want unlocked phones: Freedom to shop, please.

     • Companies that stand to gain: This will be a boon to our free market system, a thousand innovations will bloom, make us competitive in the world, the consumer can only gain.

     • Companies that stand to lose: Don't mess with the cash flow that builds our national telecom infrastructure. Wireless Carterfone will cut spectrum value, costing taxpayers. Some of these were extraordinarily detailed and long, serious money spent on consultants. Many appealed to laissez faire doctrine, essentially telling the FCC that it was incapable of regulating without hurting consumers or industry.

   • Lobbyists too. Complete with astroturf and distortions.

   • You can "vote" for or against Skype's FCC petition. Reference proceeding number RM-11361 here and show your support with your comment. Be sure to sign your comments.

4. Friends showed up to fight the wireless walled garden. Google. Some phone makers. Civil rights, consumer groups, and Net Neutrality groups. The fight moves from D.C. to mainstream media.

• On a recent Forum, a public radio talk show, Skype's Chris Libertelli and Craig Aaron, communications director for Free Press, took on Declan McCullagh, senior writer for news.com on CNET, and Joe Farren, assistant vice president for public affairs at CTIA, The Wireless Association. Download (MP3)
  
  "Farren contended that the upcoming spectrum auction is being rigged to favor Google, calling it "Silicon Valley welfare." Phone calls from listeners to the show uniformly favored upholding net neutrality." - John Dorsey

• Google calls for Four Conditions (reminding me of Roosevelt's Four Freedoms). Eric Schmidt pledges Google to meet the auction's $4.6 billion reserve price if the FCC orders:

1. Open applications: Consumers should be able to download and utilize any software applications, content, or services they desire;

2. Open devices: Consumers should be able to utilize a handheld communications device with whatever wireless network they prefer;

3. Open services: Third parties (resellers) should be able to acquire wireless services from a 700 MHz licensee on a wholesale basis, based on reasonably nondiscriminatory commercial terms; and

4. Open networks: Third parties (like internet service providers) should be able to interconnect at any technically feasible point in a 700 MHz licensee’s wireless network.

5. Wholesale wireless Internet, please. Google asked for one more thing: compel whoever gets this new spectrum to become a common carrier, letting others buy bandwidth and resell it.

David Weinberger writes that we must take a much bigger step: Delaminate the Bastards! Net Neutrality is necessary but not sufficient.

Peel apart the layers like a piece of rotting plywood.

The first layer will be for companies that want to provide access to the Internet. We'll pay them to let us attach a computer, cell phone or any other device — even a Princess Phone, once we get it all VoIPed up — to the Internet and begin to send and receive bits. As many bits as we want. All bits treated equally. The companies can compete over price, bandwidth, uptime, and other properties of the network.

The upper layer will be for companies that want to provide content and services using the Internet.

The health of these two layers is reciprocal: Customers will use more bits because there are more services and content available to them in the next layer. There will be more services and content because the market now has lots of bandwidth, enough to handle new types of applications.

This is exactly the business architecture our economy, democracy and culture are thirsting for. We want to have companies competing to sell us more, better, faster access to the connected world. We want the services and the content — the things we can do, the ideas we can discuss — to grow like a crazy, bottom-up Renaissance.

This is the business architecture we'd have come up with if we had implemented the Internet from scratch. It mirrors the Internet's own architecture. It is the only one that removes the temptations to turn the Internet into cable TV.

David vs. Goliath? or Henry Ford vs. Buggy Makers?

Skype's news release and Skype's latest filing to Chairman Martin follow.

PRESS STATEMENT:

SKYPE REITERATES SUPPORT FOR “OPENNESS” PRINCIPLES FOR WIRELESS INTERNET

WASHINGTON, July 10, 2007 – In a letter filed with the FCC today, Skype reiterated its support for ‘open wireless internet services’ based on the Federal Communication Commission’s landmark 1968 Carterfone decision. The filing takes place just one day prior to a hearing before the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet on the subject of ‘Wireless Innovation and Consumer Protection.’

“Skype is encouraged by various reports suggesting that the Chairman of the FCC is seriously considering ‘openness’ principles for wireless services in the context of the upcoming spectrum auction,” said Christopher Libertelli, Skype’s senior director of Government and Regulatory Affairs. “We look forward to working with the Chairman, the other Commissioners and the Commission's staff to ensure that Carterfone principles identified in our Petition become part of the Commission’s final rules.”

In February of this year, Skype filed a petition with the FCC to confirm a consumer’s right to use Internet communications software and attach devices to wireless networks. This petition sought to unlock the benefits of wireless price competition and innovation, while ensuring that consumers would retain a right to run the applications of their choosing and attach all non-harmful devices to any wireless network. The petition has subsequently gained support from consumer groups, high-tech industry trade associations, entrepreneurs and more than 4,000 individual consumers.

About Skype

Skype sets conversations free by providing new and easy ways to stay in touch over the internet. Millions of people every day make free Skype-to-Skype voice and video calls and send instant messages using our software. Some pay a little per minute for long-distance and international calls to phones and mobiles and for SMS, voicemail and call forwarding, or they buy subscriptions that give unlimited calls nationwide.

We certify and sell hundreds of hardware products from more than 50 partners and work with third-party developers to create software to extend Skype’s functionality. Skype has been downloaded more than half a billion times and over 196 million people from almost every corner of the globe have registered. Skype is an eBay company (NASDAQ: EBAY), and you can learn more and get Skype at www.skype.com.

Access to a broadband Internet connection is required for Skype and all Skype Certified devices and accessories. Skype is not a replacement for your traditional telephone service and cannot be used for emergency calling.

Skype, SkypeIn, SkypeOut, Skype Me, Skype Certified, Skypecasts, associated logos and the “S” symbol are trademarks of Skype Limited.

Skype Communications Sarl
15 rue Notre Dame,
L-2240 Luxembourg
www.skype.com

July 10, 2007

ELECTRONIC FILING

Chairman Kevin J. Martin
Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20554

Re: Service Rules for the 690-746, 747-762, and 777-792 MHz Bands, WC Docket No. 06-150, WC Docket No. 06-129; PS Docket No. 06-229; WT Docket No. 96-86

Ex Parte

Dear Chairman Martin:

The promise of an open, mobile Internet stirs up the entrepreneurial spirit. Skype Communications Sarl (“Skype”), on behalf of its users, believes that this entrepreneurship lies in the hands of a community of developers, consumers and technologists; it is not the exclusive preserve of the network operators. This community is ready to deliver an explosion of new mobile products if the Commission sets its policy correctly. In our view, the best course for the Commission is to adopt 700 MHz auction rules that balance the interests of network operators and innovative software developers like Skype. Such a policy will maximize the value of the 700 MHz spectrum and is in the best interest of consumers. To that end, Skype appreciates the Commission’s willingness to consider issues related to device competition and Internet openness in the context of its upcoming 700 MHz auction – a policy discussion in which Skype has been an active participant.1

This letter follows up on that discussion and further explains Skype’s interest in this proceeding.

As the Commission knows, Skype is a software company, not a telecommunications carrier. Skype does not own or control any telecommunications facilities. Instead, Skype relies upon network partners who themselves are telecommunications carriers, to enable Skype users to communicate over the Internet, share ‘presence’ information online, make video calls, transfer money between users or call ordinary phones.2

Like many other Internet companies, Skype collaborates with an ecosystem of software and hardware partners to maximize the capabilities of our software. At the access layer, for example, Skype has joined forces with wireless operators in Europe and Asia who extend Skype into a mobile environment.3

I. Competition Among Wireless Networks

Consistent with this business model, Skype does not intend to transform itself into a telecommunications carrier by bidding for spectrum in the 700 MHz auction. In our view, consumer benefits are advanced when each ecosystem partner performs a function it does best. Our European and Asian wireless carrier partners specialize in building and operating networks, enabling Skype to focus on what it does best: innovating and building software that enables the world’s conversations. Skype is therefore participating in this proceeding on behalf of our users, who might subscribe to the Internet access services provided in the 700 MHz band.

New technologies enable new applications, and in our experience, new entrants are more likely to deploy new technologies. Skype is a member of the Coalition for 4G in America because we believe that new entry is a necessary but not sufficient precondition to promote innovation and lower prices for consumers.4

We urge the Commission to avoid defining the objectives of the 700 MHz proceeding too narrowly.

Multiple providers of facilities-based wireless services, at least in theory, increase the possibility that competition will spur carriers to innovate with new business models.

However, at present the wireless market is dominated by a few large players, and competition between incumbent network providers — all of whom have mixed incentives to encourage VoIP-based competition — is insufficient to maximize consumer benefits in the mobile market. The Commission’s goal for the 700 MHz proceeding should not be simply to introduce additional competitors who have the same incentives to thwart device and application competition. Seen in this light, an increased number of intermodal competitors is a necessary but not sufficient condition to maximize consumer welfare in wireless.5

A better, more balanced policy outcome is one that encourages a cycle of investment in networks and in applications that consumers use on those networks. This is best achieved through Carterfone principles — permitting consumers to use wireless devices and applications of their choice — and wholesale alternatives throughout the wireless industry. To achieve this qualitative shift in the wireless marketplace, the Commission should design its 700 MHz auction to better balance the interests of carriers, their subscribers and the myriad of device and application enterprises that hold the promise of offering new products and content.

Specifically, the record demonstrates that large license blocks, such as a 22 MHz REAG Block in the Upper 700 MHz band proposed by the Coalition for 4G in America, can facilitate new entry without denying smaller carriers spectrum — if those large spectrum blocks carry appropriate conditions to facilitate competitive bidders. In Skype’s view, the surest way to promote wireless competition would be to ensure that all of the 700 MHz spectrum — or, at minimum, the 22 MHz REAG block — is auctioned under both “open access” rules and the “openness” principles described in the following section. There are also a number of additional steps the Commission can take to prevent the largest incumbents from winning the REAG licenses, thereby promoting network-level competition. These include adoption of anonymous bidding and the application of spectrum caps to the largest licenses. Should the Commission not adopt a spectrum cap, the Commission should opt for a band plan that maximizes the number of potential new-entrant bidders — or face the risk of losing any chance at robust competition resulting from this auction.

II. Competition Among Devices and Applications

Skype recently filed a petition — commonly known as the “Carterfone” Petition — seeking application of the Commission’s Broadband Policy principles to wireless broadband operators in order to bring the full benefit of competition and innovation to consumers of wireless broadband devices and software applications. As we made clear in our Petition, there is a growing list of discriminatory and anticompetitive practices occurring in the wireless world, whereby users are denied the opportunity to use desired applications.6

These carrier practices are stifling innovation by depriving entrepreneurs of incentives to build creative new applications and content. With regard to the 700 MHz auction, however, the Commission has a unique opportunity to inject some needed competition into the wireless market.

That is why Skype has urged the Commission to apply its time-honored Carterfone principles to all wireless networks operating in the CMRS bands.7

Doing so will maximize consumer benefits and unlock new sources of innovation and price competition. A number of parties in this proceeding have submitted comments arguing for various device and application layer “openness” principles. In our view, the Carterfone “openness” principle is captured by the Commission’s Broadband Policy Statement. If the Commission decides to diverge from that Policy Statement, we urge the FCC to adopt an “openness” principle that protects both a consumer’s right to attach unlocked devices and run applications of their choosing.8

An enforceable Broadband Policy Statement applied to wireless networks is a necessary pre-requisite to a wireless Internet ecosystem that maximizes the value of the 700 MHz bands and CMRS services in general.

We will not repeat the importance of this proceeding to the Commission’s broadband policy and to the interests of innovators such as Skype. We understand that you share this view with us. For our part, we are committed to developing new software applications that delight our users. It is our hope that when the 700 MHz auction concludes and these networks are built, Skype users with have an additional choice for their Internet access services and the applications that run atop increasingly powerful mobile computing devices.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further questions or if Skype can be of any further assistance in this proceeding.

Christopher Libertelli
Senior Director
Government and Regulatory Affairs
Skype Communications Sarl

1. Skype is a member of the Coalition for 4G in America. See Comments of the Coalition for 4G in America, WT Docket No. 06-150 (May 23, 2007). See also Skype Communications S.A.R.L., Petition to Confirm a Consumer’s Right to Use Internet Communications Software and Attach Devices to Wireless Networks, RM-11361 (filed Feb. 20, 2007) (“Skype Petition”); Reply Comments of Skype Communications S.A.R.L., RM-11361 (May 15, 2007) (“Skype Reply Comments”).

2. When a Skype user purchases paid services, these carrier partners allow a communication that might remain completely online to terminate to an ordinary mobile or fixed-line telephone.

3. For a description of the mobile collaboration between Skype and Hutchinson “3”, see http://xseries.three.com/index.shtml.

4. Skype Petition at 24-25.

5. See Barbara van Schewick, Toward and Economic Framework for Network Neutrality Regulation, 5 J. on Telecomm. & High Tech. L. 329, 368-78 (2007).

6. Skype Petition at 17-20.

7. Skype Reply Comments at 11-15.

8. Id.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 08:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm considering blogging a Dear Jeff letter. Not today as you only get one chance to pitch and I'm going to frame some territory first. I'd need some encouragement to take it forward. Jeff's called for More Innovation in Voice Services and clearly targets his interests at something that's not more of the same. He follows it up with
The Jeff Pulver Blog:

Just to be clear, what I am looking for are new ideas and new innovations. From people NOT involved in a startup yet. Looking for people who have the seed of an idea in their mind that are waiting to take the next step and make their dreams come true...that's where I come in. That's what this challenge is all about.

• We use communications and we are or will be all channel agnostic. We won't care over what transport it goes as long as it is secure.
• We want different mode's of communication. Visual, talk, real-time text, asynchonous connections etc. Simplified it is Talk, Text or Post. Skype, Gtalk, phone number SMS, etc. all irrelevant; just channels for lowest cost.
• We want communications that reflect relationships and context.
• We want communications that are under our own control. The telephone really is obsolete. The caller remains in charge. We require a control paradigm. Tipping access control changes everything.

In Jeff's original post he alludes to an API to Facebook and Twitter. These API's are too basic for our real communications needs. They are the starting point. Presence too is dead. At least presence as we knew it (available, not available etc.) Context we are just beginning to see and respond to. It has to build on these in the beginning.
Facebook could own "communications" its already a better directory service. Still it isn't engineered to really be the People's Directory. However, if I was AT&T I'd be worried. The longer term play is one where "we own it" and we individually are in charge of all communications.

My passion remains in this area as it tips the economics in favor of you and me. In the end this is a play about information, packet control, and beliefs. The next inflection point for communications is the business that will truly empower the individuals role in communications. There's a lot of money ultimately at stake. 

Posted by Stuart Henshall at 01:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Naughty avatars and porn videos may provoke Skype to blacklist users, says a Skype rep in South Korea.  

Congrats to Rob Dolin, Windows Live Spaces program manager for taking on Spaces integration with Live Messenger.

Sarah Bacon, Yahoo! Messenger product manager.

"Since I work at Yahoo!, I get to use Yahoo! Messenger all day long without fear of reprisal from my boss but will companies get over their fears of losing control of their employees and embrace IM?

When we released Yahoo! Messenger for the Web back in May, we secretly hoped that millions of office workers everywhere would thumb their nose at the company firewall and IM to their heart’s content."

Wall Street Journal: "Roughly one-third of U.S. employees use instant messaging at work, many without the knowledge of their employers." [Disclosure: I'm an alumnus of Adecco, interviewed in article.]

Tech Untangled: Why Skype is Better than Ooma. Features, privacy, price.

SoonR: if you run SoonR on your PC or Mac...

Skype from the iPhone with SoonR Talk
SoonR users can initiate a Skype call from their iPhone and use their PC or Mac to bridge the call. A SkypeOut call brings the mobile phone into the Skype conference that originated on the desktop computer. SkypeOut calls are not free, but in many cases they are very cost effective for international connections. SoonR Talk also supports Skype’s chat function and shows the user status or presence information.

Andrew Moore tweaks Firefox on Ubuntu so phone numbers turn into Skype links.

Angus Kidman travelled to Tallinn as a guest of Skype where she wrote The gospel according to Niklas Zennström after a press event. No hard news but a good sense of Niklas facing the media.

Skylook promotion: 20% off (with code SKYLOOK4B2007) during August. Outlook integration and call recording.

Messenger MAniaA bot sets your presence with a custom frequency. "I'm online. No, I'm offline. I'm online again. No, I'm offline."   

Posted by Phil Wolff at 09:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Guest post by Jaanus Kase, Skype alumnus and blogger.

SkypeFind is a feature in Skype. It lets you put listings of businesses in Skype with your review and rating, and review and search what others have put there.

I use the services of great many businesses in great many countries. And I’m fairly opinionated. I haven’t seen quite as many things as some other people, but I’ve seen at least something. I think some people would be interested in my reviews and ratings, and I’m also myself interested in what other people have to say.

Yet I don’t list things in SkypeFind, and I rarely find listings by other people I care about. On the face of it, I use features that I like, and I don’t use features that I don’t like. I don’t put things in SkypeFind because I don’t like it too much. But what does it mean? I tried to qualify this “I don’t like it” a bit more for SkypeFind and here’s what I came up with.

First, the tab sometimes just loads too darn slowly. It’s not responsive and this is annoying. But this is not the main point. Instead, the main reason would be:

I don’t like SkypeFind because I don’t feel that it respects me as a user and person. I like features that are a “win-win” situation. I don’t mind helping businesses if it also helps myself or makes my life better somehow.

I can certainly see how my contribution of listings and reviews to SkypeFind helps Skype. The directory grows more powerful and valuable with each contribution and more and more people will find it useful. If this process becomes large beyond a critical point, Skype will also make some money out of this.

Yet, I can’t see how my contributions would help MYSELF. Let’s put the business and directory aspect aside for a while, and look at SkypeFind from a personal perspective. When seeing it this way, you can think of SkypeFind as a “personal trail”, or a part of your life’s story. You’d be able to recall where and when you went and what you thought of the place. Maybe you liked some place a lot, and you retrieve its info and recall “yes, this was nice” and you’ll then go back and become a regular. Or, if you see that your friend regularly goes to surfing hotels in Tarifa, you may just have discovered his passion and hobby and maybe you could then connect about something that you didn’t know your friend was into. And your lives would then be better.

If you’re a verbal diarrheatic like me, you’d also have easy tools to repost, mix and match this trail, or parts of your life story. You could repost them on your blog or link blogs. You could subscribe to listings by other people. You could build cool mashups around this, say, mixing, slicing and dicing with map data (hot restaurants where Skypers have recently been? Worst mountain skiing resorts to avoid?).

From this aspect, current SkypeFind is useless. I can’t use it as my life’s trail. I can’t even see the listings that I have made myself, let alone subscribe to listings of other people, keywords or locations. There’s just one little thing: on the SkypeFind “opening page” (tab), it shows you “New from friends”. This is the kind of thing that I’m talking about and it’s in the right direction, but it’s very little. Too little for me to care and use the feature.

So, in order to fix this, Skype would need to add more community features and openness to SkypeFind. I don’t know for a fact, but I don’t think they are too happy about its performance. SkypeFind currently shows me that it has “208,625 businesses in 231 countries by 178,094 people”. Are these numbers big? If you compare to, say, population of Tonga (July 2005 estimate 102,000) then yes, sure. Yet when you compare to the total “Skype population”, then it’s a tiny tiny number of people adding listings. Furthermore, you can assume that those trying out the feature are generally active people who like to try new things, both in Skype and in life otherwise. So you could also guess that they would have a great number of business/customer experiences to share. Yet the average is 1.17 listings per person, so most people have only entered one listing — and then been disappointed. My speculation is that at least some part of them are disappointed because of the same reasons that I outlined above — that they can’t capture and follow their own trail.

If Skype added the community features to extract data from SkypeFind in more varieties (RSS feeds by Skype Name would be a great start), it wouldn’t hurt any of SkypeFind’s original objectives. People would still generate and find listings and the directory would grow. But there would be more active use and the directory would be more useful, and eventually, people would make more calls through SkypeFind.

I don’t have a firm idea, but I suspect that the reason why these community features don’t exist, and there’s no web presence of SkypeFind (it only exists currently in the Windows client), is that Skype people think of Find only as a vehicle for generating more SkypeOut calls. (This seems also to be the reason behind why you can’t put a Skype Name for a business, only a SkypeOut number.) I don’t think this is very smart. If I were Skype, I would rather have an open directory with good content and risking losing some of the calls to other channels, instead of a closed walled-garden directory where people can, true, make SkypeOut calls, but since the content is shit, no one will come to search for businesses on it anyway. The gross volume of SkypeOut calls would still be larger in the first case than in the second.

Exposing SkypeFind on the web, even if it were in read-only format, would have some interesting implications from SEM (Search Engine Marketing) perspective. If each listing had a permalink and the pages were constructed well, they would be indexed and ranked fairly highly in search traffic. I don’t know a whole lot about SEM and SEO, but I’ve come to think about it recently a bit and the bottom line is that if you’re a business owner (be it Skype itself, or be it a business that’s listed in SkypeFind), you’d want people to find you through search, be it on Google or SkypeFind or wherever. And if you gave business owners good tools to drive further traffic to the directory, it would increase the growth further. Offer buttons to businesses “Had a good experience with us? Let others know and rate us on SkypeFind!” I haven’t seen any yellow pages providers do that — at least I haven’t seen any such links to directory sites anywhere on small business pages. With Skype’s scale and large volume of users, it would be feasible for them to do this because they would see the rationale behind it — people rate and comment them on SkypeFind, they get instant feedback, and Skype hosts a well-constructed listing for them that’s indexed well in search engines.

Many small businesses don’t know/care about SEO, but if they realized that SkypeFind is actually a vehicle to drive more traffic to them, they would join in promoting and spreading the word. (And another instant function of this is that spam people would jump on SkypeFind, as they already have jumped to Skype Chat. So besides generating some upside, a more open SkypeFind would also need more protection and policing from spam perspective. But I think it’s all solvable.)

So, long story short. Let me see history of my own listings, and let me subscribe to them and other people’s listings through RSS. Then I’d perhaps care more about SkypeFind and even use it sometimes.

Posted by Guest Blogger at 01:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I’m moving house, business is booming, we’re running a complex project, and I’m travelling a lot. Oh, and two kids and a wife who are hinting they’d like to see more of me. Plus I can’t live without some occasional time off and fun too. I don’t have any spare time for much right now, but this one is too important not to comment on, so I’ll break my long radio silence.

Susan Crawford, one of the sharpest knives in the telecoms policy drawer, reports on the 700MHz spectrum auctions in the US. (Susan, for some reason Blogware refuses to display pages when the referrer is Bloglines — get ‘em to fix it :) ) — she has several follow-up posts worth reading.

The nub of the issue is whether the auction should mandate some kind of open access regime where users can attach any device of their choosing to the wireless network, not just ones approved by the carrier who supplies the retail connectivity. This is (misleadingly, in my opinion) referred to as a wireless equivalent of the famous Carterfone decision that heralded the break-up of the vertically integrated AT&T landline monopoly (rev 1.0). (Susan’s just reporting the proceedings, not advocating the terminology, so I’m just pointing you that way for the succinct background material.)

I don’t think the Carterfone precedent is an apt one for wireless IP networks. The fixed network provided an end point with metered access to a (then) noticeably capacity-limited circuit-switched network. You could attach a device with a radically different usage profile (e.g. a dial-up modem, fax machine) and you’d automatically carry the cost of that usage yourself. The network also offered a single line speed at the edge — you couldn’t demand more (at least not without a massive price leap to a business-class T1 line or more). Metering based on time alone works well.

Furthermore, the competition between users for scarce capacity was in the switching fabric and the long-distance network, not in the local loop. Yet when you move to an unbundled regime these cease to be bottlenecks as competitive carriers can simply install their own switches and backhaul — at least, it works here in Europe, even if the FCC can’t figure out how to enforce its own rules in a timely manner.

Wireless doesn’t work that way. When you buy an “unlimited” Internet access plan from Sprint or Verizon, they’re calculating the likely usage profile based on the capabilities and form factor of the device and pricing accordingly. Yes, in some cases they even nobble these features to dampen demand. They also use contractual terms to say you can’t use the device as a modem for a PC, for example.

If you can come along with any data-hungry device and expect to demand the same retail pricing plan, you’re going to blow up the business model. The network becomes over-congested, often with low-value file sharing or media download traffic for which there is low user willingness to pay.

Destroying the vertical silo might sound like a good idea to those who feel the telco business deserves some radical change. However, you need to come up with a better idea of creating a market around access to a finite spectrum resource. (And you mesh folk have a lot of technology, economic, policy and usability problems to solve before that changes.) Unlike wireline, there’s contention on the access layer. The scarcity is at the edge, not in the core.

The outcome of a “retail Carterfone” will be a shift to metered or congestion-based pricing. This may result in a loss of consumer welfare, as users highly value flat-rate price plans. Flat rate only works as long as the usage curve has a reasonably large and predictable spike in the middle, and you can manage the fat tail via traffic shaping, fair use terms, and contract enforcement. Allowing any device, software or service drives the network capex tail of heavy users without raising compensating revenue.

We’ve already seen in Korea on their fixed network a move from flat rate to metered, with much consumer resistance. The same has pretty much happened in the UK with BT’s wholesale pricing regime on fixed. Due to over capacity of 3G spectrum and networks from the build-out mania, it’s too early to say if the huge buckets of data offered by folk like T-Mobile with Web’n’Walk will persist. If they got too popular, and people actually started to use what they’ve bought, say to watch unicast video on their iPhones, the networks would clog up quickly.

You could instead opt of a “wholesale Carterfone”, where anyone can come along and buy wholesale connectivity, and then offer retail pricing for locked-down and non-interchangeable devices. Those wholesale contracts can then be extremely complex if need be, with mixes of usage, time, congestion, device class and other factors such as traffic shaping in the backhaul or content caching services. The users never get to see that complexity. However, we’re getting a very long way from the original Carterfone deal where the retail market was opened up to competing device suppliers, and we’re a long way from designing a dynamic marketplace for wireless spectrum.

And it’s all because of the physics. Spray photons in every direction, and you get a different market structure than guiding them down a strand of glass to a concentration point, because the scarce economic resource is in a different place. Hey, go ask KPN, who cunningly are creating a scarce resource by putting all the electronics into street cabinets (with limited physical space) and selling off their exchanges (where it’s easy to put in competing unbundled gear).

My policy recommendation? The incumbents own too much of the backhaul and on-net traffic, which gives them an unfair advantage over new entrants. Do what we did in the UK, and reserve some slices for new entrants (Hutchinson 3G won it), and tilt the field a little in their favour with the interconnect and termination rules. Keep the network auction national so the initial starting condition isn’t fragmented with “missing patch” owners extorting everyone else. Don’t place any rules or license conditions on how the spectrum is used, except to mandate that squatting isn’t allowed. Assume every rule you campaign for will be outweighed by two bought by lobbyists. Allow sub-leasing and resale. Make public safety users pay market price, just like they do for office chairs and other inputs. Even better, make them buy the output safety communications service in the open market, not the input spectrum.

If there’s more value in creating an open wholesale network than vertical integration, someone will conduct that experiment without the need for bureaucratic seers predicting the right market outcome. The future is uncertain, none of us are smarter than the market. There’s no need to mandate any kind of wholesale structure.

Another fallacy is that raw and pure Internet access is the end-user service. It’s not, it’s the things you can do with the device. So if I can use a locked-down browser to access any kind of HTTP-sent site, that’s not the same as a “go anywhere, do anything” Internet ISP plan. Just ask Steve Jobs. Users don’t want to hear “megabyte” once in the store. The YouTube app on the iPhone isn’t a bug in the economic model, it’s a feature. Users will buy the degree of openness and flexibility they need, not pay for option value of the network capacity that they don’t need and others redeem at their expense.

We’ve already seen the first step with MVNOs and alliances like Sprint-Clearwire-Google and AT&T-Apple. Wholesale and alliances are the future. Fine-grained wholesale for mom’n’pop entrepreneurs will arrive some day without external intervention as long as there are enough competing nationwide spectrum owners (my guess is 5-6) and a vibrant backhaul/backbone market. And the users will get the right devices, plans, connectivity and apps packaged up in convenient form.

Less regulation is better regulation. Particularly in Washington DC. Stop trying to make rules to shape the future, let it sort itself out.

Martin Geddes redefines laissez faire at Telepocalypse.

Posted by Martin Geddes at 08:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

"At the end of June 2007, we have over 42.0 mn TOM-Skype registered users up from over 35.5 mn at the end of March 2007."

 — From the 2007-Q2 TOM Online Inc. quarterly report (Nasdaq: TOMO; Hong Kong GEM: 8282)

TOM Online had a horrible second quarter: net losses and falling revenue. So picking up 70k new users a day (25 million per year) in that context is pretty good. Since Skype doesn't publish the number of active Skype accounts, we're still not sure if these new accounts offset accounts no longer used.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 01:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

IP Democracy's Cynthia Brumfield wrote about US cable operator Comcast's Q2-07 quarterly financial report:

Telephony, however, continued to boom for the operator. Comcast added 670,000 or so VoIP or digital voice customers during the quarter, a run-rate more than double the 330,000 net digital voice adds during Q2 06. Comcast ended the quarter with 3.1 million digital voice customers, reflecting an 8.1% penetration rate based on the homes capable of buying the service.

The cash flow from telephony is small, compared to Comcast's overall budget. With average telecom revenue per subscriber at $42.92 per month, Comcast's VoIP runrate is $1.6 billion per year. By contrast, Vonage's annual top line is roughly $800 million and Skype's runrate is $360 million per year gross.

Not only is that a lot of cash for Comcast, but 8.1% is an amazing conversion rate for abandoning your tried-and-true telephone system. Larry Dignan concludes "Comcast is swiping telephone customers from existing carriers among entrenched cable modem customers." 

Posted by Phil Wolff at 09:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

New "Skype for mobile" partner offerings come out of their cocoon.

At a local blogger reception last night I was showing two of the "Skype for Blackberry" applications to several Blackberry addicted attendees who requested links to where they could evaluate the various services themselves. So here's an update summary.

About six months ago the only Skype mobile offering on the market was Skype's own Skype for Windows Mobile which would run on any Windows Mobile device but with Skype's own caveats:

• Best recommended for use on devices with WiFi connectivity.
• For GSM/GPRS networks, the recommendation is to use it only on 3G networks, with good reason.

Skype for Smartphone and Skype for Pocket PC are designed to be used with high-speed Wi-Fi or 3G connections. If you are using Skype for Smartphone or Skype for Pocket PC on GPRS, then you will be able to use chat but GPRS does not provide sufficient bandwidth to support voice calling.

The real issue here is that VoIP on a mobile device

1. places excessive demand on the devices resources, including the processor and battery,
2. has an inherent, unacceptable latency when used over 2.x G networks,
3. places significant demands over data networks and
4. is only economically viable over networks that have unlimited data plans.

This is supported not only by the caveats that Skype cautions re using Skype for Mobile but also that Truphone places on using their newly released Truphone 3.0 client and service over a 3G network:

Fantastic if you've got a generous (or 'all-you-can-eat') data tariff, but do note that cost, quality and availability of 3G services vary enormously. While it is possible to talk for free walking down the street, it is also possible to run up a huge bill this way.

Of the two connectivity options, Skype for Mobile and Truphone run most cost effectively over WiFi connections and provide excellent voice quality. Only Skype has full IM chat and presence features; however.

Keeping these caveats in mind, several vendors have recently released Skype-based applications and services for mobile devices that rely on the underlying wireless phone infrastructure for actually handling the voice conversation while using the data service to set up the call (via Skype or SkypeOut) and to handle, where included, the IM activity (presence status and chat) as well as mood messages.

From a platform point of view, Mobivox (in beta) provides Skype/SkypeOut access from any phone, wireless or wireline, provided you have their local access numbers. They use voice recognition as a key element of the user interface but lack any chat or online presence.

For the Blackberry we have seen the recent release of two services that provide both IM and voice services:

• IM+ for Skype Software (Blackberry version), and
• iSkoot (in beta)

and for the Nokia N-Series we have seen:

• Fring
• IM+ for Skype Software (Symbian version) (in beta)
• iSkoot (only N73 and N80 announced)

Bottom line: as I have maintained in the past, Skype on a mobile platform runs best when the IM component runs on the device as a data service but the underlying native wireless voice service is used to make a mobile base station voice connection. With iSkoot and IM+ for Skype Software, we are seeing real world examples of how this can play out while still taking advantage of Skype and SkypeOut services.

In closing, several times the security issue with respect to some of these services has been raised. Suffice it to say, the executives of these companies are very aware of security issues as being fundamental to the integrity of their business. They have taken measures to not compromise security (or leave login/password information otherwise exposed). This will be the subject of a separate post.

Some recent Skype Journal posts about these services:

• IM+ 2.5: Call Your (Skype and Blackberry) Contacts Your Way!
• iSkoot Launches Beta Client and Service for Blackberry
• Skype on the Blackberry - More Experiences (with links to two previous posts).
• Somebody Gets the Skype Mobile Picture Right
• Mobivox Presentation Collateral

If you try out any of these services, please leave your Comments with this post. User experiences are most appreciated.

Tags: Skype, Skype Mobile, SkypeOut, IM+ for Skype Software, iSkoot, Fring, Mobivox, Blackberry, Nokia N-series, Truphone

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 08:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Can you trust a study that leaves out Yahoo! Messenger and Microsoft and AOL? Allen Stern says they missed smaller ones like eBuddy.

Table 1: Fastest Growing Instant Messaging Destinations for Aug-06 to Jun-07 (U.S., Home and Work – reflects Web traffic and use of Internet applications)

Site/Application	Aug-06 UA (000)	Jun-07 UA (000)	Percent Change
Meebo	434	1,972	354%
IMVU	491	1,248	154%
Google Talk	904	2,252	149%
paltalk.com	355*	447	26%
Skype Messenger	2,199	2,635	20%

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, July 2007
*Indicates these estimates are calculated on small sample sizes and are subject to increased statistical

Web access to chat is hot. Jon Fort says Meebo is big in internet cafes where web access maintains privacy. Caroline McCarthy thinks cross-network interop is also the attraction.

The wrong metrics: Nielsen is still reporting "eyeballs," so pre-cluetrain. Wouldn't you rather know the size of the loyal following? Or how many message units were passed via IM? Or the frequency distribution of time spent in voice or video calls?   

Apples and Oranges? or Fruit Salad? IMVU is a 3D avatar chat service. Meebo hosts chats from other networks. GTalk is straight IM and voice. Paltalk is a video chat service that launches from IM networks. And Skype is a little of everything on clients.

Should you bother comparing apples and oranges?

Or are messaging services converging?

Posted by Phil Wolff at 03:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Downloads are still rising spectacularly. Sometimes at speeds of about 2500/minute!

Strange, while I've been on Holidays, I didn’t check the concurrent users online neither the downloads. Some minutes ago I made an update of my numbers and...

Downloads have gone up dramatically as shown on the graph below.

Indeed, the number of downloads were 500 per minute in June. Now, since about July 14 (French National Day?) it is around 1750 downloads per minute!

The only sensible explanation I see is the "Pakistan and India campaign" Skype launched in July, cutting SkypeOut prices in half!

Will this be the next Skype boost?

If it were all new users interested in the promotion concerning Pakistan and India (see my previous post below), then I would have expected also an increase in the number of SkypeOut purchases.

The graph below shows this isn’t the case.

The temporary increase in the number of purchases at the end of June could be due to Europeans leaving for Holidays and putting some more amounts on their account (this is pure speculation on my behalf!). But, no sensible increase in purchase orders due to the mentioned campaign can be seen on the graph in July.

Then on one of the download pages I saw this:

And on the lower part of the page:

So, could it be that a lot of Americans and Canadians download the Skype application and register new usernames just to be able to make some free calls?

Or could it be that a lot of people in other countries are tempted by the free offer, and don't read the small grayed out letters on the bottom of the web page?

Again, pure speculation, but I am still wondering what the real reason is of the increased number of downloads! In the past it always had something to do with promotions or really innovating new features. And I don't see anything like that now ... unless it really is the free minutes!

Posted by Jean Mercier at 01:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The facebook application layer is creating a zillion more connections among facebookers by the hour.  

So what happens when someone deletes their own facebook account?

You leave a hole in reality as your record is expunged.

Deleting accounts in a social network service causes a ripple effect of "disappearing" someone.

• Threads are disrupted, orphaned messages replying to someone that no longer exists.

• Friends and contacts suddenly discover you are no longer in their buddy lists.

• Groups you created no longer have a founder.

We model our relationships, we archive our histories.

Deleting an account disrupts the models, the archives and perhaps those very relationships.

That's why it is more common to keep an account working but fallow.

It may also be cause to develop "redirection" specs for social networks: I used to be active here but now I'm active over in this other space.

Question of the Day:

Is Skype a social network in the MySpace, Ecademy, and facebook sense of the term? Skype has social network graphs (millions of buddy lists) and behavior that runs on top of it.

Thanks to Lazy_Lightning for the original photo.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 01:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Business solutions from Skype partners demonstrate innovation and disruption built around Skype's unique infrastructure.

This past Monday a very frustrated Jeff Pulver put out a Call for More Innovation in Voice Services. A widely acclaimed VoIP industry pioneer, Jeff has long recognized that VoIP and associated IP-based services provide a platform for offering value-add to facilitate both business services and build social networks through voice-enhanced applications. At a panel discussion last Friday called :"Where are the VoIP Services?" Jeff reports:

"... From my perspective, I didn’t want to hear about a service that was simply a variation on Call Forwarding and/or Voicemail. What I what I was looking for was something different. Something cool. Something that truly helped to redefine communications. But I didn’t hear about anything remotely interesting. So, I answered the question by suggesting to my fellow panelists and to the delegates in attendance that "they had no guts". That they failed in taking advantage of the IP based platform presented to them to deliver innovative services and instead chose to take the easy way out and simply use their platform to replicate the same services that TDM based systems gave us. That they decided to build equipment for the telcos where the money was and in the process sacrificed empowering the communications revolution and our ability to deliver services never before possible without the advent of IP. [my italics, underliine and typo edits].

I say that the outcome of this panel discussion that Jeff decries happened because nobody looked at the Skype ecosystem for examples of VoIP Services . In the Skype ecosystem we can see the recipe for a foundation for innovative IP-based services:

• Start with a full real time conversation platform that combines voice, presence and text messaging.
• Start with a real time conversation platform that is enhanced with conferencing, video, call transfer, call forwarding, voice messaging and file transfer.
• Start with an IP-based ecosystem that has a set of API's to facilitate application development and mashups
• Start with a platform for which hardware has been developed to take advantage of many features of the platform.
• Start with a platform that can be accessed via not only Windows, Mac and Linux PC's but also USB phones, PC-free phone sets, mobile phones, Blackberries (here and here) and the Nokia N800 Internet tablets.

Alec Saunders, in his Voice 2.0 Manifesto, points out that the value-add in voice will be the applications that embed voice. And we are seeing the outcome of this Manifesto in the Skype partner applications that are evolving based on the Skype platform:

• Evoca provides a service that captures voice and makes it available for individual listening, podcasts, transcription, weblogs and other voice-enhanced services..
• Unyte provides a means to escalate the real time conversation beyond text and voice to incorporate desktop sharing
• Convenos provides a collaborative platform for managing communications across geographically-disbursed business operations (and is becoming a Webex-killer in the process).
• OnState provides a most disruptive ACD platform that makes call center operations affordable for small businesses by eliminating the need for call center PBX's that can have six figure costs otherwise.
• Skype for Salesforce.com builds real time conversation functionality into any business's customer relationship management activities supported by Salesforce.com.
• Skylook transforms Outlook from its role as an email, contact management and calendaring system into a customer relationship management system through its management and archiving of real time conversation activities.

On the social networking, personalization and amusement front:

• Pamela provides utilities that can enhance Skype activities through its rich mood editor, audio emoticons, call recording, personalization, podcasting and call transfer features
• CrazyTalk, by far the most popular Skype Extra as measured by downloads, can literally visually animate your conversations.

To paraphrase a portion of Jeff's call I say:

... the Skype ecosystem is already demonstrating the great opportunity to disrupt the communications industry, bypassing the business processes in place at Verizon and other incumbent telcos. Skype can eliminate lots of the time it takes for the financial analysts to work out operating budgets because Skype has already eliminated many of the "risks" in deploying an IP voice solution. Skype is sowing the seeds of a communications revolution. Skype's partners already recognize they can change the way we communicate and have had the guts to take on the status-quo. They have rebooted and restarted the Internet Communications revolution.

I think the real problem is that Jeff's co-panelists from the telcos are having trouble separating the pipe from the services and content. At a fundamental level they need to stop thinking switched networks and recognize that IP packets are taking over as the delivery infrastructure. And that it is not just the walled garden of the telco world that can come up with innovation in delivering real time conversation services but rather a world that recognizes an open platform and its potential for innovation delivered over IP packets.

While Skype is not perfect and still has challenges ahead in terms of marketing their programs, building new partnerships and developing channels, their platform provides a unique infrastructure that is making VoIP Services happen today.

So let's make a slight change in your challenge, Jeff, (especially since there is already a Twitter4Skype and SkypeMe for Facebook, using their API's combined with the Skype API's). I say to those interested in Jeff's challenge: Take a look at the Skype API's and pitch Jeff on the service you want to create; hopefully Jeff will consider them as candidates for his early-early seed capital. And, in this case, there are some case studies (see above) that provide real world experience.

P.S. - There is also a Skype Mashup competition going on until the end of August. Skype Mashup Wiki.

Full disclosure: nobody paid me to write this; I just think Skype got overlooked somewhere along the line. OnState is a client for my professional services. And my first acquaintance with Jeff Pulver was when he was an independent DESQview developer while I worked at Quarterdeck in the early 90's.

Tags: Jeff Pulver, Skype, Skype Extras, Skype Partners, Evoca, Unyte, Convenos, Skylook, OnState, Skype for Salesforce.com, Pamela, CrazyTalk, Alec Saunders, Voice 2.0 Manifesto

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Shape Services has quietly released a new version 2.5 of their IM+ for Skype Software which offers several new features of which one stands out for facilitating Skype connectivity to your "calling phone number" of choice. Simply called Location in their dialogue, it allows you to identify the "calling" number to which you want to have a call to a Skype, SkypeOut or Blackberry contact connected.

I have set up three "Locations": (i) my mobile phone number, (ii) my PSTN office number and (iii) my SkypeIn number. I designate (activate) one of these Locations as my "calling" number and make a (Skype or SkypeOut) call via IM+. Whereas with previous versions the call would always come back to my mobile phone hosting the IM+ application,. with the IM+ 2.5 service I can activate "Denali Office", for instance, request that the call to a Skype contact be directed back to my office PSTN phone as my end of the call.

So where is the larger benefit? When I leave Canada, I normally pay Rogers C$0.95 per minute to make a call from anywhere in the U.S. and C$2.00 per minute for calls from Europe to North America (Canada/US). With IM+ I can purchase a prepaid SIM for, say, Cingular (woops, AT&T) or my visited European country, replace my Rogers SIM chip, create a new IM+ location associated with the SIM's "local" number and make calls based on SkypeOut rates plus "local" prepaid mobile rates. As for receiving calls I can call forward my mobile number to my SkypeIn number as IM+ 2.5 will now accept calls to my SkypeIn number(s).

As an added benefit, IM+ 2.5 will not only make calls to those in my Skype Contacts but also my Blackberry address book. In summary IM+ provides a very versatile way of combining access to both Skype and Blackberry resources. The voice quality on all my calls to date has been excellent.

And it provides today a viable alternative to Aswath's quandry re Jajah:

Consider a new kind of [mobile] phone that is not only connected to the PSTN but also to the Internet, via home [Skype and mobile] networking. Thus when the user selects a name from the embedded [Blackberry] address book [or Skype Contact list], the phone will send its [a designated "calling"] phone number and the called person’s phone number to Jajah [the IM+ server and Skype] via the data network connection. This means that the user experience will be same as in similar to the case of PSTN [mobile calling]. Jajah can license this to the phone vendors. After all Skype’s revenue from franchise [SkypeOut termination] sales is a significant portion of their total revenue. [Strikeouts and square brackets are my edits.]

I'll be writing about the other IM+ for Skype Software 2.5 new features once I have had more experience with them. In addition I have communicated with all these "Skype via Blackberry" services about security issues; that will generate another post. [Hint: your Skype login data is only stored on your own Blackberry.]

Tags: Blackberry, IM+ for Skype Software, Skype Mobile

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

If you've never seen Skype for Business, we have a photo set of the packaging (view as slideshow). Available in 12 European countries and for Windows only.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Skype Prime rates tweaked. You may now charge as low as €0.10 (down from €0.40) per minute. So your minimum bill rate is now €6.00 per hour. One problem down, four more rates to go.  

Web Trend Map 2007/V2. Looks like a metro tube map. Can you find Skype?

Ooma launches. Looks like PhoneGnome (magic box into which you plug your phone, phone line, and ethernet cable) but isn't an open application platform. Alec goes geek, sees depth. Richi Jennings rounds up the buzz.

Birthday greetings to  Cognitive Dissonance (50 years' old) and the Emoticon (25 years): don't know whether to love 'em ;-) or hate 'em :-(.

This Skype Journal banner shows connections among Phil's facebook contacts. More on social networking and Skype soon.

Be my friend on twitter, jaiku, pownce, facebook, LinkedIn, Ryze, MyBlogLog, Upcoming, technorati, del.icio.us, Viddler, YouTube, Digg, flickr. fb:PresenceNext group.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 03:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

By every metric, Skype continues its midflight stall. Despite doing bunches of things right, Skype's core value is dying.

Skypers aren't calling any more now than they were before. SkypeOut minutes didn't change. Free Skype-to-Skype calling fell this quarter, back to where it was a year ago.

That's scary! Read it again:

• SkypeOut minutes didn't change.

• Free Skype-to-Skype calling fell this quarter, back to where it was a year ago.

Skype's brand is tied to talk.

Better, cheaper, more fun, less hassle.

Does "It just works" still work for word-of-mouth marketing?

Skype desperately needs word of mouth to keep the cost of customer acquisition low and to reach clusters of people that talk with each other.

Flat growth turns regional growth into a zero-sum game. With flat Skype-to-Skype growth, a minute gained in one market equals a minute lost elsewhere. In which markets is Skype losing ground? Where are defectors going? 

The signups aren't enough to cover churn. 24 million new user accounts in Q2 looks amazing, doesn't it? 183 signups a minute, 263k new accounts a day. But...

This growth is too small.

At 12% quarter over quarter growth, this can't be replacing people who leave the Skype network. People create accounts just to try Skype ("kicking the tires"), those who abandon VoIM for mobile or landlines, and defectors switching to broadband operators or other VoIP/VoIM providers.

If signups doesn't cover customers leaving, Skype is in danger. They have two choices: Regain virality (challenging) or Spend Money Wisely (costly). We'll learn more about Skype's strategies to turn this around over the coming weeks.

Is Skype's competition Jajah, Vonage or AT&T?

Here's a Blogpulse from last night. Skype and Vonage used to be in a dead heat for blogosphere mentions. Skype pulled itself out of that league in the last year without spending a Vonage-sized ad budget (great news). But Skype remains a far cry from Comcast or AT&T or BT. (Do you like AT&T's mid-July iPhone spike, below?) 

Zennström and Friis have their eyes on the whole telecom industry, not just VoIM. Skype now has 4% of all international minutes. In the short term, broadband providers have the marketing, billing and distribution to sell consumer VoIP and VoIM to hundreds of millions of existing customers. Skype is competing hard in North America. So the stalling of Skype-to-Skype calls, their word-of-mouth engine, is abominable timing.

A saving grace: Skype could be spinning off cash. Skype could be spending around US$50 million on personnel per year (more than 500 employees at $100K fully loaded), maybe $20 million quarterly if they've been hiring aggressively in Eastern European and Scandinavian development studios. That leaves $70 million for hard operations and marketing costs on $90 million revenue. A big chunk of that goes to wholesale telephony companies, but they were being paid even when revenues were lower.

See also:

• Cynthia Brumfield: Did eBay's Whitman Dig at Skype's Zennstrom, Friis? Quoting eBay CEO Meg Whitman, "Skype is not where we want it to be in terms of user activity. This will require increased activity and attention from the leadership team." Quoting eBay CFO Bob Swan: "“Activation levels are not where we want them to be."
• Kevin Kelleher: eBay: An Unwanted Bargain. "Good news, investors! eBay’s stock is trading at a value."
• Alec Saunders: Skype’s continued revenue growth. No surprises here. 

Below the fold:

• eBay's table of quarterly Skype accounts, Skype-to-Skype minutes, and SkypeOut minutes.
• eBay's bar chart showing quarterly Skype revenue
• eBay Q2-2007 Earnings Slides
• 2007 Annual Meeting of eBay Shareholders

the fold...

eBay Q2-2007 Earnings Slides

2007 Annual Meeting of eBay Shareholders

Posted by Phil Wolff at 03:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Skype revenue up, profitable for 2nd consecutive quarter, but usage down?

eBay's quarterly earnings conference this afternoon revealed little about Skype; we got the usual numbers:

In the more detailed presentation by CFO Bob Swan, he provided two additional numbers:

• Skype-to-Skype Minutes: 7.1 million, down from 7.7 million in Q1
• SkypeOut Minutes: 1.3 million, flat from Q1

and stated that Skype's activation numbers were not where they would like them to be. In her earlier summary presentation, eBay CEO Meg Whitman mentioned the WalMart retail partnership, three objectives for Skype:

• build the user base
• expand the Skype ecosystem
• improved call quality,

and closed with the single remark Skype "needs more user activity" as an issue to be addressed in Q3. During the Q&A with questions from analysts, who are supposed to be tracking the company's activities, there were NO questions about Skype. Maybe being 5% of the overall eBay revenue, yet profitable, is the formula to not attract their attention.

Over the past 24 hours I (i) attended my 10th Research in Motion Annual Meeting in Waterloo (makers of the Blackberry) where I came away with a very detailed understanding of RIM's business activity and where they are going and (ii) this afternoon listened to the eBay earnings conference where I came away with little additional understanding of eBay's Skype business. So here's my take:

The positives:

• sustained revenues and a second consecutive quarter of profitability
• update: impact of new pricing (see link below)
• US user registrations grew 20% to 25% compared to 12% overall growth
  • based on the assumption above tying revenue to user registrations
  • is this a direct result of the WalMart retail effort?

The concerns:

• user voice activity is in decline
• US revenues remain in the 15% to 16% range
• total user accounts becomes more of a meaningless number. In my experience with direct marketing, you know that customer databases became stale over time.

Om questions "how is the revenue growing when everything is either trending down or flattening"? Update: Alec Saunders reminds us that Skype introduced a couple of pricing changes which had minimal impact for those of us who primarily use Skype's Unlimited North American calling plan but help to explain both increased revenues and lower usage on a worldwide scale

While eBay provides the bare minimum of information required under SEC regulations, many companies will provide additional information that does not compromise their overall competitive position. Based not only what I heard from RIM but also what is provided by other telecom carriers here is what I would like to hear about Skype in eBay's quarterly earnings report:

• actual number of active accounts at the end of the quarter
  • accounts that actually placed at least one call during the quarter
• % breakdown of revenue by communications services, hardware royalties, partner software services and other
• Skype margins and the three usual cost lines: Sales & Marketing, R&D, G&A

eBay has to be an analyst's nightmare, given there are three basic businesses: marketplaces, financial services and telecom services, each of which have different financial models and financing requirements. At least these numbers for each of eBay's units would provide better shareholder and analyst guidance in valuing the company. AT&T does it (requires Excel); RIM does it: 76% devices, 16% service, 5% software, 3% other.

And when I asked at the RIM meeting why they had shipped 2.4 million units but only had 1.2 million activations, it came out that the difference can largely be attributed to users buying upgrades. So effectively it comes out that there is huge loyalty amongst Blackberry users, so much so that new features and services are driving a significant portion of their hardware revenue. In my mini-analysis above, it come out that Skype's US user growth is substantial (even if the actual numbers are off by as much as 10% to 15%). What other information could we learn about Skype without giving away the business from having these types of numbers?

I'll leave it to another post for my suggestions as to how to increase user activity; but suffice it to say I had three Skype partner experiences today to suggest that they look hard at the Skype Developer Partner program as a key element for driving new user registrations. Oh, and read the Voice 2.0 Manifesto. SunRocket didn't; Vonage hasn't. Skype's Developer Partner program now has the Voice 2.0 seedlings to be positioned for success.

Tags: eBay, Skype, Voice 2.0 Manifesto, SunRocket, Vonage

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 04:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

With VoIP service SunRocket closing now, all their customers are moving their phone numbers (voice mail? greetings?) to new services. Painful even if you don't change your phone number.

How much worse, then, if Skype, flickr, LinkedIn, MySpace or facebook shutter their doors? Can you readily extract your contacts, your conversation history, your profiles, your preferences, and group memberships? How about archives of chat sessions, conference calls, postings to groups, images/vids posted, and personalization items like ringtones or avatars?

What do you stand to lose if your social network services close?

Dave Winer, one of the grandfathers of blogging, raised this issue long ago with hosted blog services. So he designed a list of a Manila blog's entries in XML, straightforward for other blog hosts to parse and import. It was rudimentary, not including images and other files stored on the site, but it was the first time you could take your blog to another hosting service. Since then, wordpress and sixapart have adopted their own specs for exporting and backing-up blogs.

The race for SunRocket customers is on. But this will make services like Google's GrandCentral more attractive as a risk management strategy. GrandCentral phone numbers ring your other phone lines, so you just hand out your GC number. GC users bet Google will continue GrandCentral's service longer and with less disruption than other VoIP or telephony providers.

Facebook's new application channel spreads our lives and relationships across multiple systems.

Which leaves us with:

• Who is the GrandCentral for my social networks?

• What are the standards for social network portability?

• Which features are so common and such a commodity that everyone could support interop?

• What is your personal economic risk? What is your workplace's business risk? How much of our work lives are enmeshed in, and tied to the success of, these digital lifestyle aggregators (a Marc Canter term)?

• How should consumers organize to demand digital identity and social network portability?

• Can data portability become a minimum requirement for enterprise participation in social networks?

See also:

• Marc Canter: Open Letter to Marc Andressen, Gina Bianchini and Diego Doval
• Marc Canter: Open Standards for Social Networking
• Dave Winer: It's time to open up networking, again
• Russell Shaw: Nuvio to SunRocket orphans: we can set you up in “matter of minutes”
• Russell Shaw: Ex SunRocket vendor on SR flameout: “we saw this coming a mile away”
• Russell Shaw: VoIP provider ViaTalk: we’ll buy out your SunRocket contract
• Russell Shaw: Vonage to SunRocket orphans: we’ll give you two free months

Posted by Phil Wolff at 06:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Is this an iPhone for business?

The last question asked by shareholders at Research in Motion's Annual Meeting last evening was how RIM executives viewed the Apple iPhone launch. Co-CEO Mike Lazaradis responded with the comment that they welcome the iPhone as it is accelerating customer awareness and heightening expectations for Smartphones. "Hats off to Mr. Jobs for growing the industry."

But this exchange followed Mike's introduction of the Blackberry 8820 Smartphone which is certainly a candidate to be the business version of the iPhone:

• Thinnest smartphone design, full QWERTY keyboard, 320 x 240 display, trackball navigation (as on Pearl, Curve and other 88xx devices)
• Dual mode: GSM/EDGE and WiFi with UMA support for UMA based carriers
  • UMA = seamless handoff between WiFi and EDGE
  • WEP, WPA and WPA2 WiFi security
• 64MB Flash embedded memory; expandable to 32GB via microSD memory cards
  • SD to 2GB, SDHC to 32GB (when available)
• GPS with support for A-GPS interfaces
• Voice-activated dialing, conference calling, speed dialing and call forwarding
• Media player
• Roxio Media Manager for Blackberry
  • Allows full management of media files via PC
• Stereo audio output (supports Bluetooth stereo audio profile)
• Video management with automatic video transcoding,
  • advanced conversion options and full screen mode.
• Email support for up to 10 email accounts
• 1400 mah battery

So why is this an "iPhone for business"? Combine the above features with the Blackberry's business ecosystem:

• Push email
• Over 100,000 Blackberry Enterprise Server installations
• Blackberry's inherent full security:
  • only approved wireless device for secure government communications use in U.S., U.K., Canada, NATO, amongst others
• Secure WiFi access to corporate networks via VPN's.
• Open development platforms (no hackers required)
  • over 500 third party business applications
  • several thousand personal applications
  • over 125,000 registered developer downloads of developer environment
• New Blackberry Mobile Voice System allows single number access to any mobile or fixed device with simultaneous ring, seamless switching (based on technology acquired via Ascendent Systems acquisition)
• Supported by 300 carriers in 140 countries
• Focus on quality not only of hardware but also of user experience.

From the press release:

"The BlackBerry 8820 is an extraordinary business phone for people who really care about mobile communications and productivity. It features all the renowned power and usability of the BlackBerry platform with executive class styling and unprecedented connectivity features, including cellular, Wi-Fi and built-in GPS," said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at RIM. "The BlackBerry 8820 complements our carrier partners' cellular networks with the added ability to stay connected via Wi-Fi at home, through hotspots and corporate campuses."

And they summarized with what has been my experience:

• Managed battery life for longer times between recharges
  • apparently they have experienced up to 5 hours talk time on a WiFi connection
• Ease of use
• It just works as expected of a phone: no frequent freezes and reboots!

Questions that remain:

• Why does RIM (and Apple) appear to be holding back on 3G support? (UMTS was mentioned in the more general overview given by Mike) HSDPA is widespread in Europe and other countries; it is in a launch phase at AT&T in the U.S. and Rogers in Canada.
• How does the Blackberry 8820 support YouTube video that normally looks for a Flash Player?
• What are the carriers' plans for supporting UMA?. (For instance, in Canada Rogers also participates in the Hotspots Canada service; will this be incorporated into Rogers launch of the 8820?)

According to the press release availability will initially be with AT&T in the U.S. in late August but I was told to expect it on Rogers for the Canadian market in the fall. Looking forward to trying the various Skype access services on it.

P.S. We were told to expect siginificant announcements re the media aspects of various Blackberries over the next few weeks.

Tags: Blackberry 8820, iPhone, UMA, Dual Mode Wireless Phone, Mike Lazaradis

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 05:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

One feature not previously discussed when covering the Skype 3.5 for Windows beta release ten days ago is a new twist for obtaining U.S. phone numbers. Skype and Jingle Networks, Inc., operator of the popular (and free) 1-800-FREE411 directory assistance service have announced a strategic partnership whereby the 1-880-FREE411 service is accessible to Skype users via a Skype contact. Just add Free411USA as a Skype contact; the directory assistance call is treated as a free Skype-to-Skype call.

As an ad supported service users must simply listen to a short ad prior to obtaining a phone number in lieu of the $0.75 to $3.00 fee charged typically by the traditional carriers. However, in addition to obtaining a number verbally, the user, provided s/he is using the Skype 3.5 client, will also receive a Skype Chat message containing the number such that it can be called directly via SkypeOut from your 800-FREE411 chat window. As for any SkypeOut call, two clicks, one to select the number in the Chat message and a second to acknowledge that this will be a SkypeOut call. Two aspects to the 800-FREE411 service:

• 800-FREE411 is, in some sense, also a verbal Yellow Pages; you can call and ask for, say, a pizza parlor in a city you are visiting. 800-FREE411 will not only give you the name of a sponsoring pizza parlor but also you may get some promotional incentive to go to that particular vendor.
• With 800-FREE411 as a Skype Contact, Skype users from outside the U.S. can call and ask for, say, a hotel in a particular area of Los Angeles; this worldwide user base provides additional value to the advertisers who sponsor 800-FREE411. But keep in mind you are only going to obtain U.S. phone numbers via this service.

The Jingle Networks relationship is the first of a new business service offered by Skype called Commercial Contacts. Companies that want to brand their Skype presence and participation can now register and buy their company name to use as their Skype Contact Name. Currently Skype is in a "beta" phase with this service to iron out the wrinkles. Interested businesses should send an email to businesscontacts@skype.net from which you will receive the following response:

.Many thanks for your interest in our business contacts program.

Skype's business contacts program is currently in beta. We are working with a few selected partners at the moment but keep expanding the list so sign up now. To become a business contact partner, please send us the following information:

1. Name of your business.
2. Type of business.
3. Postal address where your business is registered.
4. Your Skype Name - we'll use this to reach you.

We'll review your application as soon as possible and get back with further information. Due to the high volume of applications it might take a little longer, apologies up front.

Update Aug. 1, 2007: Check out the full instructions for setting up this service.

Tags: Skype, Skype 3.5, 1-800-FREE411, Jingle Networks, Skype Commercial Contacts

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 03:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Truphone is one VoIP service I have always admired and it's not just because they supply inexpensive, yet high quality voice calls. Their developers have also taken a serious look at the device integration to ensure that the user experience in making an "Internet" call is as similar as feasible to making a standard voice call. It is integrated into the native Nokia Contact directory; installation and provisioning of an account is quite straight forward. (In fact, as they told me would happen when at ceBit back in March, the recent release of Truphone 3 has made this user experience even more seamless.)

However, as discussed in an earlier post, Truphone has had an issue with respect to being able to communicate with T-Mobile customers in the U.K. For whatever reasons, Truphone's reasonable efforts at resolving this issue did not come to a timely resolution; as a result late last week Truphone applied to the Royal Courts of Justice for injunctive relief. Today they won that injunction request with the result that Truphone numbers must be interconnected with T-Mobile by next Monday, July 23.

Truphone CEO James Tagg released the following statement:

• "The injunction is good news not only for Truphone but for every company trying to develop internet-era services and for every consumer wanting freedom of choice and lower prices. We are determined to bring better-value mobile calls, text messages and other innovative services to mobile phone users, and it's right that we should not be prevented from doing so."
• "To be granted interim relief means we successfully demonstrated that we have an arguable case to make at a full trial."
• "We didn't want to go to court but we had no choice: T-Mobile was effectively preventing the launch of the Truphone service so we had to take urgent action."

While only applying in law to the U.K., let's hope it helps to establish precedent as VoIP services around the world come into the market. The bottom line message is that consumers need open access and consumers should make the choice for their telecom and other communications services.

In the case of my fellow Canadian Skypers, we would appreciate if the CRTC would open up competition by allowing SkypeIn services without the need for 911 services. Skype has demonstrated in other countries that they can provide adequate warnings to users to the effect that they have no intention of being a replacement phone service with 911 access.

Update: Andy points out that some countries simply want to deny VoIP exists and are serious about it.

Tags: Truphone, T-Moible, Royal Courts of Justice

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 09:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Just received word from Lester Madden at Skype that Skype has reversed the digits in the deadline for submission of API suggestions to July 31.

And, from one of the third party members of a Skype group chat, an appeal to see more suggestions re web services. Another suggestion: if you have any API requests lingering in the Skype forums, make sure you get them copied over to Skype's API Requirements wiki.

Remember your suggestion only gets considered if you submit. Just do it!

Tags: Skype API

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 05:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

lobbyist Ben Scott of Freepress/SaveTheInternet.com. Ben discusses Wednesday's Congressional hearing on the iPhone and an upcoming auction of spectrum by the FCC. The future of the internet is at stake, and we're beginning to see what it means in AT&T's restrictive conditions on your use and purchase of the iPhone. SaveTheInternet.com/airwaves

Posted by Phil Wolff at 05:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Seems that there is a large appetite for learning new languages, especially English. In March I wrote a post, When You Want to Practice Spoken English, about the KanTalk service that uses SkypeCasts to facilitate verbal language learning sessions. As discussed in more detail in that post, two of his key findings with the initial service were:

• Non-English speakers quickly became nervous or intimidated when speaking to "native" English speakers.
• Participants, considered as peers in this forum, were much more accepting of mistakes and ready to help correct them.

I had occasion to dialog with KanTalk's Founder today; the following update that he reported speaks for itself:

• > 7,500 users registered members, including 300 teachers/tutors
  • up from 2,000 in early March
• >1,100 Skypecasts session have been scheduled from Kantalk
• The top five native languages spoken by our users are: English, Spanish, Chinese, Portuguese, Arabic.
• The top five countries that our users reside in are: Brazil, USA, China, India, Russia.

Besides letting our users use Skype to practice English, we also added Recording and Video Transcribing features to the site to help learners improve pronunciation and listening comprehension.

In response to Skype's invitation they have contributed suggestions for API's, many of which relate to Skypecasts. In addition they are investigating Skype Prime to provide their "teachers" with a means to generate revenues.

So the next time you get one of those random, unsolicited "I want to practice my English" chat messages, send them to KanTalk.

[And a reminder that Skype API suggestions are due tomorrow (Friday, July 13).] Update: deadline extended to July 31.

Tags: KanTalk, Skypecasts, Skype Prime, Skype, practice English

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 03:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Yesterday I downloaded the latest Skype Beta version 3.5.0.158, like always available on a Wednesday by the way! Well, my advice is: DON'T DOWNLOAD IT!

Vincent, a Skype Staffer, asked me "What kind of 'advertising' bothers you in Skype?" OK, Vincent, here you have some more... go to

TOOLS
-> OPTIONS
-> NOTIFICATIONS
-> ALERTS AND MESSAGES

Although I unticked "Help and Skype tips" and "Promotions" a long time ago, here they are again, with ALERTS! What the heck? Alerts???????

I will leave it "on" just to experience what they will dare to send me, but in the meantime, my answer to Skype Marketing Staff concerning these unwanted advertising messages is:
 
(Nothing personal against you Vincent! ;-)

Jean Mercier blogs at Skype Numerology.

Posted by Jean Mercier at 07:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Any of you who follow Andy Abramson's VoIP Watch will know that Andy went to France to get married to his financé, Helene, a Family Medicine practitioner in California. Just received an email "We're married".

Andy has been the glue that has pulled a lot of bloggers in the VoIP space together, He has made it possible for many of us to experience mobile devices through his leadership of the Nokia Blogger Relations program that also provides us with the opportunity to evaluate new services from his other clients such as TalkPlus, Grand Central, Truphone and iotum. (Yes, I have to keep reminding him that, with 200 million accounts, Skype rules!)

Andy also previously worked in the professional hockey space with a relative of my wife; as well I occasionally mention in my posts my neighbor's son who plays,. most recently, for the St. Louis Blues following a trade from the Boston Bruins earlier this year. Talking hockey gives us an amicable diversion from the AlwaysOn world coming about through VoIP and mobile devices.

And on the few occasions I have met Helene, it's been a pleasure to discuss medical practice in today's demanding healthcare environments. Unknown to many of you is that both my sons are medical residents so medicine is a field of many discussions in the family.

So it is with great pleasure that I offer congratulations to Andy and Helene and look forward to working with him once again after he returns from his honeymoon (if he takes a break!). And keep reading VoIP Watch for its insight into the VoIP space.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 03:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Another Option Available as a Skype Mobile Solution for the Blackberry

Whereas two months ago, there was a lack of any access to Skype from a Blackberry, at least three offerings have arrived on the scene in the interim; previously Skype Journal has reported on Mobivox and IM+ for Skype Software.. For reasons I have explained in the past I have suggested that the best option for mobile Skype was to provide an IM client but use an underlying wireless protocol (GSM, eVDO and their 3G counterparts) to provide voice communication. Pure VoIP on wireless data plans makes no sense from either economic nor resource use viewpoint.

Last August Skype and iSkoot announced a Co-Marketing Agreement wherein Skype would certify iSkoot's mobile solution for making and receiving Skype calls on mobile devices. iSkoot's initial appearance was as one of many services offered by 3 Group's X-Series service in the U.K. last fall; the service is now offered in seven additional countries served by Hutchison Whampoa. Basically with their service, the Skype client is pre-installed on handhelds such as the Nokia N73, and others from LG and Ericsson.

On Monday iSkoot launched a beta of iSkoot 1.1 mobile application for Blackberry which provides a comprehensive Skype on Blackberry experience including IM (presence/chat) and voice communications. As with IM+ for Skype Software, iSkoot extends the Skype user's reach out to anyone with a Blackberry. .The Skype client is shown on the right; it provides both IM and voice calling access to all your Skype contacts. Hidden by the bottom of the menu are four familiar icons via whose selection you can view all your contacts; or either of your Skype or SkypeOut contacts. The rightmost (fourth) icon provides access to chat sessions; the red marker indicates a chat session that you have not yet viewed. Clicking on the Blackberry roller wheel (or the more recent Blackberries' five-way Trackball) brings up a menu from which you can select various Skype activities as shown including management of your status and your contacts.

With this week's announcement, iSkoot becomes available in a manner such that it becomes carrier agnostic while remaining carrier friendly in that it does use basic (circuit switched) wireless minutes. Whereas previously iSkoot's server side ran only on 3 Group's servers, they have now installed their own servers and established a worldwide network of points-of presence in over 40 countries to provide local access to their service.

When you sign up you are transparently assigned a phone number nearest your "home" area code; this provides your local connection to the iSkoot servers. Initializing a Skype/SypeOut call involves calling the assigned number. Concurrent with this call a Skype instance is created; your login information is transmitted (encrypted as with all Blackberry data communications) and your Skype/SkypeOut call is launched. Upon completion of the call, the Skype instance goes away, leaving no footprint on the server. At no point does iSkoot or its servers store any of your Skype login information.

In an interview with iSkoot's Vice-President Business Development, Roy Erez, this afternoon, he pointed out the following about iSkoot's service:

• iSkoot has been working closely with Skype to develop a mobile-based service by which users can have access to their Skype account wherever there is wireless access.
• The service is currently not optimized for Roaming. With the current architecture, there may be wireless carrier charges for calls made from outside your local calling area to the service's POP that has been designated. However, you can change the local POP connection by changing your base phone number. For instance, while in the U.S. I could use a prepaid Cingular SIM to avoid the current $0.95 per minute charge from Rogers for making calls from the U.S. back to Canada or within the U.S.
• The main advantage to developing carrier relationships is to provide an ongoing billing mechanism similar to the £5 per month fee that 3 Group charges for its unlimited use plan. And of course, handsets come preconfigured with the iSkoot client.
• With their Hutchison Whampoa (3 Group) experience involving thousands of users, they have developed significant expertise in managing the Skype instances required to deliver voice calls, especially with respect to scaling and load balancing issues.
• iSkoot has become his address book on his Blackberry although plans are afoot to also link into the Blackberry's native address book.
• Plans are also afoot to expand the service to Symbian (where they already support the N73 and N80i as well as some E-series devices on 2.xG networks) and Windows Mobile platforms.

I made some test calls with Dan York earlier today; Dan reports on them here. Understand that iSkoot is currently in beta and they are working out issues related to smoothing out the connection process, keeping presence status current as well as identifying other challenges in delivering this service. And, holding the best news to the last, currently the service is free of any charges.

Tags: Skype on Blackberry, Blackberry, Skype, iSkoot, Dan York, Mobivox, IM+ for Skype Software, mobile Skype, 3 Group, Hutchson Whampoa

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 01:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Breaking News: All Online Data Lost After Internet Crash. "Officials confirm that all online data has been lost after the Internet crashed and was forced to restart." - Onion News Network

skype skypejournal humor fun theonion fakenews WebCrash2007

Posted by Phil Wolff at 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

380+ engineers planned and attended iPhoneDevCamp, making it up as they went along. No Apple sponsorship, just Adobe sharing some space at their San Francisco office and a few other companies covering meals.

Three threads.

The first was iPhone dissection: inferring iPhone's user experience elements and application/service design conventions and peeking under the covers for how things worked. Christopher Allen shared baseline knowledge of iPhone specs, protocols, design and code constraints in his keynote.  

The second was a hack-a-thon: building something alone or in small teams by 1pm Sunday. See iPhone Applications developed at the camp. KentBye twitted: The "DevCamp model of connecting teams of IA/Designers, coders & UI testers to create project is a lot more productive than BarCamp-style demos." We know creativity is a team sport. Hmm, is this a workplace design pattern?

Community is iPhoneDevCamp's byproduct. Some blend of Community of Practice, iPhone fan club, and professional network. Folks seem highly motivated to continue this conversation. Again, outside Apple's mandates or restrictions. See the new iPhoneWebDev.com and the iPhoneWebDev Google Group.

Despite Skype having tens-of-times as many users as the iPhone, I don't think Skype has ever had a developer gathering of this size, energy or commitment. Why not? What's missing?

Posted by Phil Wolff at 10:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Some items of interest that only relate indirectly to Skype:

Once in a while it is interesting to learn about who invented some of our every day, "taken for granted", technology. This post from IT World Canada gives a brief background on the invention of coaxial cable, digital packet switching, Ethernet, TCP/IP and other technologies and protocols used every time we access the Internet (and use Skype).

And you're probably getting to know that I am becoming somewhat frustrated with Windows. But imagine if you had to run Chkdsk prior to being able to pump your gas! (FWIW, Esso is the Canadian subsidiary of Exxon). Maybe there should be a Skype button on the pump to call for technical support.

And Jeff Pulver finally broke down and bought an iPhone and calls himself an iPhone Confusnik (but he has not yet signed up with AT&T.)

Tags: Internet technologies, inventors, Windows, Jeff Pulver, iPhone

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 05:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Google is buying security firm Postini. Great for all the Google Office applications like Google Mail, but important for Google Talk. Based on Postini's product literature, they'll be able to quickly add inbound and outbound spam and virus filtering, content filtering (really big at education, finance and health care institutions), user blocking and activity/content logging. These are enterprise demands Skype only handles indirectly. The Postini acquisition doesn't solve GTalk's missing end-to-end encryption of IM, voice/video streams, and file transfers.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 05:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Wishlists by Friday. It's not a big window, but Skype's inviting you to edit the 2008 API Requirements wiki page with your tactical and blue sky requirements.

New web services? Enhancements to existing APIs? New objects and capabilities? Nothing's taboo.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 09:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Since its launch yesterday morning there are a few reviews of Skype on the Nokia N800 that are worth checking out:

Ken Camp's Digital Common Sense

Those of you who know me know I've struggled finding relevance in Skype for my own use. After many years of loyal use, I uninstalled it and quit using it. I'm not convinced it's fully relevant to my needs. I’'m confident I can do just fine without out it. Yet, being able to stay in touch easily via Skype on the N800 was enough to make me eat my words and come back to the fringes of Skype at the very least.

In part, this is driven by my keen interest in social networks and the tools we use to manage them. And one thing we all notice is that we use the tools our friends use, not always because we like them or need them, but because they're where our friends are.

Tabletblog.com by ThoughtFix. He also blogs his installation of the new OS 2007 firmware.

But don't we already have Internet Calling on the N800?

Yes, but not like this. The built-in Google Talk client only allows users to talk to other compatible Google Talk clients. Gizmo Project, previously reviewed on this blog, does not have the user base or commercial support that Skype does. Gizmo may be open source, but Skype is free too and, unlike Gizmo, can keep all the extensive security and privacy secrets locked away. I love open source as much as the next Linux nerd, but I am not one to walk away from free commercial closed-source software that does a good job. Skype is also BIGGER and offers more features. There are also Skype WiFi phones, headsets, and other accessories. If there's a race for VOIP penetration, Skype's charging forth at over 100 million registered users.

Phone Boy Blog: Nokia N800 Comparable to the Apple iPhone

N800 can make calls with VoIP. Google Talk, Skype, and Gizmo Project are all supported on the N800. The iPhone has no VoIP capability because it’s a cell phone tied to a carrier who thinks VoIP is evil

One other feature mentioned in most reports on the new firmware is the support for Adobe Flash 9; a feature not available on the iPhone. (Hat tip to Scoble for pointing this one out.)

Tags: Skype on N800, Skype, Nokia N800, Ken Camp, Phone Boy, ThoughtFix

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 04:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Today an upgrade release for the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet's OS 2007 became available. Two steps:

• Ensure you have the Nokia Software Update Wizard installed on your PC.
• Run the Update Wizard (more information on the page linked above)

Three new features:

• The long awaited Skype client
• Adoble Flash 9 Browser plug-in
• Support for up to 8GB memory cards (taking full potential capacity to 16GB)

It also appears they have taken steps to improve the battery life, especially with respect to power consumption involving the rather critical wireless connection. And they claim to have improved the touch screen sensitivity -- something I have found at times a bit of a challenge.

Back in March Om wrote a post on why he feels Skype is so important for this device. And it certainly was seen to be an obvious addition when I first reviewed the N800 in late April.. Kudos to the teams at Skype and Nokia responsible for making this happen.

I will be installing this upgrade after I return home this weekend and hope to put out a review next week. Phil has just received an N800 via the Nokia Blogger Relations program..

Tags: Nokia N800, Skype client for N800, Skype

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 07:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

No-Download VoIM.
Occupy UI real estate.

Browsers are almost as ubiquitous as operating systems. Building VoIM into browsers will be a huge leap forward in talk-enabling the web. And for every application built with browser VoIM, that's one more batch of Skype opportunities displaced.

If I were an incumbent telco and wanted to make life harder for Skype, I'd encourage everyone to build VoIP and VoIM into web pages and into browsers.

Adobe has been shipping Flash with a SIP stack for more than a year. Imagine being able to talk-enable your flash banner ads so you can talk to others seeing that ad right now (just in time community) or to product specialists or to the video or music of your choice.

For example, Chizzat! by Dan Uyemura and Gary Chi is a free, third-party Facebook app that launches live text chat or voice calls or video calls from a person's profile page. I'm partial to the simplicity of WalkieTalkie by YackPack; just "Push to Talk."

In both cases, Facebook provides the social context to trigger a conversation and the device to start talking immediately. Few assumptions about prior software or hardware configuration. Excuse me for this but "it just works."

The technology for this is getting smarter fast. Adobe's AIR, Google's Gears, Microsoft's Silverlight let engineers and designers build rich, intensely interactive browser apps that work offline. Why download Skype, more than 20MB, when talking now comes without the download, installation, upgrade hassles, and device lock-in? 

Some of the technology may become built into the browser itself, not just the web page. No reason not to build everything you need into Firefox, Opera, Safari, or Internet Explorer. Other protocols, like ftp and irc, were rolled into the browser; why not VoIM? Look at the new eBay-Firefox browser; if eBay can do it...

Posted by Phil Wolff at 03:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Build VoIM into Microsoft.
Developer ecosystem attack.

Microsoft could choose to commoditize Skype's Voice Over Instant Messaging (VoIM)market. This might be part of competing with eBay and PayPal or just to defend their own messaging products. 

Microsoft supports more than a million programmers.

Part 1. Tools. Microsoft can publish tools to make it drag-and-drop easy to build your own skype clients, build it for your own apps, social networks and web services. 

Microsoft could do this for Windows Vista, Windows Mobile, Office, web and Xbox gaming platforms. Each tool brings in hundreds of developers. Each new third-party app those developers build in turn ties up thousands of potential Skypers or convinces them to switch.

Part 2. Turning Microsoft messaging clients into platforms. What if Microsoft published their own set of standards for the stuff that enables Skype?

• IM/chat/microblogging
• voice calls/conferences/spatialization
• video calling/conferencing
• encryption
• presence
• identity
• file exchange
• people search

MSFT doesn't need to be inventive: just adopt existing standards. Microsoft's de facto power could force Skype to change and open its architecture before it is ready. 

Part 3. Alliances. Microsoft enjoys limited partnerships with telephone companies. There's no reason those partnerships might not extend to making Windows operating systems, servers, applications and networks "Skype-hostile" and "incumbent friendly." 

Part 4. Adding talk to Microsoft's online properties. The technologies for embedding live conversation (text, voice, video) in web pages has been here for over a year. Microsoft's web properties draw so much traffic that "talkifying" those sites could

1. Stifle user adoption of feature rich, fat (bloated?) desktop clients like Skype
2. Define Microsoft's technologies and partners as standards, and
3. Convince leading web sites to follow Microsoft's lead and use Microsoft's tools, not Skype's.

So far the only thing holding back Microsoft is Microsoft. I predict there will be an hour when Microsoft decides that mobile and Internet telephony, videophony, conferencing, and live messaging directly affect their corporate strategy. One minute later: Microsoft will point their high powered attention to the problem . Two minutes later: everyone else will have a strategy for partnering with Microsoft or carving out a niche.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 10:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Saturday afternoon (13:00-16:00) of super Skype geekiness at Digital Hollywood Tokyo.

Iwata Makoto, Skype Japan General Manager, contributor to The Skype API Book Vol.1 and the popular P2Pがわかる本, will introduce Ubion's Koji Hisano, build an official Java wrapper for the Skype API (a never-ending job).

Topics: the latest Skype status, mashups of Skype with web services, the Skype API, the Skype4Java API with an example, and Q&A. 

Free. Limited space. Sign up now. 

via Siwata at Skype.

See also:

• Coca Cola promotes Skype in Japan
• Skypologist spoke at Livedoor Roppongi Hills
• What a hoot: Live from Skype day in Japan

Posted by Phil Wolff at 01:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Enhancing the real time conversation experience, Skype today is releasing for public testing a new 3.5 beta version of Skype for Windows. In an interview with Mike Bartlett, Skype for Windows Product Manager, he described the following new features:

Extended video snapshot capture: Skype 3.2 allows you to take your own photo from your video camera for, say, your Skype Profile photo. This new release will allow you to capture snapshots of your remote party during your conversation. The major question here is whether this feature includes the etiquette for call recording such as requesting permission to take a snapshot of the remote party. Update: Providing your video also implies that your provide your remote participant with permission to make snapshots. Video snapshots inherits existing privacy mechanisms associated with turning on your video.

But the video options gets even more dynamic. You will now be able to share video content like film clips and music videos with friends and family through your mood message. You can also share a video clip into a chat discussion during a conversation. The caveats are:

• videos are served up by one or two TBA video hosting partners (who are also responsible for associated copyright issues and management)
• video may be from the hosting partners' content libraries or user generated using the hosting partners' services

Call Transfer, initially introduced with the first 3.5 beta and available in Skype for Mac 2.6, has now been enhanced to allow Call Transfer during cross platform calls between Windows and Mac PC's. But to review how Call Transfer works:

• Skype to Skype call transfer is free.
• Skype to SkypeOut, SkypeIn to Skype and SkypeIn to SkypeOut call transfer requires a SkypePro subscription. If you are in North America with the Skype Unlimited Calling Plan, you still need a SkypePro subscription; however, it will bring other benefits such as a 50% discount on SkypeIn subscriptions and free Skype Voice Mail.
• Call Transfer within the Skype client to individuals and Skype Contact Groups is handled manually during a call; however, as described so well by Don Kennedy recently, automated Call Transfer is also available via the Skype API's. Don offers a free Skype Call Transfer Example within the Skype Extras.

New to Skype in this release is an Auto Redial feature that will redial your engaged party every two minutes until the call is answered.

There is also a new marketing program and feature called Commercial Contacts, involving managing a business's presence and brand when using Skype. I'll leave it to Phil to provide more details.

One of my concerns with such a rapid flow of new releases and beta versions is how Skype is managing overall performance quality as I had experienced minor difficulties with a couple of the 3.2 released versions (under specific configurations and circumstances). With the adoption of Skype by many small businesses, Skype has become mission critical and must have 99.999% (aka five nines) availability.

Mike mentioned the primary test for a release is ensuring that call quality keeps the high standards associated with the Skype brand and that several releases have been stalled pending addressing call quality issues. However, they also are expanding their Quality Assurance team and take user feedback, especially from the beta versions, seriously. I can personally vouch that upon reporting a couple of problems with the 3.2 releases, fixes were available within one business day.

Looking forward to checking out the new beta release features and reporting on the experience. Tell us about your experience with Skype 3.5 beta in the Comments to this post. Keep in mind what Peter Parkes has posted on the Share Skype blog:

It includes a number of new features and fixes a range of previous problems. However, as Raul points out over at the Skype Garage blog, this Beta version is only intended for use by those of you who don’t mind a few rough edges — it isn’t perfect yet.

Download the Skype 3.5 beta release here. Skype for Windows Release Notes

Tags: Skype 3.5 beta, Skype for Windows, Call Transfer, Skype video, SkypePro, auto redial, Mike Bartlett

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[Correction: Mike Bartlett's title is corrected in the text above. Sorry about the "demotion", Mike. - Phil Wolff, 4 July 2007 1830 Pacific]

Posted by Jim Courtney at 06:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

With several devices under evaluation I find that one of my ongoing tasks is ensuring that each device is kept sufficiently charged to remain functionally operational. This becomes an extra challenge when traveling. As can be seen from the photo above, one needs at least one (surge protected) power bar (for your destination country) in your kit along with at least one of every type of charger. Fortunately all my Nokia devices (N800 and N95 shown) can use a common charger; at the other extreme my Blackberry 8700 came with four additional "slide-in" plug adapters that made keeping my Blackberry charged while visiting Germany and England earlier this year much easier. There's also a charger in there for my Gennum nXZen Bluetooth headset. Lose your device's charge and you could end up paying premium rates to make essential telecom connections, not to mention loss of data plan access to mission critical business or emergency services information. One good piece of news is that all these adapters can run on both 110V and 220V power; this is a major step forward compared to chargers of a vintage 15 to 20 years ago.

Provoked by all the recent hyperbole over the iPhone's supposedly long battery life, ZDNet's David Berlind, in his Berlind's Testbed blog, has brought into focus the need to consider the impact of various applications on battery life. In fact, a little tongue-in-cheek, he has issued a call for "the battery life equivalent of a 'nutrition label'". His assessment, which is also my experience:

When handsets, iPhones or otherwise, come with ratings like the ones supplied by Apple, they pretty much mean nothing. First, they don’t cover every possibility (for example, Bluetooth usage or the 2.0 megapixel camera, which a great many people will use). Second, the footnotes on Apple’s Web site describe entirely unrealistic scenarios. Third, there’s no way for a customer to know what the impact of sending and retrieving e-mail every minute or every hour (Apple’s footnote claims its “benchmarks" are based on the latter; yet another unrealistic scenario) will be on the other ratings like standby or talktime. Until people start writing about their actual experiences, it’s pure guess work.

Dan York, in a post entitled "The Truth about the iPhone and Other Devices -- .in the end it all comes down to batteries", has picked up on David's post bringing into play his experience as a wireless device product manager:

Never in my life did I expect that so much of my time in the product launch would be consumed in dealing with issues around batteries! Being a "software guy", I really had very little understanding of the nuances of power consumption and their impact on battery life.

I can certainly confirm that my evaluations of various wireless products and applications are always tempered with a "what is the impact of - and on - battery life?" I have had beta applications that would drain my device battery within hours; a sure fire application death knell if not addressed by the product's developers. As Dan so articulately states:

Batteries can only do so much - and the real challenge with a mobile device is to find every way possible to reduce power consumption so that the battery will go that much longer.

The device manufacturers have addressed battery life issues in various ways. The Nokia N95 (and N80i), for instance, includes the ability to turn off WiFi scanning, a significant power drain, once you have located a WiFi access point. Yet the N95 remains notorious amongst bloggers for its frustratingly short battery life; include me in that list. The N95's much admired GPS and 5 Megapixel camera all come at some expense to battery life. At the opposite extreme the Blackberry's API's, I am told, actually include calls which assist with battery life management; to some degree this is confirmed by my experience wherein my Blackberry 8700 has the longest battery availability without a recharge (minimum two days with Bluetooth active). For instance, I have not noticed any significant degradation of battery life when using IM+ for Skype Software in the background. Fortunately, that nXZen Bluetooth headset also comes with the same battery staying power of the Blackberry with which I most commonly use it.As we keep looking for the "ultimate" wireless mobile device, battery life is the one seemingly mundane but most important issue that always needs to be taken into account not only in product evaluation but also product design and management. Keeping various devices charged has become my biggest frustration in product evaluation. Let's hope the forthcoming Skype for Nokia N800 Internet Tablet has minimal impact on its battery life.

Turning to those Nokia and Blackberry power adapters/chargers I keep permanently attached in my car.... I knew there had to be "life after cigarettes" for the 12V socket formerly known as a cigarette lighter.

Tags: Nokia N-series, mobile device battery life, Nokia N95, Nokia N800, Blackberry, Dan York, David Berlind

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 05:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Skype marketing

• Skype UK summer competition. Ends 15 July. Win a holiday.

• SkypeOut to India and Pakistan cheaper. Ends 30 July. "£0.088 excluding VAT per minute to India and £0.081 excluding VAT per minute to Pakistan and can be made to both landlines and mobiles registered in India & Pakistan. Connection fees apply."

In the neighborhood

• $100 iPhone Shuffle to hold 1000 random phone numbers. Skype to follow with a "Dial Lucky" button.

• Jajah makes an iPhone compatible web page (less clutter, narrow width). Still waiting for a WAP-compatible page.
• Congrats to GrandCentral for buying being bought by Google. Good news: still free. Bad news: you need a friend to invite you into the system.

TwitterGrams need SkypeOut Caller ID

• TwitterGrams are to Podcasts what Twitters are to Blogs. There's demand for a Skype interface, but Skype does not provide unique caller IDs from most countries, including the US.

Recording

• Call Recorder for Skype (Mac) 2.1 ships.  

• CallBurner (Windows) works. I still use Pamela for all sorts of things but CallBurner does nothing but record. I'm testing the "anti-drift technology" that keeps both sides of the call recording in sync, a problem in longer interviews.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 05:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

My favorite Boston Red Sox fan and local Toronto-based telecom analyst Jon Arnold recently interviewed Don Albert, Skype's Vice-President and General Manager for North America. They talked about Skype's penetration into Canada, the unavailability of Canadian SkypeIn numbers and the osmosis of Skype into the small business sector.

With over 3 million Canadian users, Skype's penetration is approaching the PayPal and eBay penetration of over 5 million registered Canadian users (contrary to the worldwide ratio, there are actually more PayPal than eBay accounts in Canada). And at 84% of households with broadband connectivity, Canada represents a significant opportunity for Skype growth.

They discuss one example of how an premium travel agency uses Skype to keep in contact with "local" representatives around the world as they prepare for their customers to travel abroad on excursions and exploration trips. Amongst my personal contacts I have encountered many small businesses who use Skype to build their business globally. One virtual company that is a heavy Skype user is weblog publisher b5media, whose Vice-President Content is tech blogger Mark Evans, with both employees and bloggers around the world.

Access the podcast and hear all the details here.

Tags: Don Albert, Skype Canada, SkypeIn, Jon Arnold

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 04:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Tie-Up Telecom VARS and Consultants.
Distribution ecosystem attack.

The next time your small business buys or installs a phone system, you'll probably get help. Local help. If you're lucky, there's a specialist for your industry who know just how to set things up.

Local resellers and telecom consultants are the human face for small and medium sized businesses and vertical markets. Telecom VARs (Value Added Resellers) influence SMB buying decisions. VAR mindshare is hard to win and mandatory for marketing through the channel.

Three flavors of attack:

1. Threats. Think Sopranos: lots of innuendo with serious muscle behind it. Big vendors tell small VARs that supporting Skype or other vendors means losing their distribution relationship with [insert large telephone system vendor here]. In some markets this might even be written into contracts. When a supplier accounts for a quarter or more of your income, you take all forms of intimidation seriously.

2. Burdens. Where direct threats aren't legal, contracts compel VARs to train staff and buy service inventory. These expensive components limit how many telephony vendors a VAR can afford to offer. To keep or push Skype out of a VAR channel, increase the burden.

3. Bypass. Design solutions that don't need VARs to do anything but sell: Self-service DIY systems. All-mobile + web services. Hosted telephony. 

Skype launched its reseller program with the Skype Small Business Pack this Spring, first in Europe; more markets to follow.

Skype's reseller program can be successful in Europe where the Skype brand is known and understood. Like VoIP Watch's Andy Abramson, I'm less confident that Skype will be able to interest the average United States telecom VAR. Skype — "something consumers use" — is an alien concept. Skype will make inroads when it offers margin-dollars orders of magnitude larger than today and when customers plead for Skype solutions; neither happening in the next few quarters.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 09:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I noticed that last night the concurrent users online went below 4 million. Quite normal "night dip" for a Saturday to Sunday night, but hasn't been that low since a long time. This is also an indication that we are entering a summer slowdown, see my explanation on this phenomenon in my post of September last year.
Skype growth is however clearly slowing down!

We will not reach 10 million concurrent users online before September (my guess), and then it will have been more than 200 days to acquire one additional million. The only time it lasted longer was for the acquisition of the first million concurrent users online: it took 418 days!

In 2006, Skype grew with 3.84 million concurrent users online (at peak time). Now in the first 6 months of 2007 we only have added 1.22 million users (see the table below)!

So what? Has Skype really reached some "saturation level"?

Jean Mercier analyzes the trends on his Skype Numerology blog.

Posted by Jean Mercier at 08:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)