The recent announcement from Skype that all Skype calls are free in North America until the end of the year has had some profound effects already in some surprising places. One that we have noticed here at VoIP News is how much easier the combination of free SkypeOut and Skype recording software make things for journalists. We got into this early at VoIP News since we used this combination even before SkypeOut was free, but it is quietly and rapidly taking journalism and even podcasting by storm. Here’s how it works:

You download and install Skype - and test it. You need to get a good quality headset for your computer because you want good voice recording quality and a good sound environment for your interviews - even if you are conducting them at a cybercafe. There are about six programs you can get that offer recording of Skype calls. Others have pointed out that they like PrettyMay, a program that is free - but it has limitations - in this case a 30 minute recording limit. We need more than that for interviews and have been using the little-known but exceptional PowerGramo, a program that offers unlimited recording.

One enterprising Skype user ran into an unexpected problem recently. He called to check his account information using SkypeOut and his card’s customer service automatically blocked the card because a call came in from an unidentifiable number. Smart but not smart enough. Still, it’s nice to know that the credit card company is even that much on top of things….

But it brings up a valid point - until Caller ID, the PSTN numbering system and the VoIP ENUM standardized call directory all can interoperate, there are going to be a lot of little headaches like this one.

Technorati Tags: Skype, VoIP

Cablevision announced today that it has signed up one million subscribers to its Optimum Voice VoIP platform. Now that could be seen as not very significant since it has a captive audience that are already getting broadband access from the cable provider. In fact one million is about a third of Cablevision’s customers, which is a significant number. The real question is, how many of those customers are turning off their landline service? And will the cable companies be able to persuade them to do so given concerns over e911 and quality? Plus, when customers look at the outrageous monthly charges of all the captive cable company VoIP services, are they going to rebel?

On the other hand, the captive customer model clearly is working well - and Telcos themselves aren’t exactly offering market-leading pricing to their customers - whether in VoIP or not…

Technorati Tags: VoIP, Cablevision, service provider

The Microsoft - Nortel deal just announced is, on the face of it, a really smart move and a real sign that Microsoft really wants to successfully drive unified communications all the way inside its Office products (key word successfully). But it could also be a last grasp at some straws for Nortel and a too-little-too-late reaction to everyone else, from Cisco down to Yahoo! and Google. (To be fair, the VoIP Now article referenced is actually arguing that this could be a billion dollar windfall for Nortel and Microsoft).

This time it really does seem that Microsoft is getting something really right in the Enterprise space. For all its past struggles, Nortel is a player in the enterprise VoIP market and a well done integration with the Microsoft platform that really delivered on unified communications embedded into the already dominant Office applications would be a huge win in the enterprise space and a potential huge opportunity in the form of a new revenue stream, service and support opportunities, locking in a customer base and a lot more.

We can’t help but think that this is a sweeter deal for Nortel in some ways than for Microsoft. Office is already dominant. Nortel gets an automatic entree into host of new businesses, etc. But Microsoft has a lot to do to fend off rivals, from Google and Yahoo! on the desktop to all kinds of players, even Oracle, in the enterprise.

Technorati Tags: VoIP, Microsoft, Nortel, Enterprise

There are some unsettling signs that the business community is souring on VoIP a little - mostly because of the Vonage IPO debacle.

But look a little deeper and there is still a lot of money pouring into VoIP - just not into the big names. Case in point, Jangl.

So what precisley is going on? What seems to be happening is that the market is slowly recognizing what most of the hard core VoIP boosters have been saying all along - that the real secret to VoIP is in the services and applications that make use of it or that find creative ways to deliver it, not in the plain old phone call itself.

Technorati Tags: VoIP, Vonage IPO, internet telephony

We just ran across a really neat application for VoIP technology that is being used to give international mobile phone users a really cheap way to call one another. Rebtel gets users to register their location at each end of the call and then assigns each user a temporary local number. Each user then calls their local number, paying only for a local call and the two local calls are bridged via VoIP by Rebtel. While this is a slightly complicated setup, since international mobile phone calls are so expensive, Rebtel can save users a LOT of money. Rebtel charges US$1 per week for the service and users do have to pay local mobile phone calling charges.

Another way to look at this is that rather than saving international mobile/cell phone users a lot of money, it is going to cut out a highly profitable segment of the cellular provider’s business.

And look for some enterprising person to start building a directory of Rebtel users so that callers can call without having to do a setup beforehand. Of course, for that to fully succeed it’s going to have to track presence as well.

After a slightly snarky comment to our previous blog post about the ongoing Korean VoIP blocking scandal, I put in some serious thought about how ironic it is that a very pro-military segment of our representatives could take a stance on Net Neutrality that is already playing out to hurt the ordinary working military men and women who these same representatives support so publicly.

Here’s how it works.

Korea has a very advanced broadband infrastructure - produced with a huge amount of government intervention in order to develop and promote advanced technologies that Korea can export to the world (and as a source of national pride). That infrastructure is operated on a model very similar to that in the US - which is to say that access to the network is controlled by a few semi-monopolistic service provider giants. So far very similar to the US with the exception that our broadband network is slower and less pervasive than Korea’s.

Next, we find out that KOREAN service providers have been proposing to block free or overseas VoIP services across the Korean network - because they (to paraphrase) are interfering with the provider’s serious business and paid traffic by using up bandwidth that should be paid for. In other words, there are different classes of broadband user according to these companies. Sound familiar?

Turns out that means that US military personnel were going to be blocked as well. Why aren’t they being? Because the US government stepped in and brokered a temporary deal to leave service on. But it isn’t a permanent solution. So, we have the very thing Net Neutrality opponents are screaming is unecessary - government intervention.

The parallels are obvious. And what worked in practice? Are our representatives paying attention or are they solely focussed a little further North?

Time to get educated and involved.

Technorati Tags: net neutrality, voip                 Skype Gateway Info

 

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