VOIP Relays

I’ve done plenty of blogging, writing and podcasting about these 3 topics - VoIP, Vonage and Skype - over the years, and sometimes I feel I’m the last one standing pointing to any signs of hope for Vonage. Well, I may have a kindred spirit in Ike Elliott, whom I’ve been getting to know better recently. He’s turned up in a few of my posts, and his blog, Telecosm - love the name - is really starting to find its voice.

All good stuff here, and I just want to shine some light on Ike and the good work he’s doing. Am sure he and I will find a way to tease these ideas out further another time - maybe here, maybe on his blog, maybe on a podcast. And if you want a bit more, come visit the IP Convergence TV portal, which I am the Editor of. Ike has just written a Guest Opinion article on this topic, and it will be posted in the next day or so.

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Skype has recently hit a couple of big milestones, and for all the problems around their marriage with eBay, you have to step back and give them some credit for doing things that have never been done before. First off is the recent news that Skype has passed the 100 billion minute mark. I don’t know about you, but I sure can’t count that high, and it’s a huge number, especially for a service that’s only been around a few years.

You only hit 100 billion once, and it’s a great testament to what Niklas and Janus started only a few years ago, and I’d say it’s definitely worthy of recognition. And for what it’s worth, I’ve used Skype more today than I have in ages, so in my very small way, I’m helping the cause. Technorati tags: Skype, Jon Arnold, VoIP, Skype Journal.

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Been a real full day, and had a few posts I wanted to get out, but I’m only going to get this one done today. It’s verging on old news by now, but I still think it’s worth noting, and hey, not everybody is an uber-blogger, so it just might still be news to you. So, the search for a new CEO at Skype is over, and I got the news yesterday morning from Jim Courtney, a Toronto-based colleague who is a prime contributor to Skype Journal.

If it does, everyone wins and eBay becomes a market driver and bona fide innovator again. Otherwise, Skype will become a liability for eBay, making it certain to be acquired, perhaps at a bargain price. I sure hope the latter doesn’t happen, as the market needs disruptors like Skype, and having just passed the 100 billion minute mark last week, you really want to believe their star is still rising.

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Polycom has announced that the VoiceStation 500, conference phone is now Skype compatible and certified.   The look of this conference phone is really stylish (at least in my opinion ) and the fact that it is now compatible with the Skype platform makes it a really attracting otion since it can provide cheap conference calls and we all know how important is for businesses to cut costs as much as possible.

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Some people seem to have this burning desire to connect sip calls through to Skype users.   I’m not sure why you wouldn’t just give them a native SIP/IAX client such as Zoiper Free, but for those who feel they can only have one voice communications client running on their desktop, and that client has to be Skype, then head on over to Tom Keating’s VoIP & Gadgets Blog: Ok, so Skype, Inc.

In the alternative, I wish that Asterisk would start including a wide-bandwidth codec (something that would go out to 8,000 Hz at a minimum) for intra-Asterisk calls - obviously this couldn’t be used for calls to the PSTN, but it would be great if VoIP users had the option to use a wider bandwidth, instead of being limited to the (approximately) 3,000 Hz bandwidth that’s been the standard in the telephone industry since the days of vacuum tube amplification.

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I love Best Of and Top lists. They take the work out of stumbling through so many different applications that others wiser than I have gone through. Today I spied this VoIP News Top Five Skype Add Ins list. In many cases, it mirrors some of the comments I’ve read or heard from pals Jim Courtney at Skype Journal which only adds additional credibility to the lists.

What I’m seeing with the add-ins is how Skype has really become a pipe within a pipe, something I felt was coming around the time of eBay’s acquisition. With each add-in it becomes easier and easier for two way communications users to build their world around Skype for many interactive, one on one activities, like web conferencing and desktop sharing.

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Blue Box Podcast #76 is now available discussing Cisco, Skype and BT vulnerabilities, when SIP looks like SPIT, VoIP security threat predictions and the FBI forgets to pay their bills, plus listener comments and more… Jonathan and I recorded the show on January 22nd and I’m now *almost* caught up with 1 main show still in the production queue (and about 10 special editions!) Technorati Tags: bluebox, blue box, voip, voip security, security .

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Call With Your Cell Phone With SkypeCall Skype users to their PCs and make cost-effective calls to any destination. Now Skype is available for your Cell Phone and you can make your VoIP telephone calls from anywhere also when travelling. IM+ for Skype is a mobile IM client with an optimized Web site to access Skype via your browser with your Cell Phone.

You have to pay a small fee for the application, and no recurring monthly subscription. By purchasing IM+ you are entitled to all software upgrades and updates. Jim PriceVoIP and Cell Phone Bloghttp://www. voip-voice-over-ip. com/blog IM+ for Skype is a real improvement for your Windows Mobile Pocket PC to call via VoIP to your friends. .

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Skype actually changed the way we communicate. Traditional telecommunications companies like AT+T pressed the panic button and launched their own voice over ip service. IP-Telephony is no longer the cautiously protected secret of computer freaks it was before. With Skype voice over ip it is easy to bring your business confidently to the global market. At the beginning Skype was launched as an Instant Messaging PC tool with voice as an add on.

Redirect your calls with SkypeIn to your Skype number no matter where you are. Than redirect the call with SkypeOut to your cellular phone. When you answer the call with SkypeOut on your cellular phone no one will know that your are sitting on the porch in your garden in Miami. The real power of Skype lies in the additional applications SkypeIn and SkypeOut and makes it a versatile tool for business owners, and for everyone with a %PC%.

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eBay in what could be viewed as an inside corporate deck chair shuffling type move has named a new CEO for Skype. I say could, because the selected CEO actually brings some very good chops to the once disruptive telco-pipe-IM player, and he himself has been on the leading edge with at least two companies. The pick comes after a very exhaustive search for a new Skype leader that included at least two external candidates having extensive meetings late last year with former eBay leader Meg Whitman .

My take is simple. Good hire by the new eBay CEO to promote from within. But don’t expect much news from Skype and Silverman for a few months. He’s got a lot of internal work to do, including sifting through the current team in three different locations and building his own model for the company. Update-Om Malik, has similar thoughts to mine. Ironically, I had not read his post until after writing mine.

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