Glad to see there is a broader realisation of the potential of Skype.
As you said 'Skype is a global, interactive, multi-media network' and could allow any 3rd party content provider to deliver services across it, for a fee.
This is because it's not about owning the bit-pipe, it's about owning the identity, or the presence (there's a lot of philosophy behind this statement) of the customer on the internet (network).
I don't know if Skype are clued in on this, they should be, as they have had enough hints. They certainly aren't helping it to happen right now (I have had several unanswered mails to Skype), except for the vestigial affiliation scheme.
Perhaps they think they can control 'triple-play', but they would be wrong. Triple-play is the art of doing everything badly.

Hey Paul!

Good comment. I am glad you brought up "presence" since it is one of the most critical elements in the global network. And yes there is a lot of philosophy around that word/concept.

Welcome to Skype Journal.

Regards, Bill

Some comments on Skype's ability to impact the telco revenues. I was going to paste a link but it's a subscription feed.
From Totaltele.com:
Telegeography Study predicts U.S. VoIP subscriber numbers will rise to 4m by end of year.
Stephen Beckert says "It is very hard to quantify Skype … however, Skype replaces a small part of the revenue [of carriers]." .... "Most people that I know use Skype to see if friends or family abroad are online. They will then pick up the phone to call them," he added.
Mr Beckert, your friends are not being entirely honest with you!

Hi Paul!

Not only is it a subscription it is an expensive one. (smile)

We don't know if Skype will emerge as the winner, but we do know that Skype so dominates VON or VoIP space that no company can afford to ignore them. If you want to play in this space you must be able to answer the question, "What's your Skype strategy?" From reading Mr Beckert's comments, he clearly can't do that.

Paul, thanks for sharing that one.

Regards, Bill

Hi there,

I heartely agree with the view that Skype is a global multi-media network. This phrase is, in fact, a great encapsulation of Skype's potential. Our Company, Advanced Data Management, uses Skype on a daily basis to communicate with colleagues, friends, and customers. As I wrote a month ago in an article about Skype: 'Why Skype is Much More Powerful Than Your Phone' ==========
by Eric Sommer
Applications which use the internet to make free computer-to-computer telephone calls have been around for perhaps 8 years. Until now, however, the long-distance telephone providers had little to worry about, because none of the internet substitutes worked very well. Dialing another party could be complex, voice quality was poor, and there were other problems. But with the advent of Skype (www.skype.com ) all that has changed: Skype is the world's first effective computer-to-computer free telephone system. Voice quality is crystal clear - most of the time it's as good or better than the phone. Download and installation are a snap. And use of the system is extremelly simple to master.
But that's only the beginning of the story. In fact, Skype is not just a free or cheap substitute for the phone. It's a whole new - and much more powerful - way to communciate with people.
Let me illustrate this contention with a story.
A week ago a friend of mine here in Beijing, China 'Skyped' me to say that he had personally wittnessed a huge anti-Japanese rally of Chinese students in the hi-tech district of downtown Beijing (in Zhong Guancun, 'China's Silicon Valleyj').
The students were protesting the falsification of the history in new Japanese textbooks; as it happended, I knew about these texts, which claim that it was somehow Chinese people's fault that Japanese soldiers massacred several hundred thousand Chinese in Nanking during World War II, including rape and murder of large numbers of women and children.
The goal of the students was to initiate a consumer boycott, and persuade the many large techmarts and department stores in downtown Beijing to cease to sell Japanese electronic consumer products and other goods until Japan corrects this false presentation of history.
In any event, and up to that point, we could have had this conversation on an ordinary phone. But then things got technically interesting, and I did some things I can't do on a phone..
First, I did a quick internet news search while chatting away on Skype - and found several just published articles on this demonstration, and on several similar demonstrations in other parts of China. I can't do that on a phone.
Then, I dropped the links to these articles onto my skype textchat component and - bah bing! - my friend had the links and was able to look at the articles and discuss them with me, also something we could never do on a phone.
Next, while still talking to me about the articles, my friend then sent me - over the Skype text chat - a whole article he had found - another thing I can't do on the phone.
Finally, we wound up the conversation by promising to stay in touch on the matter. But it didn't stop there.
A few minutes later I looked at my Skype buddy list and saw that my Korean sister Jihyheon was online and available - something else I can't do on my phone. I then 'Skyped' Jihyeon in Seoul, South Korea - and learned that she didn't know about the Chinese demonstrations,
So I sent her the news links I and my Beijing friend had gathered, and she said: "This is very interesting" and then sent me some links to articles on the Dok Do Island dispute between Korea and Japan. Koreans, like Chinese, are peeved with Japan at this time, partially because Japan is claiming Dok Do island which is functionally part of Korean territory, and partially because new Japanese textbooks now also ignore or gloss over Japanese attrocities in Korea during their occupation of Korea before and during the second world, including the enslavement of thousands of Korean women as 'comfort women' for the Japanese troops.
After our discussion and information-sharing on these matters, Jihyeon and I chatted about some personal things and then went our seperate ways.
In less than an hour I had, via Skype, effortlessly - and without cost - spoken and simultanously shared links and documents with people in two countries. I had also dramatically expanded my knowledge on a complex inter-related set of issues, and I had done so at no cost. That's why I say that: "Skype is much more powerful than your phone."

Best, Eric Sommer, CEO, Advanced Data Managaement

Interesting paper, but Skype is not the only program offering VoIP products. Yahoo Voice, Wengo and Voipbuster for example are growing fast. If you want to compare these products you could have a look over here; http://www.voipproducts.eu