Via Martin Geddes upcoming changes to interconnect policies. Restricting the flow to bits is not good for you and me.

an impending change in the US in the way carriers settle for internetworking. The traditional solution has been for payments to be made to the party terminating the call by the party that initiated it (who is collecting the money from you for making the call). The future approach is called...

Just earlier today we are talking about statistics. Now we have a confirmation that SkypeOut is overwhelmed. In the meantime Skype Free Calling

As a result of overwhelming demand and unforeseen call traffic to the regular telephone network, we are unfortunately experiencing technical difficulties which impact call completions and quality in the SkypeOut network.

For your troubles and while we resolve these matters, even if you were or are able...

One thing I've always wondered is why Skype doesn't embrace better statistics. Many years ago McDonalds actually counted the number of people served. Then one day it became billions and billions and all of a sudden that statistic no longer was relevant. Yet in the early days it provided a nice measure of success. By contrast Skype's number of downloads, registered users and number online is not enough to fuel a community and... ... continue reading.....

It was inevitable that iTunes would converge with mobile phones. It also completely true to form that Apple would come out fighting about Real Networks Harmony move. Both these players work in walled garden worlds.

Taking that old alliance into the digital media era, now the iTunes capability will be included in all of Motorola's mass market music phones, the two companies said,
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- what operator in its right mind will... ... continue reading.....

Jeff Pulver's blog posts come without any fulll feed subscription so I scan the titles from time to time and then visit (I can provide the full feed template!). Today this took me to a post of Broadband Parasites, however what I found most interesting was this quote on his original paper from one year ago. Jeff is not alone in thinking that mobility is the real VoIP play.

To keep things... ... continue reading.....

Russell captures the frustration and the complexity of linking mobility with our texting and presence desires in this post below. I know I use less SMS and I certainly use my Agile Messenger but so far the synching he wants eludes us all. For those with data connections this could be made a whole lot easier if my laptop was the equivalent of a traditional bedroom extension for my mobile phone. Now all these... ... continue reading.....

SkypeOut launches with rates way up versus the "beta" version. Some of the early adopters are hopping mad with more than one thread in the forum. Here is a comparison of the rate changes. This PR mistake are very similar to MT's announcement of new license terms. The community was outraged there too. For my two cents:

Skype releases Version 1.0 including SkypeOut which enables PSTN calls. I hear there is a revision coming in the rates although they are not currently available on the site. Maybe something to do with Slashdot. Some recent new features.

Skype announced additional deals last week with ITSP's (Internet Telephony Service Providers). Now it looks like Skype may have uses SIP (Session Initiation Prototcol) to provide the interconnect. If so this is both a big deal and a stark contrast to comments made at the time of VON Canada. I've never heard anyone at Skype say good things about SIP, although on that score they are not alone. Now there are also good... ... continue reading.....

Last week I pondered a Register article by Andrew Orlowski on Symbian Founder Insights who commented that Skype was a Chimera. I'm still trying to figure out what he meant.

It's like a magic trick. Skype is not offering a whole product in a mass market. It's in a small market and it's a chimera. Skype couldn't roll out their service to compete with anything, globally. OK, they might be...

Verizon announced a move today into the VoIP market. Accelerating towards VoIP by major carriers is now inevitable, however this move lacks the innovative edge of British Telecom's move with Yahoo last week. That move is easy to communicate. Remember you had your first phone, then you got a bedroom extension! Now you can take it with you on your laptop on vacation etc.

When I first saw the BT announcement my response... ... continue reading.....