I sometimes get a little disenchanted as I see yet another article on "presence" as a killer app that starts with buddylists and little icons. (See below.) I don't see much discussion on methods and means to enhance presence and make it even more useful. I'm not using the term "presence" broadly here. This is a brief note that says it is time to start thinking about how presence indicators and information can be integrated... ... continue reading.....

More on how converged networks mean I could get my cellphone ringing on my PC, my homephone ringing on my Wi-Fi enabled cell phone etc.?

The initiative shows that, however reluctant some cellcos have been to embrace Wi-Fi and the potential erosion of GPRS/3G revenues, there is now a critical mass of operators that realize multiple networks are the way of the future. Wireline and full service carriers such as BT and France Telecom...

Still mulling Aswath's comment on VoIP User (obtain your free UK local-rate telephone number (DID) which can be forwarded to any landline in a number of countries in the World, your SIP software or hardware phone) over.

How is it that the service is so inexpensive? Indeed, VoIPuser gives away virtual numbers in UK and will terminate the calls to not just any SIP or IAX2 destination, but also landlines...

A supportive duo for the new order of telecoms. Rob Paterson on regaining human contact and new refinements in audio quality. And Om Malik on the VoIP Insurrection. Both are long and enjoyable posts. Om's finishes with a warning that telecoms won't go easy. They won't. In fact the only way to attack as an upstart is to create a business that is something else entirely and do nothing that looks like a traditional telecom.... ... continue reading.....

I’d been working on my one year Skype thoughts and found that I needed to posit it in more bite sized pieces for the blog. Plus that meant I didn’t have to stick to an order. So this post targets the question. What Skypers really want! I’m not alone in asking this. Recently Andreas posted to the forum.

First and foremost se SKYPERS expect and want SkypeOut to work. There has been a... ... continue reading.....

Where will the new communications companies create value? Two posts today... One tracing to the "End of Telecom" and the other another "End of E-Mail". What will superceed the phone and e-mail as the primary means of doing business?

Via Om Malik Daniel Berninger's post is a good read.

As Dan points out in his well worded op-ed, The End of Telecom,

"The telephone incumbents find themselves in a bind...

Let's step back for a moment. Skype's business model is dramatically different to the traditional telecoms. For the most part all the hardware required to operate the network is owned by the individuals using the service. Thus unlike traditional telecoms there is no need to build out infrastructure, new users simply bring it to Skype. In that way it is similar to the Seti at Home project.

Increasingly I think of Skype's... ... continue reading.....

In today's issue of Business Week there is a plea for Jobs to get into the phone business. Frankly, it is too late for Jobs to heed the call. This shallow article misses the point entirely. Arguing that iChat and Apple should now be in the phone business is a failure to understand the emerging infrastructure. If Apple had responded to Skype a year ago like they thought through iTunes they may have had a... ... continue reading.....

Ah so blogging does have impact. Skype adopts my Millions and Millions statistics suggestion.

From my earlier post....

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... ... continue reading.....

In the last few days the visibility of telephone "numbers" and their importance has been appearing in blogs. From personal experience and checking what VoIP services can offer this remains a huge barrier to change. Rich Terani writes about transferring his home number with Vonage (failed!) and I know that I couldn't get one in my area. Few ITSP can provide numbers for all regions, in fact in some countries they are now assigning... ... continue reading.....

Recent links on P2P.

One application I can already predict is a micro-Napster like file sharing system, which streams instead of shares files based on these breakthroughs. So with only 128 megabytes of memory you could have a decent jukebox to share with people Om Malik on Broadband: When P2P Goes Mobile

We chose file sharing to illustrate how SIP can be used to build...

I've been writing of and on about Skype for over ONE YEAR. That makes me a Skype Oldtimer. There have been some lessons and opportunities in it for me. At one time I was described as a consumer evangelist and others have questioned why I've blogged it so much. After a year and I don't know how many posts I'm still sure that it is a disruptive innovation. From my perspective Skype is also... ... continue reading.....

Belated Birthday wishes to Skype who just turned one. As I post this there are 625,000 users online. The numbers in Skype's first year letter are interesting. Despite what Kevin Werbach says I think Skype is the largest effective VoIP network. The other IM systems still can't substitute for a phone call. In a second piece of news it was noted that Skype has about 100000 paid up customers for SkypeOut. That is... ... continue reading.....