David has led this exciting project since its inception back in the spring of this year.

Once a call from Skype is terminated on an Asterisk machine then the business and Call Center markets should blossom for Skype. Pika's technology will boost Skype's user base in North America. Terminating Skype calls on a PBX (Asterisk or whatever) is not new. VoSky Exchange, Spintronics, ZipCom and Skype2PBX all do this. But David tells me "these USB-based interfaces are limited in functionality and are not scalable."

I asked, "David, Skype users cannot buy a SkypeIn number in Canada. Can your technology help a business who needs that capability?"

"Yes, Bill, it can. It is simply a matter of purchasing a Direct Inward Dialing number (DID). That will terminate to the Asterisk Call Center Server and Asterisk will transfer it to your SkypeID without incurring a SkypeOut charge. Remember Bill, we can even terminate SIP numbers to a Skype Client."

"We will be at the VON Fall conference in Boston next week. Our technology goes live on our Web site later today so Skype Users can reach us on Skype. We are looking for companies who have deployed Asterisk to do beta-trails with us. We will ship product in November."

"You sound excited David." "You bet I am Bill. Around our office I refer to what we are doing as a mash up of Skype and Asterisk technologies. It is exciting because it takes Skype users anywhere they want to go and back. SIP, Analog and digital PSTN without incurring SkypeOut minutes, and does so without affecting audio quality due to issues such as latency, etc. Our AllOnHost™ voice processing technology is for businesses, this is for Call Centers, this is business class product.

The beauty of our product is it saves our customers money and it makes it more convenient for them to contact us. This game is all about the customer."

Thanks David, it looks like you've got a breakthrough technology. Thanks for sharing it with me and our readers. No more dreaming about when we will get Call Center functionality for Skype. It's here. And love your price point. $35 per port. Smart. Cheaper than a USB Adapter! All I can say is wow!

Addendum
While I was writing the story David was deploying their product inside Pika.

I got this Chat Message from David on Skype: "for interest sake would you like to test the live system? go to www.pikatech.com. it should be fairly intuitive to use. when you hit our auto attendant my extension is 1052"

I clicked his link and...

Clicked the call button, listened to the Auto Call Attendant, entered the 1052 extention, and David answers, "Bill you are the first to test our system." Lucky me, the voice quality was the Skype perfection I am used too; lucky David. (Grin)

Try it. Give David a call.