Skype's pipe dream?

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Skype Hype

Congratulations!

Skype has shown the power of marketing!

Peer-to-peer VoIP (more precisely, PC to PC) has existed for many years now.

It started with VocalTec, expanded to include many others. Even Microsoft Messenger and AOl AIM have PC-to-PC VoIP.

Skype shows once again the power of marketing. By focusing on a single product/feature, they were able to improve it (voice quality, user interface) and promote it widely based on their prior media attention.

However, instead of joining the hype-train, a few things should be remembered:

The quality of Skype is due to it's proprietary vocoder/VoIP technology. We are in an era of open-source an open standards; Skype's completely proprietary technical solution is expediant but contrary to consumer and industry trends.

Peer-to-peer claims of "scalability without any investment in infrastructure" - more specifically softswitches, routers, and media gateways is no big deal.

All PC-to-PC VoIP services did not, and do not, need infrastructure.

Only when offering the more valuable Pc-to-real-telephone-line is infrastructure needed.

Of course, surprise, surprise, Skype, like everyone else, will be charging for this.

Remember DialPad? They offered FREE Pc-to-telephone service for a while but their dot.com model of paid-by-advertising didn't work out and they become yet-another-pay-per-call VoIP provider.

I don't see the business model for Skype. With all-you-can-eat VoIP from Vonage, AT&T and others, most callers would be better off getting those services instead of pay-per-call.

And with Vonage, et. al. its "instant-on" - just pick up the phone. No need to leave your Pc on all day to make calls or receive incoming calls.

Posted by: spiv   Posted on: 09/28/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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