Category: Skype
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Clarifying how Asterisk could possibly be used as a Skype-to-SIP gateway
Continue Reading: Clarifying how Asterisk could possibly be used as a Skype-to-SIP gatewayAfter my post yesterday about “Skype for Asterisk” (and the update post) and the potential it allows for SIP interoperability via Asterisk, I’ve received a few comments that seemed to interpret what I wrote as somehow indicating that the Skype announcement somehow meant that there was new “Skype to SIP” functionality in the “Skype for Asterisk” announcement.
Just to be clear, there isn’t any new “Skype to SIP” functionality in the “Skype for Asterisk” piece announced yesterday by Digium and Skype. None.
It is purely a commercially-licensed software module (which most of us speculate will be a binary software module, i.e. we won’t be able to actually see the code) that provides two-way connectivity from Asterisk to and from the Skype cloud. Skype users can call into an Asterisk system. Users connected to an Asterisk system can call out to Skype users. Users on the Asterisk system can also call to the PSTN (via what was called “SkypeOut”) and receive calls from the PSTN (via what was called “SkypeIn”).
That’s it. That was the announcement yesterday. Period. End-of-story.
However, the point I was making in my post yesterday was this announcement has the potential to turn Asterisk into a two-way…
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More on how “Skype For Asterisk” actually works…
Continue Reading: More on how “Skype For Asterisk” actually works…As per usual, Tom Keating gets us more details on the “Skype For Asterisk” beta program I just wrote about… in his update post, Tom explains how it will work:Well, on an inbound call to your Skype username, both your Skype desktop client rings (if running) and your Asterisk IP phone rings. You can take the call using either your PC’s Skype software or your IP phone. Similarly, if someone calls your SkypeIn number, both will ring. Further, if someone dials your corporate auto-attendant, and then enters an extension number, it will still ring both your Skype client and your regular IP phone.
His post discusses how you can assign Skype names to Asterisk call queues and then includes this intriguing text:
When asked how Skype IP-PBX gateway appliances are affected by this announcement, Stefan Öberg VP & GM Telecom for Skype said, “The appliances that are out there now have built their solutions on standard Linux client. They’ve used the public API on that and basically are running many instances of Skype Linux client. Obviously, that’s not the way the Linux client was meant to be implemented. So those solutions are not scalable or reliable to the extend that…
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Does “Skype for Asterisk” tear down some of Skype’s walls? (and allow SIP-to-Skype?)
Continue Reading: Does “Skype for Asterisk” tear down some of Skype’s walls? (and allow SIP-to-Skype?)Does today’s announcement of a beta version of “Skype for Asterisk” signal a way to tear down some of Skype’s walls? And does this move Skype along toward better SIP interoperability?The announcement happened out at Astricon today and TMC’s Tom Keating had one of the first posts about it – updated with info from TMC reporters who are at Astricon. Both the Digium news release and the Skype blog post highlight these four points that Asterisk users will be able to do:
- Make, receive and transfer Skype calls with multiple Skype names from within Asterisk phone systems, using existing hardware.
- Complement existing Asterisk services with low Skype global rates (as low as 1.7€¢ / 2.1US¢ per minute to more than 35 countries worldwide).
- Save money on inbound calling solutions such as free click-to-call from a website, as well as receive inbound calling from the PSTN throughcreate virtual offices all over world using Skype’s online numbers.
- Manage Skype calls using Asterisk applications such as call routing, conferencing, phone menus and voicemail.
I want to focus on one part of the first bullet. Recall that in my last post about Skype and SIP interoperability I talked about how Skype currently…
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Skype and SIP interop – the two sides of the issue raised by Michael Robertson
Continue Reading: Skype and SIP interop – the two sides of the issue raised by Michael RobertsonShould Skype open up it’s network to other users? to other networks? Should Skype stop preaching about “openness” when it’s network remains closed?In the middle of last week, there was quite a little storm raised in the VoIP corner of the blogosphere after Andy Abramson published a letter from Gizmo Project founder Michael Robertson critical of Skype’s openness after Skype continued to call upon the FCC to open the wireless network to applications. (See also here and this Skype blog post (and this one) for background.) Being at ITEXPO last week, I didn’t have the chance to blog about this at the length I felt it deserved until today.
First, for some context, here are some of the blog posts last week:
- Andy in VoIPWatch: Gizmo Project’s Michael Robertson Sounds Off
- Phil Wolff asks some pointed questions (of Michael) at Skype Journal: Michael Robertson says Skype should open to Gizmo Project
- Phil posts: Michael Robertson Responds where Michael responds to Phil’s questions
- Andy responds: For the Record, Gizmo vs. Skype
- Alec Saunders had a whole cast of characters on Friday’s SquawkBox, including Andy, Michael Robertson, Jim Courtney (Skype Journal) and a good number of others.
- Phil posts: A few…
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Skype’s 5 years of disruption… (Happy Birthday, Skype!)
Continue Reading: Skype’s 5 years of disruption… (Happy Birthday, Skype!)Five years ago today, the first public beta of Skype launched, and in a blog post today new Skype CEO Josh Silverman celebrates with “Five Years of Wow“. It’s a bit of the “Ra-Ra” celebratory kind of post I would expect from a CEO but ends nicely with this:So, as we celebrate the first five years of Skype, let’s raise a toast to the human desire to connect.
Indeed!
Skype has done a great amount to help people easily connect to each other. It’s also caused a heck of a lot of disruption within the telecommunications industry. I use Skype daily (Skype ID: danyork) and it has indeed become a significant part of both my business workflow and personal life.
A PERSONAL REMINDER
I had a personal reminder of that the other day when I wound up in a video chat with one of my closest friends who was my best man at my wedding 12 years ago. Although we have spoken in the intervening years, we had not actually seen each other in probably most of 10 years due to living far apart. He and his wife emailed a group of folks that they now had a Skype…
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Skype 4.0 beta discussion on Squawk Box podcast now available
Continue Reading: Skype 4.0 beta discussion on Squawk Box podcast now availableI realized today that although I wrote that Skype’s Mark Bartlett would be joining a Squawk Box conf call back on Friday, June 20th, I never followed up with the link to the show.That discussion about the Skype 4.0 beta is available from Saunderslog.com. I could not participate in the actual call, but it sounded interesting. I’m still not thrilled by Skype’s cross-platform “answer”, but it is what it is. Jim Courtney over at Skype Journal has a longer writeup about the call which covers some of the main points of the call.
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Skype 4.0 seriously disrupts the Skype UI – is this a good thing?
Continue Reading: Skype 4.0 seriously disrupts the Skype UI – is this a good thing?Will Skype’s new Skype 4.0 user interface simplify the experience and brings in masses of new users? Or will it annoy and alienate the longtime (and often paying) users of Skype?As a Mac user perpetually left behind in Skype’s development process, I can’t personally report on the new 4.0 beta which is Windows-only and apparently due out tomorrow, but reports are starting to come out… TechCrunch says “Skype 4.0 Beta: It’s All About Video” and Andy Abramson discusses how this might allow future video advertising (and how Skype needs a CTO). I expect we should be hearing from the Skype Journal folks soon as well.
In watching Skype’s three Daily Motion videos about the release, I had these quick thoughts:
- The Skype window now covers the full screen. Instead of having a separate window for your contacts, separate windows for each chat (which we Mac users have had collected together in a single chat window with a “drawer” for some time) and a separate window for each call, it’s all in one window. While I can see this being a benefit for new users, as someone who has been using Skype for now… what?… 3 or 4 years?…
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Can the carriers/telcos really create a Skype-killing replacement?
Continue Reading: Can the carriers/telcos really create a Skype-killing replacement?That’s the question raised by Om Malik in “Global Telcos Plotting a Skype Rival?” and will be one of the topics of discussion on tomorrow’s Squawk Box podcast. Om starts:AT&T, in conjunction with some 10-15 incumbent telecom carriers — British Telecom, Deutsche Telecom and NTT among them — is plotting to launch a Skype competitor, according to a research report issued this morning by ThinkEquity analyst Anton Wahlman.
And goes on from there at some length into the theories, timeframes and capabilities of the rumored network. While I haven’t had time personally to contribute directly to the conversation, others have:
- Tom Keating dismisses this as utter hogwash and pure speculation
- Jim Courtney (Skype Journal) sees this as much ado about nothing
- Andy Abramson notes the connections to GSMA and ITU
- Eric Lagerway thinks it could be exactly what the industry needs but that the telcos will probably screw it up
- Carolyn Schuk believes that we’ll see this skype-killer from the telcos about when elephants fly
- Dameon Welch-Abernathy (PhoneBoy) says the carriers need to get back to their roots (and embeds a great 1980 Bell commercial)
- Alec Saunders doubts the carriers can do it and thinks the things he said…
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Tracking iSkoot’s security issue exposing Skype usernames and passwords
Continue Reading: Tracking iSkoot’s security issue exposing Skype usernames and passwordsOver on the Voice of VOIPSA weblog, I have been tracking a security issue in the iSkoot program that was transmitting your Skype username and password in the clear. The post, its comments, and the corresponding links off of it make for some interesting reading.It also shows the speed at which the blogosphere can react and potentially help sort things out. In the space of about 48 hours, a problem was found, confirmed, identified by the vendor and apparently will be fixed shortly. I’ll be writing more about this later today over on the Voice of VOIPSA weblog, but for now I’ll just say that it’s great to see that the problem is being dealt with.
Technorati Tags: voip, voip security, voipsecurity, security, skype, iskoot, symbian, phoneboy
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Skype further commoditizes voice with their “unlimited” subscription plans…
Continue Reading: Skype further commoditizes voice with their “unlimited” subscription plans…Today’s buzz in the VoIP space is certainly Skype’s announcement of new “unlimited” subscription plans. No contracts. No connection fees. No per-minute fees. Just a single flat, monthly fee.The Global Difference
Now on the one hand, this isn’t really new to those of us here in North America. We had an “unlimited” plan for all of NA that was good up until several months back when Skype dropped the plan and required everyone to move onto “Skype Pro”. However, the big difference this time around is simple:
The unlimited plan is global!
Well, at least “global” in the sense that the 34 countries to which the plan pertains are indeed spread out all around the globe:
Regardless, it’s an impressive list and, as Skype’s news release reminds us, means you have “unlimited” calling to about a third of the world’s population. (This statistic is, of course, hugely helped by the fact that the plan includes China!) So now with your PC, or 3 Skypephone over in Europe, you can now make an “unlimited” number of calls to regular old PSTN phone numbers in those countries.
Goodbye international calling plans!
Given that here in the USA, we’ve seen most all…