Blog of VoIP Blogs

Skype Developer Ecosystem Sucks

2005-07-12T04:32:00.000-07:00

Dameon D. Welch-Abernathy - PhoneBoy's Blog

It's funny, last week Andy was saying how Skype is like Open Source and how he points to this scathing piece from Stuart Henshall on
how Skype's developer ecosystem needs major improvements.

I think I agree with Andy's last statement: "Everything Skype does is designed to HYPE SKYPE. Nothing more."

But then again, I've been saying Skype is not much more than hype for quite a while.

Eurobites: VOIP's Hot

2005-07-12T04:31:00.000-07:00

Tom Tom - eurovoip

The inevitable is finally happening on the mainland of Europe – incumbent carriers are starting to offer widely available VOIP services that cannibalize their precious, traditional, circuit-switched voice revenues.

The time, it seems, has finally come when Europe's major operators (outside Scandinavia, where everything happens in advance) have realized that if they don't offer voice-over-broadband services, there's a queue of competitors with a host of attractively priced alternative packages just waiting to snatch their customers

AT&T Aggressively Rolling Out VoIP E-9-1-1 Service

2005-07-12T04:30:00.000-07:00

Rich Tehrani

BEDMINSTER, N.J. – AT&T announced today that it has begun introducing
Enhanced 9-1-1 service (E-911) to its AT&T CallVantage® Service
users in a phased deployment to be largely completed later this Summer.

E-911 service delivers a caller’s name, telephone number and service address
directly to the console of the appropriate Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP)
in the event of an emergency.

“AT&T is proud to be making good on its commitment to deliver an E-911
solution to our AT&T CallVantage subscribers,” said Cathy Martine, AT&T
senior vice president for Internet Telephony. “It has long been AT&T’s
heritage to serve the nation’s public safety needs and the introduction of
E-911 for many of our VoIP users is the culmination of a lot of hard work.”

AT&T began provisioning eligible new AT&T CallVantage Service
subscribers with E-911 capabilities on a phased, market-by-market approach this
past April. That means in the service areas where the company has installed and
tested the infrastructure required to support E-911, eligible new subscribers
are automatically receiving the enhanced service when activating their
accounts.

Existing AT&T CallVantage Service users in those same markets whose
accounts are eligible will be provisioned with E-911 service automatically by
mid-summer. To date, the company has migrated tens of thousands of lines
successfully across the nation.

When the migration is complete, customers will receive notification from the
company confirming they have been provisioned with E-911.

Exceptions would be those subscribers who have selected “out-of-area” telephone
numbers as their primary VoIP lines. For example, if a New Jersey resident chose a telephone number
in another part of the state, or in another state, he or she would not qualify
for E-911 service and would remain on AT&T’s 911 Alternative Emergency
Dialing service until the company is prepared to implement an “out-of-area”
E-911 solution.

AT&T is working with industry members, commercial
partners and public safety officials to rapidly expand these emergency dialing
capabilities in an attempt to provision all AT&T CallVantage subscribers
with E-911 access as quickly as possible.

In a similar manner, customers who travel with their telephone adapters are
cautioned to maintain an alternate means of accessing emergency services. While
AT&T enables customers to update their service address, in such instances
customers may be better served by using a hotel or other local phone to place
an emergency call until real-time updates are made possible.

AT&T CallVantage Service subscribers can determine their account status by
logging on to their personal Web portal and visiting the Account Management
& Settings page where they can review the emergency service type they are
currently subscribed to. All users are urged to proactively check their 911
status online, read their 911 notification letters and not to place test calls
to 911 as this creates an unnecessary burden on the nation’s emergency calling
system.

In the interest of public safety, AT&T reminds customers that VoIP E-911
does not work if there is an outage in electrical power or broadband service.

Introduced in late March 2004, AT&T CallVantage works
with a customer's broadband connection to provide a complete calling
solution with unlimited local and long-distance domestic calling, including
calls to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, unlimited calling to Canada,
discount rates for international calling, and a suite of advanced features for
$29.99 a month.

Under its AT&T CallVantage Local Plan, customers receive unlimited local
calling and access to the entire AT&T CallVantage Service advanced feature
set for $19.99 per month. All local toll and long distance calling and feature
use in the U.S. and to Canada will be
billed at $0.04 a minute.

FAQs: Definition of User and Carrier (infrastructure) ENUM

2005-07-12T04:29:00.000-07:00

Richard Stastny VoIP and ENUM

Currently the issues User ENUM, Carrier (or Infrastructure) ENUM and VoIP peering are discussed in various bodies.

I will try to give defintions (from my point of view) of User and Carrier ENUM. The definitions are also related to the discussions on VoIP peering (Interconnect) via the public Internet.

User ENUM

User ENUM in e164.arpa allows end-users to link either existing E.164 phone numbers or phone numbers assigned specificly for this purpose to applications reachable via URIs on the Internet. The decision to request the domain associated to the E.164 number (opt-in) and to fill the domain with ressource records of choice is with the end-user. If an existing E.164 number is used, the end-user must prove the right to use this number with the request of the associated domain.

Carrier ENUM

Carriers use E.164 numbers currently as their main naming and routing vehicle. Carrier ENUM in e164.arpa or another public available tree allows Carriers to link Internet based resources such as URIs to E.164 numbers (Note: this is the other way round then User ENUM). This allows Carrier in addition to the interconnect via the PSTN (or exclusively) to peer via IP-based protocols. Carriers may announce all E.164numbers or number ranges they host, regardless if the final end-user device is on the Internet, on IP-based closed NGNs or on the PSTN, provided an access (e.g. SBC or gateway) to the destination carriers network is available on the Internet.There is also no guarantie for the originating carrier querying Carrier ENUM that he is able to access the ingress network element of the destination carriers network. Additional peering and accounting agreements requiring authentication may be necessary. The access provided may also be to a shared network of a group of carriers, resolving the final destination network within the shared network.

The usage of ENUM within a carriers network or within shared networks in private ENUM trees is out of scope.

A virtual VoIP provider on the Internet may provide his end-users access to User ENUM and at the same time also may access Carrier ENUM, provided he has peering agreements with other Carriers. He may also populate Carrier ENUM with the numbers he is hosting. It is at his discretion if he provides other Carriers access to the users holding this numbers with or without special peering agreements.

The War on Spam

2005-07-12T04:28:00.000-07:00

Tom Keating - VoIP Blog

The war on spam is a battle that no doubt will be fought for years to come. As the spammers continue to send viruses packed with email zombie programs and terrorize unsuspecting victims who open their attachments, we have to wonder when the spamming wars will ever end. Make no mistake, it is a form of terrorism.

There are countless victims of identity fraud that are a result of keystroke loggers and other forms of viruses that send your personal information to the virus writer (aka terrorist). Even if their identity isn't stolen, just think of the panic and terror that victims feel when they open the attachment and their PC starts acting strange. The users may wonder "Did I just infect myself with spyware?" or "Did I just infect my PC with a virus?" or worse, they may wonder "Did I just give the 'keys' to all my confidential information, including all my passwords to the virus writer? Will they steal my identity and will I find strange activity on my credit report?"

The thought of identity theft is scary, indeed 'terrifying' if you think about it. It could be months of worrying if a simple double-click on an attachment resulted in the destruction of your bank account and good name/credit. Even if the virus is relatively harmless, you still may worry for months to come, especially if you aren't technically included to figure out exactly what the virus did to your PC. And if the unthinkable happens - not only will you have to spend time and money fixing your credit, but the stress itself is no picnic. Yes, spammers are terrorists - plain and simple.

I say whenever these spammer terrorists are caught, we skip the whole "due process" thing and ship them to Guantanamo (aka Gitmo) where all terrorists belong.

I bring this topic up because I just received an email (pasted below) discussing how terrorists are now using zombie PCs more often (62%) due to the "stricter" spam border patrols that for example Microsoft has put on its Hotmail servers to block illegal immigrants... err I mean 'spam' from entering Hotmail's servers. Instead, zombie PCs use legal netizen's PCs to send out the illegal terrorists spam since this bypasses Sender ID and Sender Policy Framework (SPF) email authentication spam-blocking techniques.

Where's the Minutemen Civil Defense Corp when you need them? We need Minutemen to patrol the Internet and block spam (especially foreign spam which for me is 90% of my spam) from entering our borders!

Anyway, here's the email I wanted to share...

MX LOGIC REPORTS SPAMMERS CONTINUE TO LEVERAGE SPF AND SENDER ID EMAIL AUTHENTICATION PROTOCOLS

--Zombie PCs Account for 62 Percent of Spam in June; 4 Percent of Unsolicited Commercial Email in 2005 Complies with Federal Anti-Spam Law--

DENVER July 11, 2005 MX Logic, Inc., a leading provider of innovative email defense solutions that ensure email protection and security for businesses, service providers, government organizations, resellers and their customers, today released its latest data on corporate email security. Among the key findings, the company reported that spammers continue to adopt Sender ID and Sender Policy Framework (SPF) email authentication protocols intended to help stop fraudulent email.

In a sample of more than 17.7 million unique email messages that passed through the MX Logic® Threat Center from June 19 through June 25, 2005, MX Logic found that:
9 percent were from domains that had published an SPF record, 84 percent of which were spam sending domains; and,
0.14 percent were from domains that had published a Sender ID record, 83 percent of which were spam sending domains.

Email authentication protocols including SPF, Sender ID, Domain Keys Internet Mail (DKIM) and others are intended to help verify the origins of email at the domain level, making it more difficult for spammers and phishers to stay in business.

"Spammers continue to leverage SPF and Sender ID with the intention of making their messages appear more legitimate and to possibly avoid having their messages delivered with an onscreen notification that a Sender ID record was not found, a method Microsoft recently announced it will use on Hotmail," said Scott Chasin, chief technology officer, MX Logic. "The strength of these protocols is further compromised by the fact that many legitimate senders have yet to adopt either Sender ID or SPF."

Chasin also noted that industry trials of both SPF and Sender ID have raised concerns about the protocols' effectiveness when email messages are forwarded or resent and in their ability to stop forgery of the most common user-visible mail headers. He pointed to a technical paper published by the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group, of which MX Logic is a member, which contains the results of more than six months of evaluation of SPF and Sender ID email authentication protocols.

"While we applaud industry efforts to develop email authentication protocols, no domain authentication protocol can guarantee that a message you receive really does come from who you think it comes from," said Chasin. "Additionally, for any domain-based email authentication protocol to be effective, it would have to be embraced by a critical mass of domain name holders. Imposing one protocol without mass adoption could result in the unfair treatment of a large number of senders of legitimate email."

In addition to data related to email authentication, MX Logic also issued the following findings:

Zombie Networks Account for Majority of Spam in June During June, spam sent through zombie PCs accounted for an average of 62 percent of all spam filtered by the MX Logic Threat Center. This compares with 55 percent in May and 44 percent in April.

"The continued proliferation of zombie PCs has levied a heavy cost on ISPs and email end users," Chasin said. "Compromised PCs have resulted in millions of email users being unknowingly blacklisted, often through no fault of their own."

Zombie PCs are neglected, "always-connected" broadband PCs that spammers hijack by installing a spam Trojan. Once infected, these zombie PCs provide worm authors with remote command-and-control spam-distribution capabilities, allowing them to create a legion of zombie computers that can pump out unwanted email and initiate Denial of Service (DoS) attacks.

"To make a real dent in the amount of spam sent globally, efforts must focus on helping service providers reduce outbound messaging abuse by identifying compromised PCs," Chasin said.

One such effort began in May, when the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), along with 35 government partners from over 20 countries, unveiled "Operation Spam Zombies." This international campaign is designed to educate Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and other Internet connectivity providers about hijacked, or zombie, computers that spammers use to flood inboxes.

Only 4 Percent of 2005 Unsolicited Commercial Email Complies with Federal Anti-Spam Law MX Logic also reported that monthly compliance with The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act averaged 4 percent during the first six months of 2005. The findings are based on a survey conducted by the MX Logic Threat Center of more than 250,000 email messages since January.

MX Logic has tracked compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act since the law went into force on Jan. 1, 2004, by examining a random sample of 10,000 unsolicited commercial emails each week. On average, only 3 percent of unsolicited email has complied with CAN-SPAM since the law went into effect. Compliance hit a peak of 7 percent in December 2004 and reached an all-time low of 0.54 percent in July 2004.

"In terms of stopping spam, legislation is a blunt instrument," Chasin said. "Its real value is that it provides enforcement power to ISPs, the FTC, state attorneys general and other government agencies. Consistently low CAN-SPAM compliance underscores the need for further progress in industry cooperation and consensus on email authentication protocols, as well as end-user education."

Media and analysts interested in the latest CAN-SPAM compliance number can find it at http://www.mxlogic.com/news_events/.

Monitoring billions of messages per month for over 4,300 organizations worldwide, the MX Logic Threat Center combines advanced, accurate and up-to-the-minute email defense technology and human-messaging expertise to protect MX Logic customers from spam, viruses, worms, phishing attacks and other email threats.

Balkan Broadcasting Corporation

2005-07-12T04:27:00.000-07:00

Martin Geddes - Telepocalypse

The BBC is currently experimenting with multicast video distribution. To do this, they’ve made agreements with a select number of ISPs who peer at London’s Telehouse mega-exchange in Docklands.
If the Internet is not a thing, but a network of peering agreements then we’re seeing something interesting here. On what terms will ISPs get to peer/interconnect for multicast traffic? In effect we’re seeing a parallel internet emerge, dedicated to a particular traffic type.
Rather than trying to collar exclusive content agreements, perhaps ISPs now need to get competing on who they can get multicast peering Will we see a “top-down” approach with only a few large media sources of data allowed? Will anyone be able to access any mediamegacorp content, or will it be fragmented, with different users only seeing subsets of what’s out there? The BBC suggest the latter:
If you have non UK users we have started work on an international service, content will be different and more limited due to content rights restrictions.
Or will be see a more “end-to-end” flat-world outcome where anyone can multicast to anyone else?
Definitely one to watch — the economics, not the TV.

Skype: More Data, Please

2005-07-12T04:26:00.000-07:00

Mark Evans

http://evans.blogware.com/

Skype Journal, which usually waves the flag for Skype, takes the company to task for a press release it issued last week that highlighted the fact the software has been downloaded 130 million times, including 30 million since April. Clearly, unsatisfied with knowing the tip of the iceberg, Skype Journal wants insight into metrics such as:
* number of accounts,
* number of SkypeIn numbers,
* number of SkypeOut calls made,
* number of SkypeOut minutes served (total and per capita),
* number of affiliate sales,
* frequency distribution of languages people choose in their profiles,
* moving averages and peaks of simultaneous users online or in calls,
* number of text conversations.
I'd also like to see the number SkypeIn and SkypeOut users, and a break-down on how frequently they use the two services. Perhaps Skype could provide ARPU as well.
Jumping on the "Now Hear This Skype" bandwagon was Skype Journal domo Stuart Henshell who slammed Skype for not supporting its independent software developer community. After going through eight different areas, he gives the company a "D" rating. Ouch!

You Say Podcast, I Say Blogcast; You Say Tomato....

2005-07-12T04:25:00.000-07:00

Mark Evans

http://evans.blogware.com/

You have to shake your head at Microsoft's refusal to adopt/accept Podcast as the standard way to describe audio downloads. Apparently, Microsoft calls them "blogcasts" internally. It is probably too late for Microsoft to change the vernacular. Once an activity gets described - e.g. "I'll Google it" or "Just Blackberry me", it's hard to get people to call it something else. As an aside, I wonder if Steve Jobs insists that Apple employees describe Windows as "the other operating system" or "Bill Gates Evil Beast"?

Cogeco's Modest VOIP Plans

2005-07-12T04:24:00.001-07:00

Mark Evans

http://evans.blogware.com/

Cogeco expects to have 7,000 to 8,000 cable telephone customers by the end of this year. So far, the service has only been launched in three markets, while the company still plans to spend a modest $5-million this year on capital expenditures. Cogeco's cautious approach contrasts with its Quebec peer, Videotron Ltee, which has takent market by storm (42K subscribers) with its inexpensive ($15.95 to $30 a month) telephony service in Montreal and Quebec City.

The Economics of Blogs

2005-07-12T04:24:00.000-07:00

Mark Evans

http://evans.blogware.com/

If you didn't get a chance to read Saturday's Financial Post, I wrote a feature looking at where the money will be made in the blogging industry. It explores areas such as advertising, publishing (creation and content management) and search. Some of the people I interviewed were Business 2.0 senior writer and blogger Om Malik, Technorati's David Sifry, FeedBurner's Dick Costolo and Tucows' Elliott Noss. While the BusinessWeek feature in May focused on how blogs are changing the business world, I'm looking right at the money. You can find the story here.
In blog-related news, Mark Cuban has a post on Podcasting (a.k.a. blogcasting within Microsoft). Cuban's take is 'Podcasting is hot. Podcasting is cheap and easy. Podcasting can be fun."

SwiMax

2005-07-12T04:23:00.000-07:00

James Enck - EuroTecoblog

The other OFCOM (in Switzerland) has announced an auction of three national WiMAX licenses to be held by year-end. Following the pattern seen elsewhere in Europe to date, I assume that two of these will end up in the hands of incumbent mobile players (Swisscom, Sunrise, or maybe the mooted convergence of Orange and Cablecom), but the third may be a wildcard. The consulation document (in French) contains some interesting details about the kinds of parties interested, where they come from (one service provider from Germany, one from Belgium - hmmm, wonder who they could be?), and what segments of the market they envisage serving with the licenses. Mobile services and fixed seem pretty equally split, as do consumer/SMEs.

Skype Technologies S.A. is failing its independent software developers.

2005-07-12T04:19:00.000-07:00

Stuart Henshall

What must Skype do to develop a successful developer community? How would you score them? How do you approach such a problem?
Developing an effective developer community requires more than just the desire, it require a model, something that will stretch the internal team and inspire developers. It must be so simple that the parties get it. So effective that key dialogs can start.
Eight key dimensions drive the success and behaviors necessary to nurture an effective developer community. This is not just about words. It is also having the right types of personalities and roles involved to make it happen. Too often a developer community is viewed with systems focus. I'd offer up that it is about people. People in all these roles
Judge for yourself: How does Skype's management of the Skype API and developer program score on each of these factors? Where could they improve? How would this map versus Microsoft or Java or...... Rate them "A" to "F" on each of these. Rate them today, then rate where you think they will be in six months. Are they on tract to be the ultimate partner for developers? What new ground must they break to get there?

Architecture Evangelism:

Are the systems and documentation for developing your product on the Skype platform clear and comprehensive? Are short-term feature release timetables published? Are road maps disclosed and updated? Are contacts easy to find? Do you know who to talk to? Is access managed and measured? Is the developer education program diverse (accommodating many kinds of programmers), dispersed (geographically and across time zones), stepped (from beginners to gurus, from generalists to specialists), affordable, and comprehensive?

Score: D-
In Six Months? This is totally dependent on Lenn Pryor. C maybe.

Creative Opportunities:

Does the API expose many features? Can they be combined to do novel and interesting things? Do they provoke innovative and competitive products and services? What unique opportunities does the API offer? Can solutions bridge APIs etc? Does the Skype developer program provide tools for experimenting and testing a developer's work in progress?
Score: B.
In Six Months? This will be a C- unless they expose more

User Experience:

Does Skype help developers create "star" products and services? Toolkits? Is there effective brand synergy and marketing impact? Are third party tools seamlessly blended into the Skype user experience? Best practices: Apple's UI standards.
Score: F.
In Six Months? We'll see whether they become developer friendly C-.
Supportive Team: How effectively does the ecosystem work as a team, as a community? How free and productive is the exchange of ideas? How effective is Skype's communication and updates to the community? What is the opportunity for co-development with Skype? What are the risks of Skype obsoleting third party products through surprise changes to the API? When and how does Skype compete directly with developers and other partners? How well is Skype staffing to support the developer community? Best practices: Microsoft Developer Network.
Score: F.
In Six Months? Unlikely to see a roadmap in less than six months. Could still be an F although a frustrated and trying F.

Legal Agreements and Public Policy:

Are contracts and deals between Skype and developers effective? Are they fair? Do they reflect the realities of how programmers develop software and how users use software? Is the legal language clear? Are accurate translations easily available? Are the license terms and conditions best-in-industry? How much does Skype protect developer rights and interests? How well does Skype protect developers by protecting end user privacy? How actively does Skype advocate to governments and industry for personal data privacy, the right to connect, and against hostile regulation?
Score: F.
In Six Months? Complete lack of action or general obstruction. This needs to be an A if Skype is to win.

Business Exchange:

Working on Developer Time: Do you respect the ISV developer's time? How many minutes does it take for a developer to get a technical answer? to apply to the developer program?
Does the Skype application enable a two way information exchange? Is data flow through the API one way or two-way or even multi-way? How much is static vs dynamic? Exchanges with the client, exchange of information with the user? Security of information? Privacy management, user rights protection? Can developers build on information exchange to create commerce transactions?
Score F:
In Six Months? I truly wish for improvement. C.

Value Creation:

How's the money managed? Integrated? Can payment to the Skype ID be made? Can withdrawals or payments be made? Who pays for services or products? Does Skype offer download "options" for certified software add-ons? Is there a river of monetary opportunity?
Score: D. Although other free services are creating value on Skype's back.
In Six Months? D expect little change.

Investors & Peers:

As a developer can you sit at the table? Do you coexist like eBay resellers, integrated into the financial ecosystem? Is Skype a positive facilitator or are their always barriers? Are investors willing to put money in? Who bankrolls the opportunity? Are business cases relatively easy? Do you travel first class or coach?
Score: F:
In Six Months? D at best on current trajectory.

My conclusion.

Now many will say I am very harsh. You are probably right. Most developers would say "Skype is doing their best." "They are a young company." "They basically get it." What developers want is more access and functionality in the API. Communication is a big deal. They also don't want to be screwed by changing Skype road map. I gave the highest score to the API. Without it the only developers interested in Skype would be those applying for a job.
I thought long and hard about posting this blogpost. I did ask other Skype developers. I'm convinced now it has to be said. So this post is more directed to my friends (please don't shoot the messenger) at Skype. It may not be encouraging to get a "negative report card." Still that traces more to a poor attendance record (lack of people) for some of these "streams." Overall the API and developer focus can't afford to be tactical. For example, they focus on what to expose (e.g. voice messaging) rather than on broader strategic issues like how do independent developers make money, create collective value for users. etc. Perhaps thinking more broadly will enable the "score" to change rapidly.
So what score would you give to Skype's Developer Programs? Am I being too harsh? Do you want more systematic metrics? Let me know!

Spear Phishing

2005-07-09T23:34:00.001-07:00

Rich Tehrani - Rich Tehrani

Phishing is just spam being used to trick people into revealing some information to the phisher, and relies very heavily on social engineering to succeed. By blocking spam effectively, the bait never reaches its target, and the opportunity for deception is crushed.
Phishers are now sending more targeted emails to businesses and these e-mails are designed to appear as though they were sent by another member of staff at the same organization, typically from the IT or HR departments. It seems that people will share their passwords fairly willingly via e-mail if the trust the source. It doesn’t hurt that this new breed of phisher promises treats to those who cooperate or threatens the employment of those who don’t.
In a recent US example, a phisher bluffed his way into the network of a port authority by spoofing an internal email address. Once on the inside, with an apparently genuine email identity, he was able to fool employees into revealing passwords for applications.
This sort of attack has been termed ‘spear’ phishing, designed to bamboozle unsuspecting ‘colleagues’ into revealing information that will give the perpetrator access into secure areas of corporate networks.
By spear phishing one company at a time, a phisher need only send emails to a single domain, spoofing the sender address and requesting usernames and passwords to validate some information, or providing a link to a spoofed version of the company’s website or intranet - or perhaps that of a business partner or supplier.
Many people often use the same username and password for different applications or websites, and the phisher may try and use that to their advantage in their social engineering.
It is surprisingly easy to use existing spam-sending software to dynamically generate the target email addresses, for example by combining databases of first names and last names with letters and numbers. Furthermore, it would only take a few hundred such permutations to provide a valid email address in a large organization.
Additionally, a sustained attack of this nature can quickly become a huge drain on the company’s email server, sapping its resources as it attempts to handle several hundred or thousand connections for emails that can never be delivered to recipients that don’t exist.
Nevertheless, a successful spear phishing expedition can reduce the effort required to break into a company’s network without too much difficulty.
Not only are the individual’s details potentially compromised; it can also lead to theft of intellectual property and other sensitive corporate information. Spear phishing is growing fairly quickly as a threat to corporations.

U.S. VOIP Projections

2005-07-09T23:34:00.000-07:00

Mark Evans

http://evans.blogware.com/

According to an extensive report by TeleGeography, the number of VOIP subscribers in the U.S. will climb to four million by the end of this year from 1.8 million in Q1 2005. By 2010, the research firm forecasts there will be 17.5 million subscribers while annual revenue will be more than $5-billion. An intriguing part of the report is a survey of 1,500 consumers that suggests most of them are unfamilar with VOIP. When asked about their potential interest in VOIP based on differnet price point, the most interest was "significantly" higher at $20 than $35. TeleGeography's numbers suggest Vonage had about one-third of the VOIP market in the first-quarter. It also indicates Vonage may have to remain aggressive on price to maintain its momentum, if not its market lead. In Q1, TeleGeography said cablecos accounted for 46% of total subscribers while "enhanced service providers" such as Vonage and 8x8 had 41%.

Shaw's VOIP

2005-07-09T23:33:00.000-07:00

Mark Evans

http://evans.blogware.com/

Shaw Communications added 22.5K cable telephony customers in fiscal Q3 - the first full quarter the service has been available from the Calgary-based cableco. All in all, it's not a pretty good number given Shaw is charging $55 a month for cable telephony - the most expensive VOIP service in Canada. There are some suggestions Canadian cablecos (Rogers, Cogeco, Shaw) have decided to have premium prices out of the gate to "control" demand and ensure customers who do sign up are happy campers. Once any kinks have been worked out, the cablecos could then get more competitive on price. Meanwhile, Videotron is having trouble keeping up with strong demand for its cable telephony service that ranges from $15.95 to $30 a month. Check out my posting earlier this week for a good look at the VOIP pricing landscape in Canada.

The Disappearance of Really Cheap LD

2005-07-09T23:32:00.000-07:00

Mark Evans

http://evans.blogware.com/

It's not much of a surprise that Videotron has terminated its $4.95 a month for 1,000 LD minute plan today after Bell Canada and Rogers stopped similar offers last month. With LD prices returning to 4¢ or 5¢ a minute for North American calls - rather than 0.5¢ - some consumers may start to see VOIP as a more viable option again. Given consumers don't seem to be interested in Web-based calling features, VOIP service providers had tried to use the idea low-cost LD as a major marketing tool. This opportunity, however, disappeared when Bell introduced its $5 for 1,000 LD minutes plan last year.

Skype As The ClassRoom

2005-07-09T23:31:00.000-07:00

Andy Abramson - VoIP Watch

Just after my post below, I came across this post from East Asian blogger/reporter and pal Jeremy Wagstaff about Skype In the Classroom.
Now only if Apple had really kept going with their Apple In the Classroom program as great guns as they had in the early days. Then it would have been iChat instead of Skype. But for that matter, AOL had ICQ and WASTE and never captured the imagination of what they meant.
Translation--great ideas are great ideas and just have to be allowed to grow up. That's what the Skype guys have figured out.

Illegal WiFi

2005-07-08T00:19:00.000-07:00

Rich Tehrani - Rich Tehrani

Just when you thought the world was one big happy WiFi sharing place, someone gets arrested. Police recently charged a Florida man with a third-degree felony charge. According to this article, he allegedly accessed a WiFi network belonging to a St. Petersburg man without permission. According to the police, Benjamin Smith III was seen by Richard Dinon outside Dinon's home on the night of April 20, 2005, sitting in a parked SUV and using a laptop computer. When Dinon went outside to deposit his trash, Smith quickly closed the laptop and tried to hide it.

Dinon also stated that he later observed foreign icons on his home computer screen, and suspected that Smith, 41, may have been using his network. He called police and an officer confronted Smith at 11:30 p.m., two hours after the initial sighting.

"The arresting officer wasn't initially sure a violation took place," said George Kajtsa of the St. Petersburg Police Department. "He consulted our legal staff and they looked up the relevant statute."

The charge, unauthorized access to a computer network, applies to all varieties of computer network breaches, and gives prosecutors considerable leeway depending on the severity. It carries a potential sentence ranging from probation to 5 years in prison.

Smith faces a pretrial hearing on Monday, July 11.

"The sentence we'll seek depends on whether he was accessing the Internet for basic personal use, or using it for pecuniary gain -- like identity theft -- or other illicit reasons," said Fred Schaub of Florida's State Attorney's office.

Free Press

2005-07-08T00:18:00.000-07:00

Rich Tehrani - Rich Tehrani

Simply stated, the US cannot have wars in the name of spreading freedom and democracy while simultaneously eroding the democracy we have at home. I can’t believe I am witnessing a person being sent to jail for doing their job. Nothing illegal, just reporting and promising to hold a confidential source in confidence.

Freedom is freedom. There are some instances in which freedom of speech doesn’t work such as yelling “Fire!” in a crowded theatre. But when doing one’s job as a reporter – a noble profession mind you, one that exposes corruption, and helps provide the substrate for democracy, how can you conceivably be arrested?

Yesterday, Judith Miller a reporter for the New York Times was sent to jail for not revealing her sources to a grand jury. We should have a national holiday in her honor. Here are some of the statements she made to the judge:

"Your Honor," she said, "in this case I cannot break my word just to stay out of jail. The right of civil disobedience based on personal conscience is fundamental to our system and honored throughout our history."

She noted that she had covered the war in Iraq, and had lived and worked all over the world.

"The freest and fairest societies are not only those with independent judiciaries," she said, "but those with an independent press that works every day to keep government accountable by publishing what the government might not want the public to know."

In a statement, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the publisher of The Times, said Ms. Miller had followed her conscience, with the paper's support. "There are times when the greater good of our democracy demands an act of conscience," Mr. Sulzberger said. "I sincerely hope that now Congress will move forward on federal shield legislation so that other journalists will not have to face imprisonment for doing their jobs."

Ms. Miller, speaking from the Virginia jail, said that her first hours in confinement had struck her as surreal but that the jail's staff had been professional and courteous. Her trip from the courthouse to the jail, she said, had brought home the gravity of her situation.

"They put shackles on my hands and my feet," she said. "They put you in the back of this car. I passed the Capitol and all the office buildings I used to cover. And I thought, 'My God, how did it come to this?' "

Here is a new York Times article and editorial on the topic.

Here are some great excerpts from the editorial:

Some people - including, sadly, some of our colleagues in the news media - have mistakenly assumed that a reporter and a news organization place themselves above the law by rejecting a court order to testify. Nothing could be further from the truth. When another Times reporter, M. A. Farber, went to jail in 1978 rather than release his confidential notes, he declared, "I have no such right and I seek none."
By accepting her sentence, Ms. Miller bowed to the authority of the court. But she acted in the great tradition of civil disobedience that began with this nation's founding, which holds that the common good is best served in some instances by private citizens who are willing to defy a legal, but unjust or unwise, order.

This tradition stretches from the Boston Tea Party to the Underground Railroad, to the Americans who defied the McCarthy inquisitions and to the civil rights movement. It has called forth ordinary citizens, like Rosa Parks; government officials, like Daniel Ellsberg and Mark Felt; and statesmen, like Martin Luther King. Frequently, it falls to news organizations to uphold this tradition. As Justice William O. Douglas wrote in 1972, "The press has a preferred position in our constitutional scheme, not to enable it to make money, not to set newsmen apart as a favored class, but to bring to fulfillment the public's right to know."
Critics point out that even presidents must bow to the Supreme Court. But presidents are agents of the government, sworn to enforce the law. Journalists are private citizens, and Ms. Miller's actions are faithful to the Constitution. She is defending the right of Americans to get vital information from news organizations that need not fear government retaliation - an imperative defended by the 49 states that recognize a reporter's right to protect sources.

A second reporter facing a possible jail term, Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, agreed yesterday to testify before the grand jury. Last week, Time decided, over Mr. Cooper's protests, to release documents demanded by the judge that revealed his confidential sources. We were deeply disappointed by that decision.

We do not see how a newspaper, magazine or television station can support a reporter's decision to protect confidential sources even if the potential price is lost liberty, and then hand over the notes or documents that make the reporter's sacrifice meaningless. The point of this struggle is to make sure that people with critical information can feel confident that if they speak to a reporter on the condition of anonymity, their identities will be protected. No journalist's promise will be worth much if the employer that stands behind him or her is prepared to undercut such a vow of secrecy.

It is for these reasons that most states have shield laws that protect reporters' rights to conceal their sources. Those laws need to be reviewed and strengthened, even as members of Congress continue to work to pass a federal shield law. But at this moment, there is no statute that protects Judith Miller when she defies a federal trial judge's order to reveal who told her what about Valerie Plame Wilson's identity as an undercover C.I.A. operative.

Ms. Miller understands this perfectly, and she accepts the consequences with full respect for the court. We hope that her sacrifice will alert the nation to the need to protect the basic tools reporters use in doing their most critical work.

To be frank, this is far from an ideal case. We would not have wanted our reporter to give up her liberty over a situation whose details are so complicated and muddy. But history is very seldom kind enough to provide the ideal venue for a principled stand. Ms. Miller is going to jail over an article that she never wrote, yet she has been unwavering in her determination to protect the people with whom she had spoken on the promise of confidentiality.

I echo the sentiment that concludes the editorial:

We stand with Ms. Miller and thank her for taking on that fight for the rest of us.

A Call to Arms to Protect the Internet:

2005-07-08T00:17:00.001-07:00

Jeff Pulver - The Jeff Pulver Blog

I am growing increasingly concerned that end-users are losing the battle over control of the Internet. What is it that Internet innovators, entrepreneurs and users need? It’s pretty simple: we need robust, IP-capable broadband pipes, the freedom to access the content and applications of our choice and the right to attach equipment of our choice to our end of the broadband pipe. A few legal and policy conclusions have emerged that are dramatically affecting consumer control over the Internet and communications experience.
(1) With the whittling away of unbundled wholesale access to broadband pipes, consumers have lost some choice among alternate providers of broadband access. On the flip side, some would argue that that was a necessary prerequisite to encourage last mile access providers to deploy more robust broadband pipes to end users. I don’t want to delve into that debate here. Suffice it to say, that both positions have some merit.
(2) With the Supreme Court’s Brand X decision, consumers will likely have fewer choices among Internet service providers, as both cable and wireline broadband access providers are less compelled to provide unaffiliated ISPs access to end users. So one side of the argument goes, this too will encourage last mile access providers more financial incentive to deploy more robust broadband pipes. On the flip side, it does seem like it would have been a positive, competitive check, to ensure that consumers had a choice among a multitude of Internet service providers.
(3) Regulators, in an effort to ensure the public good, have begun to impose some social obligations on information service providers (at least those offering voice application that interconnect to the public switched telephone network). We have seen this move in the US and Canada with regard to emergency response obligations. We are likely to see similar government compelled obligations with regard to lawful intercept and, perhaps, disabilities access. I suspect the lawful intercept obligations will go even further than the emergency response rules and impose obligations even upon purer, peer-to-peer communications networks.
Thus, the previously regulated telecom carriers are becoming less subject to regulatory checks and oversight (with regard to both access and pricing obligations). There is less of an affirmative duty to ensure that end user might obtain service from competing telecom carriers and unaffiliated ISPs. Conversely, there is movement on the other side to impose some social obligations (akin to those traditionally imposed upon common carriers), upon information service and application providers. As a result, unaffiliated application service providers are getting slammed from both sides: the prospect of social obligations on the one hand, and less access to alternative broadband access providers on the other hand.
There is a way to minimize the potential harm to end-user control and guaranteed end-user access by unaffiliated Internet application and content providers, without the market power and bargaining leverage to ensure just and reasonable access to end users. Call it what you will – Net Freedom, Net Neutrality, Connectivity Principles, a layered regulatory model, expedited, administratively-enforced, antitrust-like rules, consumer empowerment – but there does need to be some affirmative rule in place that will ensure that the END-USER and no one else, controls the user experience.
We do not yet have any long-term guarantee that consumers will have a choice among alternative application service providers. We saw the FCC, in its Madison River Consent Decree, declare that a telecom carrier may not block ports to deny the user access to unaffiliated VoIP providers. That decision becomes somewhat suspect in a post Brand X America. Furthermore, I am not aware of any other country that has taken affirmative steps to prohibit port blocking or other anticompetitive practices that would preclude the consumer from controlling her own bitstream.
We must not become complacent and assume that government understands our concerns while they write the rules that will shape the future of communications and the Internet. Certainly those with the money and lobbying muscle are not standing by. We have to engage. We don’t need to ask for much – just for a few certain consumer empowerment rules -- but we do need to ask.
It is essential that governments around the world understand the power and value of IP technology and the Internet to radically enhance the ways in which we communicate. They all must adopt meaningful rules ensuring and enforcing consumer empowerment and net freedom.
Without the ability for consumers to rely on alternate Internet service providers, unaffiliated with the access provider, there is an immediate, compelling need for government to adopt enforceable consumer empowerment rules. End users, innovators and entrepreneurs need an assurance that government will not tolerate any effort by any entity to unreasonably affect a consumer’s access to the Internet content and applications of her choice, and the right to attach the devices of her choice to her end of her communications pipe. The real power of the Internet rests in the ability of the consumer to reach it and control her own experience. The one rule that must apply is that last-mile network owners must not be permitted to harm consumer control and freedom.
I have tried at various times to build coalition and incite the movement. Over the years I held a couple of “Internet Freedom Rallies” on the Steps of the US Capitol. I have tried to unite the IP-based communications industry through such coalitions as the VON Coalition and the Global IP Alliance. I have tried to make the VON Conferences and my other conferences (such as my newly emerging Peripheral Visionaries’ Summits) places to hammer out the issues, build the community and consensus. I don’t care much what vehicles we use to communicate these messages, but we, as a community of Internet users, innovators and entrepreneurs, cannot afford to sit silently on the sidelines while governments write the rules that will shape our future.
I encourage you all to look to our efforts with the Global IP Alliance and consider becoming a member. If your schedules permit, I encourage you to join us at the Fall 2005 VON Conference in Boston, September 19-22, or at our Peripheral Visionaries' Policy Summit in DC on Nov. 10th, or at any of our other international conferences. We intend to use the Peripheral Visionaries Conference, in particular, as a vehicle to communicate these essential themes to US legislators and policymakers.
If you are interested in joining with us, but do not currently have the financial resources to commit to the fight to protect end user control of the Internet, please send an email to my General Counsel, Jonathan Askin, jaskin at pulver.com, and we will keep you in the loop as the battle proceeds.

Not all VoIP is Made the Same

2005-07-08T00:17:00.000-07:00

Eric Lagerway - SIPthat.com

VoIP Magazine writer Bryan Richard has a lot to say about Skype. I happen to think Skype is a good thing for VoIP in general as it increases awareness and brings more attention to the softphone. I also firmly beleive that Skype will either adopt SIP [by partnership or other] or be a smaller VoIP player in the near future. Proprietary protocols will never make it long term when there are good open standard alternatives out there.
To say that Skype is a SIP killer is pure garbage.
Om referenced a report saying softphones mean nothing, Om - Skype IS a softphone. Om also comments that VoIP is all about cheap calls. Om, I think you will find in fairly short order that price will not be the determining factor for most consumers, instead consumers will want better quality, more features, and the flexability required to take their IP comunications with them wherever they go.
Skype actually creates more interest in softphones and SIP, which is where I beleive the future lies. No provider wants to be under the thumb of any other operator. Skype is not unlike the telcos of old and we are now seeing history repeating itself, revolt has already begun. Yahoo! [now including Dialpad] could have partnered with Skype but didn't and instead went with SIP. If you did a trace on AOL's new VoIP service or Verizon, SBC, Net2Phone, iConnect Here [Deltathree] Microsoft, Vonage and just about every other VoIP provider or VoIP device manufacturer I can think of, including Cisco, Linksys and Intel you will see they all use SIP, not Skype.
SIP is paving the way for better communications today and in the future. I would much rather be working with a coalition of great minds on open standards as opposed to following a single company using proprietary technology, and have no voice.

Is Comcast tampering with its customers’ VoIP?

2005-07-08T00:16:00.000-07:00

Leonardo Faoro - The VoIP Weblog

The odd things happening to VoIP users on Comcast’s network continue, even today.
First, there was my personal debacle dealing with Comcast support. Then, there was Jim Studnicki’s revelation of what certainly appears to be intentional penalizing of third-party VoIP traffic by Vonage. Then, just a few weeks ago, the Supreme Court decided, in effect, that Comcast and other cable companies don’t have to share their infrastructure with competitors. Now, another outraged Comcast customer has posted about his 14% packet loss when using VoIP.
This all begs the question—what in the world is going on at Comcast? It really does look like Comcast is intentionally blocking at least some RTP (VoIP) traffic in certain areas of the country. What has your experience been?

To our friends in London

2005-07-08T00:15:00.000-07:00

Leonardo Faoro - The VoIP Weblog

I would personally like to take a moment to voice solidarity with and concern for our friends in London, which was attacked by terrorists this morning. I know this blog has an international audience, so those of you reading from the United Kingdom are in my thoughts this evening. As an American, I deplore the awful, murderous deed perpetrated on Londoners, and sincerely hope for the best for all those injured and for comfort to the families of the dead.

Opera-Bit Torrent: A Deal with the Devil?

2005-07-08T00:14:00.001-07:00

Mark Evans
http://evans.blogware.com/

Not sure what to make of a deal that will see Opera launch a technical preview that integrates BitTorrent to support faster downloads. Of course, Opera says these would only be legal downloads such as "Linux software and computer game demos" rather than all those songs and movies that have driven the entertainment industry crazy. Opera said it twigged onto the benefits of Bit Torrent after the release of Opera 8 knocked out its servers due to high demand. There are a couple ways to look at this deal. It's either the beginning of the legitimization of Bit Torrent and torrent technology as a way to efficiently deliver digital content. This would give Opera a competitive advantage/head start over browser rivals such as Internet Explorer and Firefox. Then again, this could be an act of strategic desperation by Opera, which has lost its status as the "other" browser since Firefox exploded on the scene. Sure, Bit Torrent has cache and its become one of the tools to download movies, TV shows and music but it's a digital rebel - in other words, a modern-day Napster. The entertaiment industry has already pursued legal action against other Torrent sites so Opera shouldn't be surprised if it finds itself under the legal spotlight.

11M VOIP Users Can't Be Wrong

2005-07-08T00:14:00.000-07:00

Mark Evans
http://evans.blogware.com/

Point Topic, which does research on broadband services, estimates more than 11 million people were using a retail VOIP service for at least some of their telephone calls at the end of March - compared with more five million in mid-2004. The largest market is Japan (7.2 million users) where Yahoo Softbank provides free VOIP service as part of a broadband bundle, while U.S. cablecos had 2.1 million VOIP customers. I'm leary about Point Topic's assessment of Yahoo Softbank's VOIP users because it's impossible to tell how many of the 7.2 million customers are actually using the service and, if so, how often they are doing it. That said, I'm intrigued by the concept of free VOIP with DSL, or free DSL with VOIP (hat trip to http://ricksegal.typepad.com/). With VOIP service providers battling it out on price (unless you're a Canadian cableco), the idea of selling VOIP and/or broadband services in new and different ways is intriguing. In a recent blog posting, O'Reilly recounted a story told at an Intel Capital CEO conference in Beijing about a Mexico ISP, MBS.net, that responded to lower DSL prices from Telmex by switching gear and selling VOIP as a service with DSL tossed into the mix for no cost. It's food for thought.

Mike Lazaridis: RIM CEO, Amex Pitchman

2005-07-08T00:13:00.000-07:00

Mark Evans
http://evans.blogware.com/

Of Research in Motion's two co-CEOs, the talkative Jim Balsillie comes across as the more natural salesman. It's somewhat surprising, therefore, Amex Canada selected Mike Lazaridis to be part of a new ad campaign focusing on "fascinating" individuals. Lazaridis was selected - along with Robert De Niro, TV host Ellen DeGeneres and professional surfer Laird Hamilton - because of the Blackberry's success and his philanthropic and education activities. Amex's decision to feature Lazaridis is more evidence of how the Blackberry has become a cultural and business phenomena. Despite all the buzz about Blackberry-killers on the horizon, the Blackberry has what I call "default" status where consumers think of the Blackberry when it comes to mobile e-mail - much like eBay enjoys this status in the online auction market while the iPod has it for MP3 players. Once you achieve this position, it is very difficult to lose it. By selecting Lazaridis, Amex is not only recognizing the Blackberry's popularity but it is hoping to benefit from it as well.

Morgan Freeman Saves Movie Industry from P2P

2005-07-08T00:12:00.000-07:00

Mark Evans
http://evans.blogware.com/

I'm intrigued by Intel's investment in ClickStar Inc., a company co-founded by actor Morgan Freeman that aims to develop technology to deliver first-run movies on the Internet before they become available on P2P networks. It's a two-pronged move by Intel: it provides its VC arm with a little profile, and it will hopefully encourage computer users to buy more powerful machines to download and play movies. Freeman may be just one of many entrepreneurs trying to solve the online movie distribution issue but he's definitely among the most well-known. And maybe his status as a big Hollywood star will give ClickStar an edge in establishing relationships with the major studios.
The news about Intel's investment in ClickStar coincides with a column by the Financial Times' John Gapper who suggests the "golden age of the DVD is coming to an end". His thesis is based on the notion that DVD sales aren't growing as quickly, and retailers are reducing the amount of time a DVD title gets to spend on the shelf. At the same time, box office sales are suffering as ticket prices climb - a trend that could become worse as the industry consolidates. Meanwhile, downloads of movies are rising as Bit Torrent technology makes the process even easier.
So maybe Morgan Freeman will be Hollywood's salvation if ClickStar can figure out a way to deliver first-run movies efficiently, securely and, more importantly, at the right price. If ClickStar cracks this nut, Intel's investment could be very prescient and the movie industry will discover the Internet will give it a much-needed financial boost - much like the VCR and DVD did in the 1980s and 1990s.

Shall we go quiet into that good night?

2005-07-08T00:11:00.001-07:00

David Beckemeyer- Mr Blog

Jeff Pulver is a white hat, that's for sure. He has a Call to Arms in opposition of Brand X among other atrocities, that is worth a read.
If I get a moment, I will try to elaborate on some of my views of Brand X. My guess is I'll be far less kind than Jeff is in his post.
Perhaps it's time for an FCC Part 68 style rule for the Internet. Part 68 arrived as part of the break-up of AT&T and is the rule that allows us to connect our own telephones, as well as devices like answering machines and modems, to the phone line. Before Part 68, the phone company had absolute control of all telephones. In the fifties, AT&T argued that even the Hushaphone (pictured) that didn't even connect to the phone wires, but simply clamped to the phone's mouthpiece to block out noise, would damage their network! The FCC did as Ma Bell told them, and agreed! The Hushaphone people fought a long battle, and that case, along with the Carterphone case, signalled the begining of a breakup in this effective monopoly that ultimately allowed other companies to interconnect with the telephone network.
Despite the limitations of what one can do with end of a traditional phone line, just think of all the innovation that has occurred in terms of what we can plug into our wall jacks, without asking the permission of the phone company, or paying extra. This is now a significant micro-economy, representing wealth, jobs, and consumer choices. We would have none of this if all innovations had to come from the old-guard at AT&T, as was the case before the breakup. In all the time that AT&T had full control of the edge, we saw very little innovation.
If you are not old enough to have lived it, imagine a world in which there were two or three kinds of phones available, you had to get them from the phone company, and they had to be "rented" at exorbitant prices. There is no phone section in Fry's or Bestbuy or Target. We cannot buy modems, answering machines, or any other of the countless phone gadgets available today, because they do not exist.
Now imagine the same thing for the Internet. Imagine that we have to "subscribe" to the devices and applications we want to use at the end of our Internet pipes and we can only obtain them from our phone company or cable company. If the phone companies and cable companies get their way, that is the exactly the world we will have.
The Internet we have enjoyed for many years, in which we connect the devices we a want, and purchase and run the Internet applications we want, is being attacked on many fronts. Our freedom of choice has already started to erode. And so far, there has been little outcry.

The Recent Skype Survey

2005-07-08T00:11:00.000-07:00

Andy Abramson - VoIP Watch

Dina @ SkypeJournal questions the sincerity of the recent Skype questionaire/survey sent out to some subscribers.
It was meant to validate, not project based on the questions I saw. While I fully agree with Dina's assessment that Skype missed some opportunities, I also understand their motivation.
The survey was in my view a way to do some post sales introduction of Skype In, Out and VoiceMail solely to gauge how effective their past efforts were. While all the information Dina (who is an excellent researcher) would like to see gathered that would help Skype, it only becomes appropriate if Skype were going to do more mass marketing even on a microcast level. One must remember that Skype does almost ZERO marketing and is almost all word of mouse and via their excellent media relations efforts.
For Skype, clearly the model of "less is more" applies culturally and all the way down the line thus making what Dina suggests appropriate only if Skype wants to become more of less.

High Speed Internet Increasing

2005-07-08T00:10:00.000-07:00

Andy Abramson - VoIP Watch

Access to VoIP is in 95% of the USA's zipcodes according to an FCC announcement.
This then means that VoIP is available in 95 percent of the USA. How the VoIP providers approach the one person in timbuktu versus the masses in the more densly high speed user communities is called marketing.
What I don't see is really smart marketing going on by the smaller players. Some seem to start and end with the online universe. Others seem to go full bore with retail. Then others just seem to say "hi" we're here.
The answers are obvious. If you want to know, just ask me.

Holy SIP!

2005-07-08T00:09:00.000-07:00

Andy Abramson - VoIP Watch

It's turning into a holy war as the loyalists square off with the not so ready to believe.
Erik's point about SIP is very well taken. Like him, I think standards based technology will win out. Skype, while an overnight success story only has to integrate SIP into itself and the telco world would change even more.
For what it's worth, my Gizmo to Gizmo chat with Michael Robertson sounded better than a Skype To Skype chat. Then again, I'm sure Mr. Disruptor was on a T-1 and we're not that far from one another. Still it says a lot for what he's done. And oh, contrary to some reports, Gizmo isn't using the XTEN softphone at all. Robertson's team built it on their own

Why get hung up on the Gizmo client?

2005-07-06T23:57:00.000-07:00

Dameon D. Welch-Abernathy - PhoneBoy's Blog

(Disclaimer: I haven't loaded the Gizmo Project on my computers yet because, quite frankly, I try and avoid mucking about in Windows)

Aswath blogged today that Gizmo is locked to use only SIPPhone. This is from the company that sued Vonage for locking their ATAs. Om also picked up on this. I personally don't think this is as big of a deal as these two obviously think it is. Gizmo is basically a free softphone for SIPphone. Why is this a bad thing?

There is a fair difference between Skype, the service, and Gizmo Project, the service. Granted, the Gizmo client may be "locked to use only SIPPhone," but who really cares so long as the underlying network isn't? Gizmo Project, based on SIPphone, lets you use whatever device or client you'd like so long as it conforms to the SIP standards. Because SIPphone has connectivity with a lot of different SIP networks, you can also call those networks from the Gizmo client as well. You can also do cool stuff like get an IPKall number and point it to youre Gizmo client.

Contrast to Skype. The underlying Skype network is proprietary and requires you to use only the Skype client to access it.

More on Skype versus Gizmo

2005-07-06T23:56:00.000-07:00

Dameon D. Welch-Abernathy - PhoneBoy's Blog

This is a continuation of my last blog entry, Why get hung up on the Gizmo client?. It focuses more on the comment made by Aswath in his entry about the Gizmo client. Specifically, I want to focus on the comment "Gizmo is locked to use only SIPPhone. This is from the company that sued Vonage for locking their ATAs."

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think there's a huge difference between locking a piece of hardware that you pay good money for without that fact being disclosed clearly on the box and "locking" a piece of software you get for free. The former is arguably false advertising (which is what Michael Robertson really had a problem with), the latter is not. I cannot equate locking a piece of software you get for free to locking a piece of hardware you paid for. They are not one and the same.

Software is ephemeral: it exists as a collection of ones and zeros inside of a hard drive. If I like the program, I'll use it. It has value as long as I am willing and able to use it. When I no longer wish to use it, it disappears into the ones and zeros of your hard drive. Environmentally friendly, unlike the hardware sold by Vonage and other VoIP companies. When my Vonage (or similar) service runs its course, the VoIP portion of the hardware becomes a doorstop. Vonage provides no mechanism to "unlock" these devices and permit you to use them with another service. The device will likely sit on the shelf for a while until it is either given to someone else or thrown out, creating an environmental impact.

I think I understand why Vonage, et. al. doesn't provide an unlock mechanism. They subsidize the cost of the equipment to a large degree. If they give a mechanism for unlocking the device, they're basically giving away money. Considering how much money isn't being made by these companies, they really don't want to be giving away any more money than they have to. Though I don't understand why for a small fee to offset the subsidy, those devices couldn't be unlocked.

I am a strong proponent of requiring device manfacturers and service providers to allow their devices to be unlocked, either after a period of time and/or for the cost of the subsidy. Furthermore, where technically possible, providers should be required to allow people to "bring their own devices." This goes for any device tied to a particular service, regardless of the type of service. This is required in European countries with mobile phone networks, so why not?

Gizmo - Alpha Beta

2005-07-06T23:52:00.000-07:00

Richard Stastny VoIP and ENUM

Basically I am getting too old being an alpha-tester according to Tom Evslin's "Decoding Programmers Speak":

“It’s Beta ready.”
Translation: It’s Alpha ready.”

When I downloaded and installed it on Thursday, I could not even register. It said invalid whatever, every time I tried richard.stastny, richard, stastny or f*ck off. So I gave up. BTW, it would have been helpful to get a notice that you could also register with your old sipphone account. I detected this later. The behaviour on this day must have been somewhat erratic, because a collegue of mine had the same problem, but in his case ALL his tries succeeded despite of the error messages, so he has now 4 accounts, as he detected after receiving the ack e-mails. BTW, I never received any welcome e-mail, despite of being registered now as stastny. (One also gets a Sipphone Boing 747 number again in the background, which you also only find out looking up your own profile)

So I gave it a last try yesterday and first thing it did was downloading an update. Aha - and I could register ;-)

My first impression: a Skype clone - which is basically not a bad idea. If you clone something, take the best product. So it makes sense.

It also uses the ILBC codec, again not a bad idea, so one can expect a good sound quality.

But to clone something, it takes more: e.g. usability.

Since I had no buddies yet to call on Gizmo, and since you get 0,25 cents for out calls, I tried to call some numbers. I entered some numbers in the well known international format, also called E.164, e.g. +43xxxx.

Result: a nice announcement: "The number you have dialed is crash". Of course she did not say "crash", it just sounded like this.

Then I tried to call some sip URIs, e.g. on fwd and sipgate, same effect.

After thinking a bit about this, and since I know from earlier discussions whith Michael that he has the same understanding on numbering I have on baseball, I tried 01143xxx and voila, it worked.

Having this worked out, I also found that you may call another SIP user with entering the sip URI with SIP:16241@fwd.pulver.com and not without. Entering such an acoount into the Buddy List does not work, it is not accepted.

I was even able to reach my sipphone account from FWD, still remebering that the URI to call sipphone is proxy01.sipphone.com, which also nobody tells you (or the siphone number). Note on the side: It is urgently needed that presence finally works between such domains.

One major drawback from my point of view: Gizmo is not ENUM-enabled.

Another issue I do not like is that voice-mail only works SER style by sending you the voice-mail in an e-mail attachment. I got used to the Skype-style in just clicking a botton in the call list.

InCalls use the combined FWD and Sipphone gateway e.g. at Washington 1 202 742 5739, which is not very user-friendly, because it is two-stage dialing. And it worked only with my FWD account, but not with Gizmo, because of a "codec mismatch". Gateway not understanding ILBC yet, or what? ;-)

There are of course other comments on Gizmo, the general impression is that most welcome the idea to have finally a non-propriatory SIP product similar to Skype, but that is is still very Beta.

It is really very Beta, my rant at the beginning is cause by the fact that I had to stop testing because the application stopped working. This is not quite true, it is hiding (lurking?). If you log in, it is showing up in the task bar as running, but you cannot see it. It is still running and working, it even rings, but it does not show up on the desktop. I re-booted Windows, but still the same. Maybe I have to re-install it, but here I will wait on the next version.

Andy and Phoneboy are quite positive and are awaiting additional clients:

Of course, if they want to go head-to-head with Skype, they're going to have to
get clients out there for Linux, Pocket PC, and Symbian. God, I wish I could
find a free SIP client for my Nokia 9500...

Stuart from the Skype Journal is raising some good and valid questions, the same I have:

What would be the compelling reason to switch? From Skype to Gizmo?
How and what opportunities does this provide for PBX integration; something many Skypers want?
Is the fragmentation of the VON VoIP market only going to affect other SIP players and have no impact on Skype?
Why aren't the "rates" for CallOut or CallIn competitive?
The last point is very important: Skype is already very sticky, and if one really wants to use Skype for outcalls (e.g. from a plane ;-), he will still use Skype and not Gizmo. And how many VoIP clients does a normal person have on his laptop or Softphone?

David is first blaming Niklas for being assymetric (BTW - this is quite a usual behaviour from all alternative providers (TDM and IP) - basically being in contact with the voice business turns you in a bellhead sooner than later).

At a recent conference, a Skype founder suggested "regulating the incumbents" to force others to carry Skype calls. Skype calls go over the public Internet, but are often carried on telephone company wiring (DSL) which Skype is worried could be configured to block their calls. They are proposing that the government should step in and demand that those telephone company networks carry Skype calls.

Meanwhile, Skype is refusing to carry anyone else's calls on their own phone system. They are engaging in exact behavior - they are worried about others trying. Skype can't have it both ways. If Skype wants to lock others out of their system, shouldn't the telephone companies have the same right also?

SIPphone.com really stresses the open standard and interoperability aspects of Gizmo and for my part, I couldn't agree more.

He really likes the app on the Mac (ok, I missed this one) and then he is missing the find button - this is not true - you just have to use "search" - or they forgot this on the Mac.

He continues: So in fact, Gizmo interoperates with any service, PBX, or network using SIP, i.e. every service out there except Skype.

One solution may be that Gizmo is also using the Skype API like the Pulver Communicator.

The other possibility is that SIP applications like Gizmo will finally overtake Skype, but this will not be easy.

Skype has shown that normal customes do not want to configure the client and attach it to a provider, they want to have a bundled product.

Gone Native?

2005-07-06T23:51:00.000-07:00

Aswath Rao - Aswath Weblog

A few days back a new VoIP client, called Gizmo, was released claiming to be a Skype killer. This is closely associated with SIPPhone, which had earlier released another client called GAIM, an integrated IM and VoIP client.

First a summary of what one can do with Gizmo. It gives a nice UI to use the SIPPhone system. The first notable feature is the way it supports the voice mail. The system collects voice mail and then forwards to a specified email. This is in contrast to Skype, which hosts the messages. The second feature of note is the ability to record the conversation. Their website indicates that they have a partnership with Golbal IP Sound. Even though it is not stated on the nature of partnership, the consensus seems to be that Gizmo uses their wideband codec.
Then there are the standard set of features like call-logs and buddy lists. It also offers the ability to make and receive calls from PSTN. But the surprising thing is there is a price difference between Gizmo and SIPPhone – prices to some destinations are higher and others are lower. At least to India the charge is almost the same as what AT&T charges for PSTN customers. Given Skype’s difficulty with DTMF tones on a PSTN call, it will be interesting to know how Gizmo fares.
It is interesting to compare Gizmo to pulverCommunicator. Both are SIP based and both have plans to distribute to others with the ability to brand it. But pC has texting capability that is missing from Gizmo. Call-me link feature of pC is not widely discussed, but I hope Gizmo adds in a future release. pC does not support a wideband codec. But it can be unlocked and used with any other SIP based service. As far as I can determine Gizmo is locked to use only SIPPhone. This is from the company that sued Vonage for locking their ATAs. Have they gone native? In the same vein, I wish they supported Speex, an open source and loyalty free codec. (By the way I hope pC supports a wideband codec in the near future.)

IM VoIP Clients - Interop is Key

2005-07-06T23:50:00.000-07:00

Eric Lagerway - SIPthat.com

Aswath has created a bit of a stir with his recent post regarding Gizmo and Pulver Communicator. Jeff Pulver had something to say about Gizmo on his blog as well. All in all I think we need to remember that the key to creating a good IP communications client will rest in the features and interop. Interop means incorporating open standards like SIP and using royalty free codecs [preferably open source]. With Video it's H.263++ [for now] and for audio it's Speex Wideband. H.263++ provides close to 264/AVC quality with the codec royalty and uses far less CPU. Speex-wb provides for excellent sound quality, so much in fact Yahoo! decided to implement it.
Om Malik, Andy Abramson and of course Stuart Henshall all had things to say about Gizmo.
Remember, when building these new IP communications clients, interop is key. If it you are not building something that will work with the open standards proposed by the IETF you are not building something that will stand the test of time. If you want to deliver something new where there is no standard, then work with someone to create it!

Data, data everywhere – but not a drop to drink

2005-07-06T23:49:00.001-07:00

Martin Geddes - Telepocalypse

You can get a cellular signal even in the remotest places you go on holiday. However, progress is a patchy thing, and some of my experiences getting mobile data to work were so spectacularly, splendidly and unrelentingly dismal, I thought I’d share them with you. It’s quite long, so maybe get yourself a coffee first. If you’re an investor in telcos, I’d make that an Irish coffee. A stiff one.
My objective was simple: be able to access my e-mail while I’m away without my laptop, so I know there are no fires in my little consulting business needing my urgent attention.
Firstly, you need some connectivity.

The sincerest form of flattery

2005-07-06T23:49:00.000-07:00

Martin Geddes - Telepocalypse

Well, I tried downloading Skype-clone Gizmo and making a call.
But it doesn’t work. Just hangs after trying to connect to the login server post-registration. I’ve got a bog-standard HP Windows XP laptop.
Remember, it’s not just free Internet telephony that counts. It’s free Internet telephony that just works.

Tried Gizmo yet?

2005-07-06T23:48:00.000-07:00

Ted Wallingford

As first reported on TUAW, Gizmo is a softphone for Mac and Windows (and soon Linux) that appears a lot like Skype in form and function. Perhaps coolest of all is its developers’ insistence on open standards (SIP most notably) under the hood, the lack of which will eventually come back to bite Skype, I think. Also included are some really great features Skype doesn’t have—like call recording and a world map showing the approximate location of your call buddies. Check it out at http://www.gizmoproject.com/download.html and let me know what your first experiences with Gizmo have been like.

VoIP by the numbers: just 17 million?

2005-07-06T23:47:00.001-07:00

Leonardo Faoro - The VoIP Weblog

According to an article at Tom’s Hardware Guide, VoIP service providers worldwide have thusfar enlisted 17 million subscribers, a number that I find both paltry and encouraging. First off, it doesn’t speak to the millions of VoIP users who host their own call-routing services. As a result, it seems abnormally low. Cisco, Avaya, and Nortel have equipped millions of VoIP desktops, but this isn’t reflected in the number since their VoIP PBX systems tend to be connected to the outside world using traditional, non-VoIP phone lines like T1s.

But I also find the number encouraging, because, with 320+ million people in the U.S. alone, there is a huge hole for low-cost telephony that is going to get plugged by today’s VoIP service startups, anxious to quench the thirst of an increasingly value-conscious market. Not surprisingly, Japan is the leader in VoIP service adoption, while America is second. Check out all the numbers at the link below.

Skype for Outlook

2005-07-06T23:47:00.000-07:00

Mark Evans
http://evans.blogware.com/

Om Malik has a posting on Skype's new took for Outlook, a toolbar that lets you use Skype directly from Outlook. Skype users will like the fact it appears easy to connect Skype IDs with Oulook contacts. You have to admire Skype's chutzpah for essentially tweaking its nose at Microsoft. The new tool should encourage people, who rely on Outlook and intrigued by VOIP, to at least give Skype a test-run. The newest Skype product is also a nice strategic counter-move to the buzz created by Michael Robertson's Gizmo application, which is taking direct aim at Skype. In light of Skype move on Outlook, you wonder how much longer it will be before Microsoft unveils its own VOIP application or IM add-on.

Videotron's VOIP Growth

2005-07-06T23:46:00.000-07:00

Mark Evans
http://evans.blogware.com/

Videotron - perhaps the most aggressive cable telephony service provider in North America - has attracted 42K customers since February. Videotron's success is not a surprise given its prices ($15.95 to $29.95, not including LD) make cable telephony service a no-brainer, particularly if you're already a cable and high-speed Internet subscriber. Concius Capital analyst Kona Shio expects that Videotron will have 90K telephony users by the end of this year. You wonder how Bell will respond to losing serious market share. Given Videotron's telephone service has few bells and whistles other than low prices, perhaps Videotron's picking up customers who just like bundles - something Bell has embraced as well. The real challenge for Bell is making sure its own customers, who buy two or more services, don't jump to Videotron. Losing them would means losing lucrative customers. Another way of looking at Videtron's success is it could accelerate the de-regulation of the local phone market in Montreal. Then, Bell could really start to compete on price and promotions.

Sean Kane took my money and ran?

2005-07-06T23:45:00.000-07:00

David Beckemeyer- Mr Blog

Another VoIP provider bites the dust?
I had been using Simpletelecom for SIP PSTN termination for some time, with generally good results. They offered 1.7 cents per minute to the US/Canada and much of the world. As of July 1, they seem to have vanished. The SIP servers and website are down and in fact the DNS servers for the entire domain are dead. Their published phone number 775.324.3994 has been disconnected with no forwarding number.
It was a prepaid service and I had a balance when they shut the service down, so in my personal case, they literally appear to have taken the money and run.
The company was founded by MP3.com co-founder Sean Kane who at one time may have used the email address sean@kane.org.
If anyone knows how to reach Sean or Simpletelecom, please give me a shout: mrblog at mrblog.org

Gizmo-Lacking In Support

2005-07-06T23:44:00.000-07:00

Andy Abramson - VoIP Watch

One of the things I love about CallVantage and Broadvoice is how rapidly each of those companies support teams jumps on problems and get back to me with answers, usually its a senior tech or ops person. Sometimes it's a ranking executive, but always the problem gets resolved, even if I'm proxing for a reader who has gotten frustrated.
With Gizmo, like Skype, they use one of those online systems where you enter a trouble ticket. While that may be good for some people (i.e. techies) as a business person and media member, I'm a bit more interested in having someone "talk" with me about the problem, understand the problem, and discuss the solution process.
That's why I was floored by the reply I received from Gizmo's support person who shall remain nameless to my report that calls to my CallVantage number would not terminate, and received a "Number Not In Service" error message which from what I can tell meant that Gizmo couldn't fully complete the call to the number when called directly or when the call was forwarded from my SBC PSTN line, a test that I regularly run with every VoIP provider I test (fyi-Skype works perfectly on this test) Here's what I received back:
Andy,
I received the same result when calling from a cell phone and from my gizmo phone.
Your number just keeps on ringing with no pickup. I would suggest trying this again
Rate this ticket: Helpful Not Helpful
Ticket ID:
HZM-OMMITTED
Tracking URL:
Click Here
Created On:
02 Jul 2005 06:32 PM
Last Update:
02 Jul 2005 06:32 PM
Status:
Closed
The tech's response doesn't make any sense at all, as not only doesn't it replicate my experience, it implies that my phone service doesn't answer, something received dozen or so voice mails I received yesterday, or the over 30 calls my CallVantage call log of incoming calls shows, including my Gizmo 747 number reaching it. As a result I reopened the trouble ticket. Of course the Gizmo team can always call me on Gizmo too to talk about it :-)
UPDATE--Got a call from Michael Robertson...he's looking into this and thinks it's a PSTN termination partner issue

Tell me again why the Mac is better?

2005-07-03T23:31:00.000-07:00

Kevin Werback - werblog

I'm still finding the Mac experience surprisingly frustrating. I posted this in the comments, but it's worth putting it on my main blog to invite people to respond.
My biggest surprise is that I'm seeing few things that are actually better on my Powerbook than my old Thinkpad. Can someone help me out here?
The reasons for preferring the Mac that I've heard so far are:
Better stability -- I believe this is true, but in a week with the Powerbook I've had two crashes requiring me to remove the battery, and at least one force quit per day. No unexplained chronic problems like I got from time to time with Windows, but again, it has only been a week.
fewer viruses -- Definitely true. On the other hand, I used a firewall and virus checker on my Windows machine, and didn't use Microsoft's email or Web browser apps. So I never spent any time dealing with viruses on my Thinkpad.
Better networking -- So far, this has been the biggest surprise. My Powerbook doesn't recognize the Linksys WiFi access point right next to it, and it often fails to recognize USB hard drives and keychain drives. Since I use USB drives all the time for backup and file transfer, the latter is a royal pain. I also couldn't get the Powerbook to print over the Internet to a laser printer that worked right away on my Thinkpad. So, how is the Mac actually better in this department?
Print to PDF -- Useful, but that's just bundling a feature I already had with Acrobat.
Dashboard -- Doesn't do it for me. If I'm going to use widgets, I want them always available on the desktop, rather than requiring a mode switch. I know I can get that with Konfabulator, but I had that on Windows.
Spotlight -- A nice feature. But the biggest thing I search through is email, and I can already do that with much more powerful features within Eudora.
Instant on from sleep -- Better, but trivial.
So, what am I missing? Why is a Mac today actually better than a PC? Virtually everything I've seen so far is an improvement in basic, out-of-the-box functionality, but not an advantage over the tuned Thinkpad I gave up.
And before anyone flames me, I'll reiterate that I was a die-hard Mac user for a decade before I (grudgingly) went over to Windows. I've just spent $9,000 on Mac hardware and software, and I want to feel that I made the right choice.

Project Gizmo?

2005-07-03T23:30:00.000-07:00

Dameon D. Welch-Abernathy - PhoneBoy's Blog

Hey look, it's Michael Robertson's attempt at cloning Skype: Project Gizmo. Since it basically is using the existing SIPphone infrastructure to pull it off, it's definitely SIP, it's definitely got connectivity with other SIP networks, and they've got inbound and outbound PSTN connectivity.

Of course, if they want to go head-to-head with Skype, they're going to have to get clients out there for Linux, Pocket PC, and Symbian. God, I wish I could find a free SIP client for my Nokia 9500...

Gizmo - Alpha Beta

2005-07-03T23:28:00.000-07:00

Richard Stastny VoIP and ENUM

Basically I am getting too old being an alpha-tester according to Tom Evslin's "Decoding Programmers Speak":

“It’s Beta ready.”
Translation: It’s Alpha ready.”

When I downloaded and installed it on Thursday, I could not even register. It said invalid whatever, every time I tried richard.stastny, richard, stastny or f*ck off. So I gave up. BTW, it would have been helpful to get a notice that you could also register with your old sipphone account. I detected this later. The behaviour on this day must have been somewhat erratic, because a collegue of mine had the same problem, but in his case ALL his tries succeeded despite of the error messages, so he has now 4 accounts, as he detected after receiving the ack e-mails. BTW, I never received any welcome e-mail, despite of being registered now as stastny. (One also gets a Sipphone Boing 747 number again in the background, which you also only find out looking up your own profile)

So I gave it a last try yesterday and first thing it did was downloading an update. Aha - and I could register ;-)

My first impression: a Skype clone - which is basically not a bad idea. If you clone something, take the best product. So it makes sense.

It also uses the ILBC codec, again not a bad idea, so one can expect a good sound quality.

But to clone something, it takes more: e.g. usability.

Since I had no buddies yet to call on Gizmo, and since you get 0,25 cents for out calls, I tried to call some numbers. I entered some numbers in the well known international format, also called E.164, e.g. +43xxxx.

Result: a nice announcement: "The number you have dialed is crash". Of course she did not say "crash", it just sounded like this.

Then I tried to call some sip URIs, e.g. on fwd and sipgate, same effect.

After thinking a bit about this, and since I know from earlier discussions whith Michael that he has the same understanding on numbering I have on baseball, I tried 01143xxx and voila, it worked.

Having this worked out, I also found that you may call another SIP user with entering the sip URI with SIP:16241@fwd.pulver.com and not without. Entering such an acoount into the Buddy List does not work, it is not accepted.

I was even able to reach my sipphone account from FWD, still remebering that the URI to call sipphone is proxy01.sipphone.com, which also nobody tells you (or the siphone number). Note on the side: It is urgently needed that presence finally works between such domains.

One major drawback from my point of view: Gizmo is not ENUM-enabled.

Another issue I do not like is that voice-mail only works SER style by sending you the voice-mail in an e-mail attachment. I got used to the Skype-style in just clicking a botton in the call list.

InCalls use the combined FWD and Sipphone gateway e.g. at Washington 1 202 742 5739, which is not very user-friendly, because it is two-stage dialing. And it worked only with my FWD account, but not with Gizmo, because of a "codec mismatch". Gateway not understanding ILBC yet, or what? ;-)

There are of course other comments on Gizmo, the general impression is that most welcome the idea to have finally a non-propriatory SIP product similar to Skype, but that is is still very Beta.

It is really very Beta, my rant at the beginning is cause by the fact that I had to stop testing because the application stopped working. This is not quite true, it is hiding (lurking?). If you log in, it is showing up in the task bar as running, but you cannot see it. It is still running and working, it even rings, but it does not show up on the desktop. I re-booted Windows, but still the same. Maybe I have to re-install it, but here I will wait on the next version.

Andy and Phoneboy are quite positive and are awaiting additional clients:

Of course, if they want to go head-to-head with Skype, they're going to have to
get clients out there for Linux, Pocket PC, and Symbian. God, I wish I could
find a free SIP client for my Nokia 9500...

Stuart from the Skype Journal is raising some good and valid questions, the same I have:
What would be the compelling reason to switch? From Skype to Gizmo?
How and what opportunities does this provide for PBX integration; something many Skypers want?
Is the fragmentation of the VON VoIP market only going to affect other SIP players and have no impact on Skype?
Why aren't the "rates" for CallOut or CallIn competitive?
The last point is very important: Skype is already very sticky, and if one really wants to use Skype for outcalls (e.g. from a plane ;-), he will still use Skype and not Gizmo. And how many VoIP clients does a normal person have on his laptop or Softphone?

David is first blaming Niklas for being assymetric (BTW - this is quite a usual behaviour from all alternative providers (TDM and IP) - basically being in contact with the voice business turns you in a bellhead sooner than later).

At a recent conference, a Skype founder suggested "regulating the incumbents" to force others to carry Skype calls. Skype calls go over the public Internet, but are often carried on telephone company wiring (DSL) which Skype is worried could be configured to block their calls. They are proposing that the government should step in and demand that those telephone company networks carry Skype calls.
Meanwhile, Skype is refusing to carry anyone else's calls on their own phone system. They are engaging in exact behavior - they are worried about others trying. Skype can't have it both ways. If Skype wants to lock others out of their system, shouldn't the telephone companies have the same right also?

SIPphone.com really stresses the open standard and interoperability aspects of Gizmo and for my part, I couldn't agree more.
He really likes the app on the Mac (ok, I missed this one) and then he is missing the find button - this is not true - you just have to use "search" - or they forgot this on the Mac.

He continues: So in fact, Gizmo interoperates with any service, PBX, or network using SIP, i.e. every service out there except Skype.

One solution may be that Gizmo is also using the Skype API like the Pulver Communicator.

The other possibility is that SIP applications like Gizmo will finally overtake Skype, but this will not be easy.

Skype has shown that normal customes do not want to configure the client and attach it to a provider, they want to have a bundled product.

The Joke That Was Jajah

2005-07-03T23:27:00.001-07:00

Aswath Rao - Aswath Weblog

A few days back I read about Jajah in a note written by Phil Wolff in Skype Journal. Based on that, when I visited Jajah’s website, some of the claims were outlandish. And when I read Om’s entry, I felt that we might have discussed this. (wink, wink). So I decided to elaborate on my thoughts, questioning some of the claims. As I searched for the exact references, lo and behold they were not to be found. Did I hallucinate reading these or they disappeared from the original site? I am not sure. What follows are some of the points I thought I read, but I can not locate them now.

Jajah is a P2P phone, but unlike Skype will not use the resources of your computer. Of course this is not true. In their description of the network architecture, they do identify that they have supernodes and also admit that they have “bootstrap” supernodes.
Connect to Skype users, even if the Skype client is turned off. I am sure I read this. Honest. But I searched their entire website. It is not there now. In any event, Stuart Henshall points out that they have a few Skype clients running that acts like a proxy. Still I am not sure how this thing works exactly. Surely this will not work for Skype to Jajah direction. But if my Skype partner will accept calls only from his buddies, won’t my Jajah invite get blocked by Skype, because as far as Skype is concerned it is coming from this Skype proxy. Finally let us assume that the session gets established. Since we do not know the encryption done by Skype, Jajah proxy has to deliver raw voice sample to Skype. This means there has to be double encoding, leading to increased delay. This should surely affect the quality.
Talk to “millions of SIP and IAX phones for free”. Of course this applies only to those that have established a peering agreement. For example, I am sure Vonage is out.
But one amusing item is still available. It is the background story that is told via a press clipping. But there is no reference or even the date of publication. What is more, the accompanying picture seems to suggest that Bill Gates is listening to this mystic person very attentively. Is that supposed to mean something? If so, I am not sure what that is. Any currently I think the “founder” is not a real person, but a “Bourbaki”.
Given the changes, I am scaling back my total rejection. So here is a summary of Jajah. Like Skype and other IMs, the client is an integrated client that provides text, voice and video chat. The system is a P2P system (as if that bestows magical powers). They offer “Out” service. Some of the rates are much lower than available from other places. I hope it is not “an introductory offer”.
Of course I have neither installed nor used the client. People with more experience in usability aspects will eventually comment on it. But I have the same set of questions that I raised in reference to Skype: if I need to communicate with my buddies, why do I need to register with an entity and beholden to them? I am still rooting for Autonomous Communication.

Gizmo, not just another furry monster

2005-07-03T23:27:00.000-07:00

Eric Lagerway - SIPthat.com

I am a litle behind the times due to my son's arrival but I thought I would comment on some IP communications news of late..
Michael Robertson looks to be up to no good, as far as the ILECs may be concerned, he has just launched Gizmo a new Skype-like IM & VoIP service which could cause pain for some traditional operators. Like Skype, Gizmo uses Global IP Sound's technology at the core and like Xten software uses SIP so it's open standards compliant. It would seem Michael is looking to combine the best of both worlds and that sounds like a winning combination to me. I would personally like to see some video functionality, maybe in the next release?

SIPphone.com puts out another IM/voice Skype alternative

2005-07-03T23:26:00.000-07:00

David Beckemeyer- Mr Blog

SIPphone.com already launched PhoneGaim last fall. Now they are launching another Skype-like application called Gizmo. In their newsletter titled Skype Bad, Gizmo Good they hammer Skype:
At a recent conference, a Skype founder suggested "regulating the incumbents" to force others to carry Skype calls. Skype calls go over the public Internet, but are often carried on telephone company wiring (DSL) which Skype is worried could be configured to block their calls. They are proposing that the government should step in and demand that those telephone company networks carry Skype calls.
Meanwhile, Skype is refusing to carry anyone else's calls on their own phone system. They are engaging in exact behavior - they are worried about others trying. Skype can't have it both ways. If Skype wants to lock others out of their system, shouldn't the telephone companies have the same right also?
SIPphone.com really stresses the open standard and interoperability aspects of Gizmo and for my part, I couldn't agree more.
They do say "Gizmo matches Skype's features plus adds some neat ones" and I'm not sure I'd go that far yet. The app does look really good on Mac OS X and is perhaps the best looking Voice/IM app I've seen, especially one that supports SIP. The first thing I noticed missing in Gizmo was a "Find People" option to find people on the network. Without that, the "nobody to talk to problem" (the fax problem) smacks one in the face right away. I don't think Gizmo matches Skype's built-in multi-chat and conferencing capabilities yet either. I'm sure Skype aficionados will find many things that Gizmo won't do yet.
The main limitation for Skype users of course is that Gizmo doesn't interoperate with Skype. You cannot call your Skype buddies. Now you and I know that what is really going on is that Skype is the one that doesn't interoperate. Other services interoperate with each other: FWD, SIPphone, thousands of smaller services, businesses, universities, and many other net calling communities. Only Skype has elected not to interoperate. So in fact, Gizmo interoperates with any service, PBX, or network using SIP, i.e. every service out there except Skype. But the business reality is that no matter what other features any Skype-like Gizmo has, lacking interoperabiluty with Skype will be a real barrier to adoption. And of course it will always appear to be the other guy's fault. Skype always seems to get away Scot free with the community.
I wish Gizmo well though, and I hope they attract millions of users. I certainly hope the populace will wake up and move to an open-standards based platform (or at least that the SIP user-base grows enough that Skype users eventually demand that Skype interoperate).

Live 8 Thoughts

2005-07-03T23:25:00.000-07:00

Andy Abramson - VoIP Watch

For those who don't know, I was one of the guys who got involved in streaming media back in the 90's. I'm constantly amazed at how in some ways other than there being more pipe (i.e. better, faster bandwidth to the home) and better compression technology, not much has really changed.
That was until today. Watching the feed from London of U2, ColdPlay, Elton John, then shifting to Berlin for AudioSlave, to Rome for DuranDuran, even having multiple "stages" opened on the Mac showed me just how great this could be.
I remember in the 80's being at my friend's, the Trimble's house in Wyckoff, NJ during the first Live Aid, watching the original Live Aid show and realizing that Music on TV just changed. I have the same feeling about music on the Internet because with quality like this, concert video on Demand for pay becomes a very interesting proposition.
Sure there are rights issues to be resolved, and this is a charity event, but basically if this is the NEW AOL platform, they have made a bold step in the direction of being a leader in the delivery of content along with Microsoft's Windows Media platform.
I think we are seeing today, the start of something really serious when it comes to the next generation of content delivery.

Cable Companies Keep Gaining Users

2005-07-03T23:24:00.000-07:00

Andy Abramson - VoIP Watch

Funny this post came up yesterday. I was having a discussion yesterday with a veteran dot.com executive about where the winners will be. I said cable and a few of the incumbents would be the winners in VoIP. Seems others are sensing the same thing.
Sure companies like AOL and YAHOO will make a stand, gain some customers and have business, but at the end of the day, it will be the MSO's and the SBC/ATT, VERIZON types in the USA who win.
Globally, I think the newly forged cable guys who have triple play on the brain will also win.

Linksys Loves VoIP

2005-06-29T23:46:00.000-07:00

Tom Keating - VoIP Blog

I came across an interesting article on Linksys that once again points to the possibility that my prediction that Linksys would enter the VoIP consumer/SMB market with a SOHO IP-PBX just may happen by the end of the year. In fact, in this prediction I stated, "LinkSys will announce this as early as December of this year."

Here's the Linksys story which also cites some interesting Linksys VoIP port numbers sold. I bolded the relevant sections that I think may point to a Linksys IP-PBX by the end of the year..

VOICE-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) is hot, and Linksys founder Victor Tsao has been coolly surprised by the market acceptance for the technology.

'We have shipped over 2 million VoIP ports for the period September last year to May 2005,' said Mr Tsao, senior vice-president and general manager of Linksys. 'This is beyond my expectations.'

'VoIP is absolutely one of our drivers for growth, and its market acceptance will be the driving force,' he added.

Sanjeev Gupta, Linksys' regional sales director for north and south Asia, revealed that in Singapore, its VoIP products are already being sold by StarHub to business users. Consumers however, will have to wait a little longer. Mr Gupta said: 'With the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore's recent liberalisation of VoIP services. . .I'm guessing in the next 90 to 120 days, we will see someone in the (consumer VoIP) fray.'

Me: Hmmmm, could that someone be..... Linksys?

Mr Tsao (Linksys founder) said that digital home products were another area his company is working on, but added frankly: 'While the current products are good for the early adopters, I must admit that it's not there yet for the mass market. This is something we're working on and hopefully we'll see more products by Christmas this year.'

Actually, if you read the article, he was talking more about digital media products like the Wireless AG Media Centre Extender, which is compatible with Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. I'm still not giving up home on a Linksys IP-PBX though. It will happen. I'd bet my Viper on it. Ok, maybe not.

Supreme Court Ruling Results in VoIP Blocking?

2005-06-29T23:45:00.000-07:00

Tom Keating - VoIP Blog

According to a Forbes article, the recent Supreme Court Ruling against a small Internet service provider called Brand X Internet will open the door to VoIP blocking. The Supreme Court ruled that cable operators don't need to share their broadband access lines with other businesses. Thus, the Forbes article "theorizes" that this will lead to VoIP port blocking by the cable broadband providers by stating, "That's good news for big cable companies but could be trouble for voice-over-Internet Protocol providers like Vonage, which sell digital phone service."

Jeff Pulver seems to agree that port blocking will occur when he is quoted in the Forbes article, "I believe it's a matter of when, not if. If I'm a service provider offering my own voice-over-broadband offering, and I've got the ability to block my competition, why not?"

Respectfully to both Forbes and Pulver, I say, "hogwash!"

All it takes is one 911 call to fail due to cable companies performing port blocking and the million dollar lawsuit that will ensue will keep the cable companies in line. The liability is just to great. The FCC will step in and prevent this from happening. If not the FCC then certainly Congress will step in if rampant port blocking were to occur.

The financial risk to smaller broadband providers is just to risky to "test" the legality of port blocking. As for the larger broadband players, let's just imagine for argument sake that tomorrow Cablevision (based in New York + Northeast) started port blocking anyone using Vonage that uses Optimum Online high-speed Internet. I would guesstimate that on any given day there are hundreds of 911 calls in the New York/Northeast area. Of those hundreds of 911 calls, lets say just 20 of them use Vonage. That's 20 potential lawsuits in one day. Now let's assume these 911 lawsuits aren't filed for a month or so. That's 30 days x 20 lawsuits per day = 600 potential lawsuits before Cablevision realizes what a terrible mistake they made? C'mon, they're smarter than that. I'm sure they have lawyers that assess this kind of liability risk. Sorry, Forbes, but port blocking by the cable broadband providers just ain't gonna happen.

Brand X Loses

2005-06-28T00:54:00.000-07:00

Rich Tehrani

Depending on your perspective, today’s ruling on the Brand X case is either good or bad. If you are a cable company that has invested in infrastructure, you are happy you will not have to share your lines. Of course this is bad for consumers. The FCC said that broadband over cable was an information service back in March of 2002 meaning that cable companies would not have to share their internet connections with other ISPs. Today the Supreme Court agreed with the FCC in the famous Brand X case.

Next up is DSL and phone companies want to make sure there is no competition over these lines either. It seems that consumers are going to have less and less broadband competition going forward. The FCC has already ruled that fiber deployed by ILECs will not have to be shared. What we will be left with are two competitors, ILECs and cable companies with the potential for broadband over power line and WiMAX making some sort of competitive dent.

Many argue that two competitors does not provide adequate competition and it is difficult to argue with this premise. The good news? Consumers can rest assured that if they want competition for internet service, they can always go back to dial up.

Level3 Betting on E911

2005-06-28T00:53:00.000-07:00

Eric Lagerway - SIPthat.com

With the recent rulling on mandatory E911 for providers touching the PSTN Level 3 is leveraging their recent E911 solutions and are filling a gap..
"Since the FCC issued its recent order on E-911 for VoIP, we have seen a significant increase in interest from customers looking for a path to compliance with the FCC's rapid implementation requirements," said Sureel Choksi, executive vice president of services for Level 3. "Having deployed extensive E-911 infrastructure over the course of the past eighteen months, Level 3 is in a unique position to assist our customers in meeting the FCC's requirements, and we believe these enhancements will further extend our leadership position as a network partner for VoIP providers across the industry."

Since there’s more to life than VoIP

2005-06-28T00:52:00.000-07:00

Leonardo Faoro - The VoIP Weblog

If you can’t get enough shareware, or if you just love to get somebody’s opinion before you go wasting a ton of bandwidth downloading some newfangled Internet phone application, only to discover that it’s encrusted with spyware. Thankfully, Weblogs Inc., the publisher of the VoIP blog—yeah, that’s this web site—has launched downloadsquad.com, where you can be the first kid on your block with the inside scoop on software. I’ll be blogging there from time to time, too. Enjoy!

Ethnic Marketing of Telecom Services

2005-06-28T00:51:00.000-07:00

Mark Evans
http://evans.blogware.com

In-Stat has a report suggesting carriers are taking a more aggressive marketing approach to ethnic groups. The company cites Qwest's low-cost LD calling plans for Mexico, and Sprint's launch of Movida Communications, which also targets the large Hispanic community. The report is intriguing as carriers try to penetrate new niches while protecting their existing customer base from cablecos. I'm a firm believer VOIP is the ideal service to be sold into ethnic and special interest groups. This can be done by large service providers such as Vonage or Cablevision, as well as small niche players looking to establish a viable and profitable market foothold. The big challenge facing large companies is ethnic marketing requires particular focus and may not be worth it if the audience isn't big enough. This, in theory, leaves room for small and nimble rivals to jump into unserved or under-served markets.

The P2P Backlash on MP3 Sales?

2005-06-28T00:49:00.000-07:00

Mark Evans
http://evans.blogware.com

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled P2P services such as Grokster are liable for the actions of their users, a big will be the impact will be on MP3 players. Whether anyone wants to admit it, MP3 players such as iPods have become popular because people can load them up with free hundreds, if not thousands, of free songs downloaded using P2P services. Anyone who thinks all that music has been dutifully ripped off CDs or bought legally is delusional. If the "pipeline" to free music disappears or shrinks will this make MP3 players less compelling? If this happens, will the iPod suddenly become yesterday's story? I'm willing to bet Apple will attempt to downplay this scenario as far-fetched while talking up the success of iTunes. Maybe the legal downloading music business will receive a much-needed boost from the court decision. I suspect it may cause some people to think twice about using a P2P service. Then again, the concept of music for free is still very much alive and well - especially within the key 15 to 24 year-old demographic - if you look at the number of users and songs available on Kazaa, Limewire, BitTorrent, et al. You may be able to wound the P2P beast but killing it is going to be extremely difficult - even with highest court in the U.S. weighing in. Addendum: Michael Geist, who has become a go-to P2P legal expert, believes the court ruling has no impact on P2P users because there are already laws that address downloading. Instead, he said the decision makes it clear P2P service providers are now legally vulnerable. For people still intent on downloading, the challenge may be finding a service if Grokster, Limewire, etc. decide it's not worth the legal hassle. Then again, I'm sure someone could easily set up a P2P service in a country not adhering to WIPO, and snub their nose at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Trilingual telco TV

2005-06-28T00:48:00.000-07:00

James Enck - EuroTecoblog

Belgacom is going to launch its Belgacom TV product tomorrow with a press conference at 10:15 AM CET, though sparing itself (and the rest of us) any analyst involvement. Pick your language of choice and tune, um, log in.

For English: www.streampower.be/belgacomtv/en

For French: www.streampower.be/belgacomtv/fr

For Dutch: www.streampower.be/belgacomtv/nl

Vonage Announced Another Market-Where's The Emergency

2005-06-28T00:47:00.000-07:00

Andy Abramson - VoIP Watch

Usually these Vonage is going into another market don't get my attention, but this one did, no for what it said, but for what it didn't.
While almost every carrier which announces something about VoIP these days talks about E911, and given Vonage's checkered past of late with this (and JC's claims to have to spend millions to get the company E911 ready with Verizon and others) you would have figured they would have said something. Anything.

Asterisk the Final Nail in the PBX Coffin?

2005-06-27T01:16:00.000-07:00

Tom Keating - VoIP Blog

Brian McConnel has written an excellent article on Asterisk titled "The PBX Is Dead; Long Live VoIP". Brian and I go way back to the days when I wrote for CTI Magazine and Brian worked for Pacific Telephony Design/PhoneZone. If memory serve me, Brian was one of the biggest proponents and one of the authors of SCTP (Simple Computer Telephony Protocol). Nothing ever came of SCTP that I'm aware of, but Brian is one smart guy with lots of telecom experience I even have some of Brian's email newsletters from when he worked at Pacific Telephony Design/PhoneZone in 1997. (Yes I'm an email hoard!) Ah yes, the days of proprietaty, expensive, hard to develop CTI systems. Weren't those days fun? I still miss TSAPI and TAPI, don't you?

By pure chance I came across Brian's article today whre he both praises and critques the Asterisk open-source PBX. It was a fascinating read with some interesting insights about how he feels the "open" Asterisk platform is going to finally help to put the final nail in the proverbially coffin of "closed system" PBXs. But all is not roses when it comes to Asterisk as Brian claims that for him, Asterisk isn't quite ready for a production environment due to reliability concerns. His concerns primarily have to do with relying on the CPU for media processing. The example he gave was that the PC's CPU can have a processing spike due to say a cron job, which would affect the VoIP quality. I'm sure some Asterisk advocated would be to differ on whether Asterisk is ready for a production environment, so feel free to post a comment here.

Also, the article is too damn good not to put a teaser here. So read the teaser and then go check out the article:

The private branch exchange (PBX) has been the reference standard for business telephone systems for decades, but of late, its age has been showing. While the computer industry has changed vastly, telephone systems until relatively recently have changed only superficially. They are expensive, proprietary, and often so arcane that only factory-authorized dealers have the remotest clue how to manage them. This, coupled with the emergence of open source Voice over IP (VoIP) technology, leaves PBX on the verge of obsolescence. In this article I'll look at Asterisk, a Linux-based open source softswitch, and why it heralds the end of PBX.

In the mid-1990s, vendors began to introduce PC-based telephone systems, mostly based on Windows NT, although one vendor, NexPath, made a Unix-based small-business phone system. These systems were a great improvement over completely closed systems, offering more features for a more reasonable price, but fundamentally they were based on the same circuit-switched architecture as their predecessors. These vendors, AltiGen and Artisoft--two leaders in this space--have since reengineered their systems around VoIP, but they still depend heavily on proprietary switching hardware to handle basic telephony functions.

Enter Asterisk. It threatens to turn the business telephone system industry on its head, and in my mind, that is a very good thing. For years, I've been listening to clients complain about how overpriced telephone equipment is compared with other networking hardware, how difficult their systems are to manage, and how once they select a vendor they are locked in for life. Some systems are more open than others, but for the most part telephone equipment vendors really don't want customers to have the freedom to mix and match equipment from different vendors.

The PBX is dead

2005-06-27T01:14:00.000-07:00

Leonardo Faoro - The VoIP Weblog

In today’s blog entry, Tom Keating reminds us that the PBX is indeed dead, and that the roadmap for the future of telephony is printed with the ink of Voice over IP. Tom credits Asterisk with bringing about significant change in the way people view the closed call-management systems of yesterday, though he references some cautionary tales of people who’ve already experienced problems with Asterisk, thanks to its reliance upon the famously “good enough” Intel PC platform.

Streaming Music to your Mobile Phone?

2005-06-21T22:28:00.000-07:00

Dameon D. Welch-Abernathy - PhoneBoy's Blog

Om points to Ditty Bot, which is a way to send songs from your iPod to your mobile phone using SkypeOut. I'm with Om, this is a stupid idea.

However, if I *were* going to do this, here's what I'd do:

1. Set up an Asterisk server.
2. Get a SPA-3000.
3. Get a Dock n Talk that's compatible with one of my many phones.
4. Get an extra SIM card on Cingular.
5. Configure it so that I could dial into my Asterisk server from my other Cingular phone. Not too hard, but doable.

For a bit of extra hardware and a small monthly charge ($9.99 for an add-a-line on my current Cingular plan, but it's more like $14.99 now), I can stream as much music as I want from my cell phone for one low monthly price. Seems a lot cheaper than using SkypeOut to do it.

Of course, because it would absolutely kill the battery life of your mobile phone, it's a stupid idea. That and my mobile phone already plays MP3s, thank you very much. :)

Life’s Questions

2005-06-21T22:26:00.000-07:00

Rich Tehrani

Many of life's questions can be realized when flying cross-country. For example, why when you fly over Nevada are there lots of bodies of water but nothing green in sight? Even in Africa for example, water creates life.

Another mystery, where are all the pillows on flights? I estimate millions of them have disappeared from domestic airlines in the last few years. What happened to them? Can we find all the pillows we can use on a variety of international flights now? Did they have tremendous resale value? Did they show up on eBay? Were the pillows so heavy in the first place? Sometimes I am really surprised that they didn’t just remove the chairs.

Finally, we are we told that wireless devices will interfere with the plane's normal operation and that we need to turn off such wireless products during flight. Recently though the airlines have started to tell us that they will soon have in-flight WiFi. If you pay for wireless service, you can use it. Weird, huh?

What about airline service? I flew Song to LA and Delta back. I appreciated the flexibility in switching airlines as they are owned by the same parent but I wonder why Song is so awesome and Delta so crappy. Same company, same management, different culture and service levels. It is tough to see how the low-cost carrier can be so much better than the expensive parent.

If you have flown Song you know they have near-gourmet food such as wasabi-peas and other really interesting food items. Delta – just a basic snack. Sure Song charges you but why can’t Song do the same?

When I think of the airlines and Delta in particular, I see similarities to LECs that are now investing in fiber to compete with cable and VoIP service providers. What's happening in both markets is too similar to ignore.

If the airlines are any guide, LECs are in trouble. They are too fat to compete with new entrants. The only way for them to compete is to use the lobbying pull they have and gobble up the only competitor who knows how to lobby effectively against them -- AT&T.

VoIP Kills Cities

2005-06-21T22:25:00.001-07:00

Rich Tehrani

You can’t argue the fact that VoIP is the worst thing for balancing the federal and state budgets since the dotcom bust. A few years ago, you just couldn’t have imagined how much revenue is being lost on long distance to Vonage, Skype and a host of other companies eager to help consumers reduce their phone bills., But what’s great for consumers is obviously terrible for a government that feeds off the taxes we pay on local and long distance calling. Add to that the fees for the Universal Service Fund and you have a recipe for upset politicians ands federal bean counters that keep coming up a few beans short. An excellent USA Today Article details the potential crisis

Skype passes 10 billion minutes served: here's what's next

2005-06-21T22:25:00.000-07:00

Russell Shaw

According to the independent, non-Skype affiliated Skype Journal, Skype passed the 10-billion-minutes-served mark on Sunday morning.
As of yesterday morning around 10 a.m. EDT, the figure was 10,001,423,810.
But that was yesterday. Right before I posted this, I refreshed the Skype page in my browser:10,032,822,260. So that's 30 million minutes or so a day.
But presumed Skype fan Phil Wolff, who originally posted the 10-billion-minutes clarion, has an even more ambitious wish list for the company:
He'd like to see the following "Milestones." Phil's wishes are in bold, my comments are not).
"10 million concurrent users online"- (right now 2 to 3 million concurrent users is not unusual).
"100 billion minutes served"- might take years, but certainly possible.
"1000 registered independent software developers"
"1000 Skype employees" - dunno about that one. How many employees do you need for a company with largely automated solutions, a cadre of outside software developers, not much internal customer service, and mostly viral marketing?
"Zero PSTNs blocking Skype.com"- to paraphrase Elvis Costello, there's nothing "funny about peace, love and understanding," but I think all three will get here before zero PSTNs sing "Kumbaya."
"Someone from Skype as Time Magazine Person of the Year" - well, if they could pick Amazon.com's Jeff Bezos..
"Dell ships millionth mobile phone bundled with Skype"-eventually, yes.
"Skype office manager retires in luxury four years after Skype IPO"- yes, but better cash it in first. Those folks who just paid 500K for a high-rise condo overlooking the riverfront. Cashed out before the tech crash.
Oh, just one point before I go. Phil calls these goals "milestones." But since Skype is Estonia-based, and Estonia uses the metric system, shouldn't these goals be "kilometerstones?"
Hmm. Is there such a thing?

What do YOU wish Skype would do?

2005-06-21T22:24:00.000-07:00

Leonardo Faoro - The VoIP Weblog

The ever-thoughtful Russell Shaw blogged a bit about some milestones the Skype Journal would like to see Skype achieve in the next several years. These milestones are really just expressions of what SJ would like to see happen to Skype (and it appears SJ’s Phil Wolf is quite a sold-out believer indeed).

Included on SJ’s list are some scary but logical things like Dell selling Skype-equipped phones, and a cessation of the trend of some foreign governments to block VoIP service, and Skype in particular. Russell adds his own ideas, like one that I like—how about some more registered software developers on the Skype platform.

I would add two things to this list—

1 - Skype should add a SIP gateway as a part of its SkypeOUT/SkypeIN offering. That way, the free VoIP world will be able to make native VoIP calls to Skype customers.
2 - Skype should also add some network infrastructure nodes around the globe, so that your Skype calls don’t have to be routed through people’s PCs. (Thanks for pointing this out, Benjamin!)

Is P2P Downloading Still Legal in Canada?

2005-06-21T22:23:00.000-07:00

Mark Evans

There appears to be some debate about whether proposed amendments to Canada's copyright laws will still make it legal to download music using P2P networks. Michael Geist, a law professor at the University of Ottawa, believes there's nothing in the amendments, which were unveiled yesterday by the Canadian government, that make downloading illegal. The Canadian Recording Industry Association, however, contends downloading is illegal. So what is it? What is clear is the music industry was handed a number of new tools to fight copyright infringment. The amendments also make it illegal to shares music on P2P networks. ISPs will be pleased because they will not be held accountable legally for content that is cached or hosted on their systems. The ISPs, however, will have to comply with "notice and notice" rules that allow the music industry compel ISPs to inform subscribers who are breaching copyright laws. After this takes place, ISPs have to keep subscriber information for six months. All in all, the amendments are a huge victory for the music industry but we'll have to wait for clarification on P2P downloading.

Is the FCC (and CRTC) Relevant Anymore?

2005-06-21T22:22:00.001-07:00

Mark Evans

As the Internet lets services be delivered from anywhere, a contentious issue is whether telecom regulators are still relevant and, if so, what should their roles be. In the U.S., the Progress & Freedom Foundation, a think tank/study group created to draft telecom reform legislation, recently issued a working group paper suggesting the FCC operate in similar to the Federal Trade Commission. The foundation believes regulation in the digital world should be based on competition law principles using anti-trust law and economics - in other words, let competition rule as long as it's fair and there is no "dumping" of services. In Canada, there are growing calls for the CRTC to adopt this approach rather than trying to micro-manage the market. This sentiment gained momentum after the CRTC licensed three satellite-radio operators last week. These licenses include stipulations that 5% of sales be used to develop Canadian artists, and there be at least eight channels of Canadian content. In a recent column in the National Post, Paul Kedrosky contends there was no need for the CRTC to get involved in the satellite-radio market because XM and Sirus in the U.S. are already playing plenty of Canadian music. He argues the CRTC simply positioned itself as a middleman to collect fees and redistribute fees - a role, he believes, it has no right to play. The CRTC also got itself into hot water last month with a VOIP decision that regulates incumbent carriers while allowing cablecos the freedom to price however they want, including selling VOIP as a loss-leader. Don't be surprised if the three-person telecom policy review panel takes a good look at the CRTC's mandate. It's quite another thing, however, if the wobbling Liberal government has the appetite to implement any dramatic changes.

Salarymen, prepare to Skype

2005-06-21T22:22:00.000-07:00

James Enck - EuroTecoblog

Another off-message post (in the sense that it's not Europe), but an interesting story nevertheless. Atheros has announced that its chipsets will be included in the Livedoor public WLAN project on the Yamanote line in Tokyo. This will launch in July in a free public trial, with commercial launch expected in October, with 80% coverage of the Yamanote line being provided by 2,200 access points. The service is going to cost a mere Y525 (that's EUR4.00) per month. The Yamanote line is the giant circular overland train route covering central Tokyo, and I can't begin to imagine how many people ride it every day. Livedoor, of course, is Skype's co-branding partner in Japan, and I love the thought of thousands of drunk salarymen Skyping home late at night with some lame excuse at some date in the not-too-distant future. Seriously though, the human traffic through these stations is staggering, and the Skype arbitrage opportunities immense for those with the right devices.

Lingo In Layoff Mode

2005-06-21T22:21:00.000-07:00

Andy Abramson - VoIP Watch

I'm hearing through the grapevine that Lingo may be in the process of some fairly deep layoffs. If so, they may be the first of the VoIP carrier casualties this year.

What's MCI Hiding About Their VoIP Offering?

2005-06-21T22:20:00.000-07:00

Andy Abramson - VoIP Watch

It's been over a week since I posed the question to MCI's PR team lead on consumer offerings and no one has said a peep about what they are up to with their Neighborhood Broadband Calling Offering for residential customers.
What they have told me though is that there are some partners involved, but the spokesperson wasn't sure if they could announce who those are, and that it's basically a limited market "trial" which means the program can go away if it's not successful (or if Verizon kills it post merger.) The one thing this tells me is that no one in their right mind should LNP their long time phone number over...ever try to get an answer, let alone, something back from a company that got merged...WHOA..is that difficult.

Vonage and Avaya

2005-06-20T22:43:00.000-07:00

Rich Tehrani - Rich Tehrani

The old adage of eating one’s dog food is what is referred to when a company uses its own products internally. This is exactly what I thought of when I saw the announcement from Avaya that Vonage will be using their IP contact center solutions that are based on SIP. Is there a more synergistic merging of a company’s business model and the technology they choose to deploy in their customer-facing applications? I don’t think so.

This is an amazing example of how Vonage will be able to take a giant leap forward in customer service. I still hear complaints about Vonage service but didn’t experience any problems with customer service while I was a customer. I did have major problems getting my local number portability issues resolved but the service up until that point was excellent.

Now that Vonage has IP enabled their agents, they can provide killer applications to their customers such as the ability to escalate a chat to a call, enable video during a call and more. Here is part of the release that the companies put out today:

Based on Avaya Customer Interaction Suite and powered by Avaya Communication Manager IP Telephony software, the main contact center will serve as a hub for other customer care centers as they open around the world. The integration of SIP into Avaya solutions heightens interoperability with other Vonage applications and networks. Additionally, new SIP-based capabilities in Avaya's Customer Interaction Suite can enable Vonage agents to establish buddy lists of fellow agents or experts located anywhere in the business who could be quickly tapped through presence and instant messaging while a customer is on the line.

Everyone tells me Vonage’s churn numbers are too high. As they are the trailblazer in VoIP, I am not sure how we can determine what the proper churn number should be. This purchase of Avaya equipment is by definition a big financial commitment to improved customer service by the company and may also signal that the rumored purchase of Vonage could be a long way off. Would you spend all this money on new equipment just before you are acquired? Probably not. I would expect the ROI of this acquisition to be a year or more. Perhaps there will be some M&A news then or the company will go public.

Cup is Half Empty

2005-06-20T22:42:00.001-07:00

Aswath Rao - Aswath Weblog

An updated statistics is now available from Skype (ignore the linear growth; assume no intermediate data has been plotted) and the usual round of wow is going around. Even Om is welling up and it is safe to predict that his heart will be fluttering with the release of the next round of statistics.
First a summary of the statistics that we are told so far:
Registered number of users: 35M to 40M
Concurrent users online at any time: 2M to 3M
Number of Skype minutes in a month day: 40M to 50M minutes
A decidedly trouble maker’s interpretation of these numbers:
Less than 10% of users are online at any given time, thereby reducing the “network effect” tremendously. But wait. This is good, because this means users need voice mail, a subscription service.
So a user is generating an average of less than 2 minutes per month day. Alternatively, most of the users are using Skype for text chat (because they are searching for the headset, generalizing from personal experience).
Phil is very conservative in his predictions. A Skypist (as opposed to a Skype user, known as Skyper) should hope to see at least 80% users online at any given time. Of course, the number of minutes served must be aleph-0, not any finite number (since google is spoken for).

What impact will P2PSIP have on VoIP Peering

2005-06-20T22:42:00.000-07:00

Eric Lagerway - SIPthat.com

According to Stealth Communications their VoIP Peering technology could put ILECs out of business. I would think that P2PSIP would have a similar impact and potentially more significant. If end points were smart enough not to need a "super node" or alike costs could be reduced dramatically and features could be, for the most part, maintained. Easier said than done.
In a conversation I had with an industry stakeholder I asked the same question and he commented "P2PSIP is nearing a point where product creation using the technology might make sense although features like voicemail would likely have to be delvered by way of a centralized service."
Which to me makes sense, I am not sure I would want my voicemail stored on someone elses computer.
I look forward to the next IETF in July when hopefully more progress has been made on the drafts.

PT.com licenses Xten's eyeBeam SDK to Develop a VoIP Softphone for the PT.com Broadband Service

2005-06-20T22:41:00.000-07:00

Eric Lagerway - SIPthat.com

PT.com, the Internet subsidiary of the wireline division of Portugal Telecom Group (NYSE: PT - News; visit www.telecom.pt), and Xten Networks, Inc. (OTCBB: XNWK - News), a provider of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), Video over IP, Instant Messaging (IM), and Presence SIP softphones, today announced today that PT.com has entered into software licensing agreement with Xten. Under the terms of the agreement, PT.com has licensed Xten's eyeBeam SDK to develop a softphone application for integration and deployment with the PT.com Broadband Service (SAPO ADSL).
"In the last months, we have been working rather intensively in finding VoIP solutions that will answer the present and future needs of our clients. We believe that this solution with Xten's trademark is the best way to proceed and succeed in the future," stated Manuel Rosa da Silva, an Executive Board Member of PT.
"This partnership signifies another carrier win for Xten," stated Erik Lagerway, president and chief operating officer of Xten Networks. "We are very happy to have been chosen by PT to power their new IP communications soft client and eagerly await their upcoming product launch."

Vonage selects Avaya

2005-06-20T22:40:00.000-07:00

Tom Keating - VoIP Blog

Is it just me, or is there something strange/weird about Vonage partnering with Avaya? Here you have Vonage, a cool technology trendsetter in broadband telephony that has helped changed the telecom landscape forever partnering with Avaya, a "traditional" PBX manufacturer. According to the release pasted below, Vonage is using Avaya's IP telephony contact center solution for their customer service call center. Nothing against Avaya, but I would have expected Vonage to go with something "cool and hip" like an open source Linux-based Asterisk PBX solution. I believe much of Vonage's infrastructure if Linux-based so it would make sense to choose an Asterisk solution. Of course, Asterisk is probably not as mature as Avaya when it comes to advanced call center functionality. Although, Fonality, which I just blogged yesterday adds some additional advanced call center functionality to the Asterisk platform. Well, strange bedfellows if you ask me. No offense Avaya - really.

Vonage Customer Service Doubles Call Capacity and Handling with Avaya IP Telephony Contact Center Solutions

New Avaya SIP-based Solution Selected as Worldwide Customer Care Platform for North America's Leading Consumer Broadband Telephony Service Provider

BASKING RIDGE, N.J., US - Today, Vonage, the leading broadband telephony provider in North America, announced its sales and service subsidiary, Vonage America, has chosen Avaya's SIP-based telephony and contact center solutions to quickly expand its call center capacity and productivity. To meet its goal to provide best in class customer service, Vonage turned to Avaya Inc. (NYSE:AV), a leading global provider of business communications applications, services and systems, to expand its customer service capabilities and greatly increase the number of callers the company handles daily.

As the market for broadband telephony becomes increasingly competitive, an emphasis on customer satisfaction will help give Vonage the edge to continue its growth.

"Our vision is to provide world-class customer service," said Dan Bemis, senior vice president of Customer Operations of Vonage America Inc. "To do that, we needed to make a number of changes - starting with an intelligent communications solution that would help us maximize the customer experience."

Building from the company's existing call center, Vonage and Avaya Global Services collaborated on a design that would expand capacity and enable it to serve as the core platform for its worldwide customer service operations. Essential elements of the technology strategy included a SIP-based platform that could tightly integrate with Vonage's own SIP-based, IP phone service and existing network. SIP is an emerging protocol that enables seamless interoperability among various media, including audio, video, instant messaging and presence. Vonage also needed a stable, highly reliable and available business communications platform to perform well during peak call times. The Avaya solution offers Vonage the flexibility to scale to global proportions and to seamlessly hand off calls to other centers when volumes hit critical mass.

"We see a dynamically scalable customer care organization that enables us to leverage resources from any location, whenever and wherever they're most needed," said Bemis. "With Avaya's real-time, right-time communications approach, we will be able to 'think globally and act locally' from a customer service perspective."

Based on Avaya Customer Interaction Suite and powered by Avaya Communication Manager IP Telephony software, the main contact center will serve as a hub for other customer care centers as they open around the world. The integration of SIP into Avaya solutions heightens interoperability with other Vonage applications and networks.

Additionally, new SIP-based capabilities in Avaya's Customer Interaction Suite can enable Vonage agents to establish buddy lists of fellow agents or experts located anywhere in the business who could be quickly tapped through presence and instant messaging while a customer is on the line.

"It was important to us that Avaya's portfolio of business communications applications supported standards like SIP - the technology core of Vonage's service offering - that will easily integrate with other business applications and which create value on top of the network," said Bemis.

For Vonage, the contact center upgrade has simultaneously improved customer satisfaction and agent productivity. "Since implementing the new solutions, we handle more calls, wait times are significantly down and agent productivity is up," said Bemis.

Avaya partnered with Witness Systems, an Avaya DeveloperConnection member, to help ensure Vonage had all the solutions it needed to meet - and exceed - its customer service goals. Vonage invested in contact center workforce management solutions, which can help it forecast, schedule and plan around future call volumes and staffing needs to enhance service and more strategically deploy its workforce.

Avaya Customer Interaction Suite is a key component of Avaya MultiVantage(TM) Communications Applications, a suite of business communications applications that includes IP telephony, contact center, messaging, conferencing and speech access solutions and is based on open standards, industry-leading reliability and security. Avaya Global Services provided professional consultative, design, implementation, managed, monitoring and maintenance services.

Avaya DeveloperConnection is Avaya's independent software developer program which promotes the development, compliance testing and co-marketing of innovative third-party applications that interoperate with standards-based Avaya solutions. Member organizations have expertise in a broad range of technologies-including IP telephony, contact centers and mobility applications-and have created hundreds of innovative solutions tested for Avaya compliance.

Why people read this site for VoIP bits instead of Google News

2005-06-20T22:38:00.000-07:00

Leonardo Faoro - The VoIP Weblog

What the heck is wrong with some people?

In a recent VoIP article linked from Google News, a writer named Dee Scrip is (dramatically and inaccurately) calling for VoIP adopters to proceed with caution, claiming VoIP telephony is a security nightmare waiting to happen. Just look at how he begins his article:

Warning! Warning! Warning!

Beware of VoIP internet service providers that operate on industry standard codec and industry standard protocols because they are PUBLICLY OPEN and INTERPRETABLE! This also includes, but is not limited to, peer-to-peer (P2P) networks.
In plain terms, this means, if you subscribe to, or considering subscribing to a VoIP internet solution provider who operates on these industry standards – and over 90% do — you have inadvertently made yourself vulnerable to the criminal activities of hackers.
This is the kind of unbalanced sensational stuff that well-intentioned noobs all over the world are abused by constantly. But who ever heard of bashing industry standards? You can file it right alongside “There’s no software available for Macs” and “It’s not safe to use a credit card on the web”. The guy who wrote this is attempting a good old-fashioned SEO hack by loading a web page up with keywords and then providing disturbingly bad advice to his readers:
1. Find a VoIP internet solution provider that has their own proprietary high end encryption codec
2. Find a VoIP internet solution provider that has their own proprietary patented technology
It is through better collective understanding of standards that security problems are averted, not through ignorance of them. Mr. Scrip is clearly just posting drivel in order to drive search engine traffic, and that’ s a shame. Somebody is going to read this stuff and misunderstand the legitimate concerns of VoIP security. What’s worse, I found out about this silly article through Google news.
The point being, while the article points out, in vague terms, how hackers can observe VoIP traffic, it misses a few key points:
Old school telephony is even easier to listen in on, because it doesn’t have encrypted media streams.
Standards-based protocols for VoIP DO in fact prescribe a solution for encrypting VoIP media—namely Secure RTP (SRTP).
It’s quite possible, and very easy, to record somebody’s traditional telephone conversations without their knowledge. All it takes is a little wiring. You tell me what’s harder, sniffing VoIP packets on the Internet, or touching a pair of wires with a pair of probes connected to a recording device?
I’m not going to do this guy the favor of providing a link to his garbage. If you really want to find the page it’s on, just google his name.

Return of the Dummy Terminal?

2005-06-20T22:37:00.000-07:00

Mark Evans

I can remember going to a conference in San Francisco four or five years ago where Larry Ellison, Steve Jobs and Scott McNealy enthusiastically talked about the network computer. Today, we all realize the dummy terminal never materialized. Instead, laptops have become more powerful with more powerful processors, larger hard drives and better graphics. Still, there are people who think dumb terminals will emerge as more companies - worried about security and regulatory issues - seek ways to give mobile employees access to data without having it leave the firewall. Toronto-based Route1 Inc. is developing software that offers access to corporate data over a wireless connection. Initially, Route1 is selling a $199 a month subscription service using hardware made by Psion Teklogix. The company, however, believes the software will be integrated into other devices such as smartphones using the Windows Mobile OS. Route1's sales pitch is that mobile employees get what they need while CTOs centrally control data. Only time will tell if the dummy terminal model will gain any traction this time around. A key issue is whether businesses are willing to pay $199 a month just so employees can enjoy wireless, secure access

Nortel AGMs: A Marathon, Not a Sprint

2005-06-20T22:36:00.000-07:00

Mark Evans

Three years ago, Nortel held its AGM in Halifax. It was a raucous affair that lasted 4.5 hours as shareholder activist Robert Verdun peppered CEO Frank Dunn with questions about the company's financial statement, while fending off the Roberts Rules objections raised by chairman Red Wilson. Anyone who thought Nortel's 2004 and 2005 AGMs next week would be a walk in the park will be disappointed. In a press release today, the company said the event in suburban Toronto is "expected to last most of the day". Given it starts at 10 a.m., you wonder if there will be a couple intermissions, and whether they will be serving lunch and dinner. If Nortel is smart, it will take its lumps from shareholders, and not attempt to orchestrate the meeting. This means accepting the fact angry, disappointed and puzzled shareholders will have plenty of questions about the company's accounting scandal, the firing of Dunn, and the vision for the future. If Nortel follows this advice, it could score some much-needed points with investors and analysts.

Keating Sees The Emperors New Clothes

2005-06-20T22:35:00.000-07:00

Andy Abramson - VoIP Watch

I didn't blog the Vonage Avaya announcement because, well, it's a spin control announcement.

Vonage is very good at telling the world what Vonage wants to allow be told. They are still waiting for the lawsuits from Florida to drop so an announcement like this is all about building a good perception with the public showing how they are doing everything they can to bolster a less than stellar customer service rap.
Last week they announced a router trade up program with Linksys. I'm still waiting to hear who's paying for the cost of the "upgrade" and how it adds to Vonage's cost of acquisition that is already though to be at least in the $400, if not $500 range per customer.

Why not we Speex more often?

2005-06-20T02:37:00.000-07:00

Aswath Rao - Aswath Weblog

During early 80s, the bellheads were trying to use wideband codec for voice communication. Those feeble attempts failed along with its benefactor ISDN. Now with the widespread deployment of VoIP, it is more likely use of wideband codec will be routine. But early deployments didn’t use them, because they were more focused on replicating/replacing POTS phone service. Thanks to Skype, more people are aware of the benefits of wideband codec and are exploring incorporating these codecs in their offerings. Two well known examples of this class of codecs are iSAC from Global IP Sound and G.722.2, an ITU standard that will be used in 3G deployments. Both have licensing or patent restrictions. As I was researching this topic, I came across an open and free codec called Speex. This has both narrowband and wideband components and requires comparable bandwidth. From the google search it looks like the quality is quite good. Xten, Asterisk and Open323 (did you now that they also support SIP) all support this codec. I hope that Speex is used more widely by other VoIP service providers. Since Speex is royalty free, media gateway vendors must be able to upgrade their products to support this codec.
The only hitch is I am not sure whether ATA users will observe the added benefit of using a wideband codec.

What impact will P2PSIP have on VoIP Peering

2005-06-20T02:36:00.000-07:00

A Conundrum

2005-06-20T02:35:00.000-07:00

David Beckemeyer- Mr Blog

Andy says he agrees with Jeffrey Citron. My conundrum is that I agree with what Andy says, but I don't entirely agree with what Citron says.
Andy says he doesn't consider Skype a phone line replacement. I agree, or more accurately, I agree that Skype is not mutually exclusive with phones or other telephony solutions. Despite the hype that says landlines are going away, the facts show that only a tiny fraction of users have dropped a landline completely and replaced it with something else (a cell phone). How many have replaced their landline with Skype? A small segment of mostly younger, single people, with no kids and not yet homeowners, may be about the only people that have gone to cell phone only. And in a lot of cases, I'd wager that when they have kids and own a home, they will end up finding the benefits of a traditional landline to be substantial. They may hold their nose, but I'd wager the lion's share of them will get that old landline.
And there's another practical matter. To use VoIP as the replacement, one needs broadband, and so if DSL is the option (which it is for 42 percent of broadband users in the US, and over 60 percent worldwide), well you have a landline anyway, so the whole issue is moot.
I don't agree with Jeffrey Citron when he says:
What Skype does is allow you to make a cheap telephone call using your PC- so as an ancillary communicaitons provider, who are they impacting?," Citron asks.
"They are certainly not impacting Vonage," he sniffs.
Certainly saying that Skype is not impacting Vonage is wishful thinking on Citron's part. For some portion of customers, those just looking at cheap ways to talk to distant contacts for instance, the two products would be in direct conflict for the customer.
I think Citron misses the point. It's not about whether Skype is a phone line replacement. It's about what the user wants. Skype serves a vastly different role than that of a phone. People use Skype in different ways. It's not the right solution for everyone. But at the same time, it does things one cannot do at all with a plain phone. The way I see it, the whole argument that all users make a choice between either Skype or a Broadband-phone VoIP is the wrong way to look at it. Very few people are using Skype exclusively. The vast majority still use a phone too. And likewise, getting broadband-phone VoIP would not remove all the reasons one may have to use Skype. There is overlap for certain use cases, but the bigger driver is the user's objectives, their needs and wants. For those that want what Skype offers, a Vonage-like Broadband-phone isn't the answer at all. Likewise, Skype may be a bad choice for those that are more phone-centric. This point seems lost on the press, analysts, and investors.

Vonage CEO's Thoughts on Skype

2005-06-20T02:34:00.000-07:00

By Russell Shaw

By subscriber count, Skype and Vonage are the two largest VoIP providers. Some folks automatically lump one with the other.

That's not the way Vonage CEO Jeff Citron sees it, though.

He tells telcom industry publication Light Reading:

"Skype says it themselves, they are not a replacement for your home telephone - they are an ancillary communication service. What Skype does is allow you to make a cheap telephone call using your PC- so as an ancillary communicaitons provider, who are they impacting?," Citron asks.

"They are certainly not impacting Vonage," he sniffs.

Quod licet Mobi, not licet VoIPi - or Vodafone alone @home

2005-06-16T23:29:00.000-07:00

Richard Stastny VoIP and ENUM

I currently have a serious blog block, because I am at the moment too busy e.g. trying to fix some minor problems TISPAN did not think about in the last year within one week at the TISPAN WG4 meeting here in Stockholm, e.g. how set up a call between TISPAN network A and TISPAN network B via IP, not to mention roaming (this is not an issue at all, because it is not in Release 1). Before one jumps in and posts the comment: what is the problem here, if you use the Internet? This is exactly the problem, they do not want to use the Internet because it is pfui gack. (Which translates to the public to no QoS, unreliable, full of spammers, spimmers, spitters and DoS-attackers, in private to: NO CHARGES can be collected). BTW, since approx. three days I get very interesting SMS out of nowhere e.g .ac, shouldn't this be now .xxx?)

During this meeting a colleague from Vodafone Germany proudly presented the latest Vodafone service to me: Vodafone (alone)@home or "Vodafone Zuhause". (Vodafone allein Zuhause ;-)

If you subscribe to this service, you get an additional SIMcard AND a new geographic number and you can use the SIMcard in any mobile phone within a radius of approx. 2km from your registered home address. If you leave the 2km radius, the phone stops working. In- and OutCalls are tariffed according to fixed tariffs and not like mobile tariffs (this makes a big difference in Europe).

Now this service raises some interesting questions related to the current discussions on availability of geographic numbers for nomadic VoIP services and also regarding access to emergency services for VoIP.

E.g. in Austria according to the current regulation a geographic number can only be provided if a fixed network termination exists at the given address and the address is within the geographic area indicated by the geographic number. This definition has already be stretched by mobile operators to the maximum possible with "Mobile Centrex", providing geographic numbers with DDI to reach also mobile phones. In the extreme implementation all extensions are mobile, except the switchboard, which may also be connected wireless i.e a mobile phone, but has to be nailed to the wall to provide a fixed network termination point. I am not making this up, for details see here (German only).

Since emergency service call takers assume that calls from geographic numbers are originating from the fixed location given, how does this comply with the rulemaking proposed for VoIP?

The Vodafone@home solution is explicetely marketed as replacement of your fixed line phone, potentially running out of battery and dropping dead if you leave the 2km radius. Ok, in Germany you may still use the mobile phone for emergency calls, because in Germany (and Austria) you still may place emergency calls without a SIM-cards and without being registered with your provider, but this may change soon. The reason is that emergency call takers getting fed-up being used as test-number by people in mobile-phone second-hand-shops and at flea-markets checking out if the mobile phone is working. This is BTW the only way to do so, because nobody thought about implementing a real test-number.

Is now a sticker required also on each such mobile phone with a geographic number stating that using this mobile phone may cause serious harm to your health and that of your children? I suggest to re-cycle for this purpose the same warnings placed now on cigarette-packs, e.g." if you are pregnant you may not reach the hospital in time."

Interestingly Vodafone.de is not (yet?) offering to port your existing geographic number to the mobile phone, you get a new number. One reason could be that they do not want to blow Deutsche Telekom out of the water in one step, but in small doses. It will also be interesting to watch how T-Mobile will (be allowed to) react to this.

Summary: It is one thing to place strict rules against underdogs and another against a powerful lobby or as the old Romans already knew: Quod licet Jovi, not licet bovi.

Yahoo plans VoIP push

2005-06-16T23:28:00.000-07:00

Rhonda Ascierto

The company has acquired six-year-old VoIP service provider Dialpad Communications for an undisclosed amount.
Yahoo will use Dialpad's PSTN capabilities to add PC-to-phone and in-bound PC calling to its portfolio at some future point, said Terrell Carlsten, a Yahoo spokesperson. In other words, Yahoo users would be able to make and receive traditional phone calls using the Internet.
New premium Yahoo PSTN services are slated for release in "coming months," she said.
Earlier this year, Microsoft announced VoIP capabilities for its instant messaging service.
While Yahoo has offered its free voice chat instant messaging feature since 1999, last month launched its first SIP-based VoIP offering, which enabled two-way conversations.
"We definitely have prioritized the enhancement and extension of our voice services," Carlsten said.
Yahoo is not planning any VoIP services that will be a replacement for a primary phone line, she said.
Still, its push into the market is sure to take business away from other VoIP providers.
Yahoo also announced yesterday it has licensed a SIP-based development kit from Xten Networks Inc to beef up its PC-to-PC VoIP.
Yahoo currently is using just the voice-engine component of Xten's software development, called eyebeam.
However, it seems likely that at some future point Yahoo may also add voice and open-standard IM to its offerings using the kit, said Erik Lagerway, COO of Santa Clara-based Xten.
Privately held Dialpad, based in Milpitas, California, has about 40 staff, most of whom will be incorporated into Yahoo's communications products team, including Dialpad CEO Craig Walker.

Xten joins the Yahoo! Messenger arsenal: now what? OK, here's what

2005-06-16T23:27:00.000-07:00

Russell Shaw

Now this is getting real interesting.
Late yesterday, Xten Networks, which makes VoIP-enabled softphones, said that Yahoo! has licenced the Xten eyeBeam software development kit to deliver SIP-based VoIP in Yahoo! Messenger.
Yahoo! Messenger director (now that sounds like a fun job) Frazier Miller said that the app will be for PC-to-PC calling.
Earlier this week if you remember (or even if you don't), Yahoo! announced it was buying softphone provider and developer Dialpad.
To analyze how the two announcements might affect Yahoo! Messenger's voice capabilities, I looked at the overview of the eyeBeam SDK.
It has 28 APIs (Application Programming Interface) models. The IM API has some robust development design functionality for call management and contact management menus.
I wouldn't be surprised then, if Yahoo! Messenger uses the Dialpad GUI, but integrates the functionality capable of being formulated by the eyeBeam SDK to beef up call management functions necessary to get Dialpad to work within Yahoo! Messenger.
So,putting two and three together, it sounds to me that what we have here is a souped-up Yahoo! Messenger with under-the-hood SIP-based PC to PC calling technology based on Xten's SDK, but with the Dialpad GUI spawned within Yahoo! Messenger when you make a call to actual phone numbers.
What happens, then, is a souped up Yahoo! Messenger that is a feature-set rival to Skype, and by virtue of a presumed low price point, will compete with pure-play VoIP providers such as Vonage and Packet 8. Oh,and with PSTN services too - such as Yahoo!s broadband Internet access partner SBC.
Eventually, though, as I said here Tuesday, I'd look for a co-branded SBCYahoo! IM client.
Now, it becomes clear, the VoIP component will run on Dialpad, with eyeBeam under the hood.

The Future of VoIP

2005-06-16T23:26:00.001-07:00

Eric Lagerway - SIPthat.com

Yahoo!'s recent acquisition of Dialpad and the integration of Xten software puts them squarely in the middle of a mounting battle to own the IP communications end point market. I think it's clear that Yahoo! believes they are on the right track. IMHO, they need to move a little quicker towards open standards on IM and Video if they plan to really make a difference long term.
For those of you who don't know Xten also powers Vonage, Deutsche Telekom and about 60 other Telcos, Carriers, & OEMs.

AOL gets sued over VoIP Technology

2005-06-16T23:26:00.000-07:00

Eric Lagerway - SIPthat.com

According to InternetNews.com Klausner Technologies has filed a $200 million patent infringement lawsuit against America Online (AOL) over voice platform technology.
At issue are features that let subscribers receive visual notification of new voice messages and selectively retrieve messages from their displays.
"Because of the fast-paced docket in the Eastern District of Virginia, we expect a quick resolution of the matter and the prompt issuance of an injunction that will stop AOL from using this patented technology," Greg Dovel, an attorney representing Klausner Technologies, said in a statement.

Comcast getting into Broadband Wireless

2005-06-16T23:25:00.000-07:00

Eric Lagerway - SIPthat.com

Interesting news, this will have a VoIP play you can be sure of it...
Comcast says it is close to a deal with a wireless telephone
company that will allow customers to check e-mail, VOD selections and make phone calls through a Comcast-branded cellular phone.
Comcast has held talks with the combined Sprint-Nextel and with T-Mobile USA on its own behalf and as part of a consortium that includes Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications and Charter Communications.
One idea being discussed is the sale of a Comcast-branded cell phone that would share a telephony subscriber's phone number and would be a conduit for a subscriber's online email and voicemail as well as customized broadband video clips. This form of wireless service essentially could be integrated in all of Comcast's core businesses and embrace the company's recent calls for differentiation and personalization. Such a deal also would more closely align the country's largest cable operator with personal computer and online products and services.

BT unveils Bluephone - finally

2005-06-16T23:24:00.000-07:00

Tim Richardson

BT has finally cut the ribbon on its much-hyped BluePhone - the mobile that thinks it's a landline phone. The telco's creative boutique has also been hard at work and renamed it BT Fusion. Or should that be BT Confusion?
When in range of a user's broadband connection (it has to be a BT broadband connection btw), BT Confusion, sorry Fusion, acts like a regular fixed line phone with an off-peak call to a BT landline costs 5.5p an hour or 3p a minute for peak times.

Move outside your home or office and BT Confusion becomes a mobile phone with calls charged at mobile tariff rates.
Anyone calling a BT Fusion phone will be charged at mobile rates.
The service is due to be kicked off with 400 "early adopters" during the summer before getting the full commercial treatment in September.
For now, there are two packages on offer - BT Fusion 100, which includes 100 minutes of call time for £9.99 a month. BT Fusion 200 costs £14.99 a month. At the moment, these are just "launch prices" so anything could happen come September.
Said BT Retail boss Ian Livingston: "For the first time customers will be able to get the best of both worlds in one service - combining the convenience and features of a mobile with fixed line prices and quality.
"We know that many of our customers enjoy the convenience of their mobile phones when they're out and about - but switch to using a landline phone when they arrive back home to save money or because they have little or no mobile coverage." ®

Bluephone Christmas

2005-06-16T23:23:00.000-07:00

James Enck

After more anticipation than the Jackson verdict, BT today unveiled BT Fusion, its converged product. To be honest, there's not much here that we didn't know before: first iteration is Bluetooth, WiFi comes later, with six WiFi UMA handsets to be launched in around 12 months (some models will be available for the corporate market before that). There is also a BT Fusion version of the Motorola RAZR in the pipeline for release by year-end. As expected, the handsets will authenticate on BT hubs outside the home if the user registers with a PIN number issued by the owner.

What was new and interesting was the pricing, and here BT has come out swinging. A 200 cross-network minute plan costs £14.99 per month at launch (future pricing officially unclear until launch), which is 50% below typical mobile packages in the UK. In "fixed line" mode, call pricing is in line with existing BT plans. One interesting tidbit, which seems a potential flaw in the product, was revealed in the last question of the session. An analyst asked about the billing mechanism involved when the handset hands over from Bluetooth to GSM: does the charging structure reflect the technology being used on a per second basis? The response was that, in order to preserve transparency for BT customers, whatever technology the call started on, the relevant call charge would remain in place for the remainder of the call. For the cynically-minded, this opens up possibilities for interesting fun and games, as consumers initiate calls to fixed lines at home and then roam out onto the GSM network, paying 5.5p for up to an hour. That's transparently a good deal for the consumer and network partner Vodafone, but of debatable value for BT.

I could see this product having significant appeal for SMEs who have DSL access in the office and are currently being stung on mobile call charges for calls originating within the office. With the availability of WiFi-enabled handsets for the corporate space (apparently in something less than 12 months), I could also see this being an interesting proposition for larger enterprises (BT has access to 7,800 hotspots in the UK, and 30,000 globally) over time. However, in the consumer space, I don't expect a lot of traction in the near term.

Firstly, the product is only going to be marketed to BT Broadband customers, of which there may be something like 2.5m by year-end (of which c.2.0m will be residential, the remainder being business). Of those customers, either existing or new, how many will be looking to change mobile service providers? In the past, this might have been a more straightforward calculation under 12-month contracts, but UK operators are pushing 18-month contracts, which makes the phasing of renewals more complicated. Additionally, BT is rightly selling this as a "household" solution, in which a wireless hub can accomodate up to six handsets, and three concurrent calls. This is wonderful in principle, but how many households have mobile subscriptions which are in sync? As these effects wash through, I can see some pent-up demand being unleashed further down the road (there appear to be around 2.4 mobile phones per household in the UK), but not in the near term.

One obvious target in the residential space would be the 250k consumer MVNO customers BT is likely to have by year-end. However, the law of averages suggests that maybe only 7 - 8% of these will be BT Broadband households (similar to the overall proportion of households in the UK with BT Broadband by year end), so maybe there are 20k raw candidates there, plus whatever churn is generated within the other mobile businesses in Q4. For the sake of argument, let's say that 500k contract customers churn every month in Q4, which would represent about 200k household conversion opportunities per month. Of these, based on our law of averages figure, maybe 15k (45k over three months) will be existing BT Broadband households.

This doesn't take into account new converts to broadband who may also take Fusion at point of sale, nor does it capture prepaid mobile subscribers who may opt for contract on these terms. However, even notionally adjusting for this effect (which I think will be small) and factoring in a more enthusiastic uptake among SMEs, I'm struggling to see BT gaining more than around 70k customers on the service in Q4. No doubt the marketing message will be everywhere, and BT management today alluded to using conventional retail sales channels as well as direct and online acquisition channels. If BT can up the take rate to 100k per quarter beyond that (the sort of level Carphone Warehouse has achieved with a much more straightforward CPS offering), then we may be looking at 500k customers by year end 2006, which is almost immaterial versus the total line base of 29.6m.

What could really kick off consumer demand for a product like this is naked DSL. However, in the current scenario, the residential consumer still needs to fork over £43.50 per month to BT just to get started (a PSTN subscription of £10.50 minimum, BT Broadband at £17.99 minimum, plus £14.99 for Fusion). Apart from the attractive GSM subscription pricing (and whatever loopholes there may be in billing for Bluetooth/GSM handoff), the only real differentiator in the short term is in the single device aspect. WiFi may change that, but not for a year. This is the sort of product which BT has to launch to defend its position, but it should not be viewed as transformational in the near term, and possibly not ever. What will be perhaps more interesting to watch is what response this provokes from the mobile players, and what other converged products appear from the likes of Wanadoo or AOL to challenge this.

UPDATE: It is my understanding that after an initial promotional period, pricing on Fusion will rise to reach parity with similar packages from competitors, which I think will make driving demand even more challenging. Also, there has been some sense of outrage (understandable) that BT is taking a termination revenue share (undisclosed) from incoming calls in what appears to the user to be an IP "fixed line" setting. However, the IP portion is on outgoing only, and the handset is assigned a mobile number, so incoming calls will be GSM. However, to a consumer this is a less than trivial distinction - i.e., I think BT has a significant consumer education challenge ahead here, and it looks like Martin (in inspired form) seems to agree. As one Double Platinum Class value reader observes: "The customer just doesn't see the divide that the network provider sees."

It's not what you do, it's...

2005-06-16T23:22:00.000-07:00

Martin Geddes - Telepocalypse

Oops. BT have blown it with their new BT Fusion dual-mode device.
What’s wrong?
There should have been two numbers for the device, a mobile and a geographic one. Sometime you really do want to call the place, not the person. (“Can I borrow an egg” type calls.) I suspect the real motivation of avoiding a geographic number is to try to slip into the less-regulated mobile space and finesse or delay some of the unbundling that’s about to hit. Damn the customer.
Secondly, the billing is screwed. It misunderstands how value is created in mobility. It comes from the inbound calls, not the outbound ones. Payphones and general blagging and borrowing made an inferior but acceptable substitute for mobile-originated calls. But the ability to be reached anywhere is unique. Thus the outbound calls should have been all at landline rates. Having to worry about which network you’re on is ridiculous.Doesn’t need to be the cheapest, just mid-range competitive. OK, some people get to call a lot for lower rates — but the US cellular industry thrives quite nicely in such conditions. [The difference in population densities and spectrum availability means crowded Europe can’t go as far, though.] BT should be able to negotiate a cracking MVNO deal, and the strategy should be to get all BT broadband or PSTN customers to participate in some way to ensure high volumes.
It’ll kill them on customer service costs, with endless billing queries. They’re brand will get hammered, too, for example when someone gets a billing surprise because their home connection is down. Betcha this one ends up on Watchdog.
Inbound calls would mostly be to the mobile number, for which there is a high termination fee. That’s your revenue source. You want to incentivise people to give out only their mobile number, especially when they might otherwise have quoted the landline. How? Give them a kick-back; make the cost vary with how many inbound minutes you receive, or just give ‘em a direct revenue share. Anything — Tesco points, Air Miles, cold cash, whatever.
While you’re at it, offer mobile numbers to all your landline customers, offer an open platform for access (so anyone can build a Bluephone), and make some excuse to the regulator that you can’t tell anymore which users are genuinely mobile in the house versus those wanting to just get the kick-backs. (Evil? Moi?)
The fact that this product is also tied to BT’s own broadband offering suggests they just don’t get it. That’s monopolist incumbent-think. Just work on taking a small slice of lots of value chains, not large slices of a few.
Whoever built the technology for this product should get a bonus. The person in marketing should be sacked. And the person in corporate strategy should be shot.
While I’m on about BT, they should be thinking about Yahoo!’s Dialpad acquisition and thinking, “That could have been you”. Not as a buyout, but as the default partner for global VoIP/PSTN interconnect. What was stopping BT being the attack-dog against foreign incumbents? They should be getting fabulous wholesale interconnect rates. (It costs less at retail to call the US from here than it did from Kansas City long-distance!) They understand incumbency like nobody else.
I guess it’s the same cultural reason none of the canal operators managed to run railways, and none of the railways managed to become airlines.
Ah, BT - “It’s good to pontificate”. I love blogging, and am so grateful for them supplying the material! I really don’t know where I’d be without them…

Xten: The secret of Y! Messenger’s success

2005-06-16T23:21:00.000-07:00

Leonardo Faoro - The VoIP Weblog

Not two days after scooping up Dialpad, Yahoo has licensed XTen’s SIP-based softphone SDK for VoIP features in new versions of Yahoo messenger. This is a promising move, as the XTen software, already licensed by Vonage and others, is years ahead of other SIP softphone offerings. (Try their free SIP softphone, X-Lite, at www.xten.com.)

This move also confounds my understanding of Yahoo’s VoIP strategy a bit, as the Dialpad acquisition could be seen as redundant to the Xten license, in some ways. For example, both Dialpad and Xten provide SIP-based softphone technology. Dialpad offers the call-swithing infrastructure required to offer a full-blown PC-to-PC VoIP network with the ability to call regular landline phones. So maybe Y! is going to combine the best of both worlds, using Xten’s excellent SIP tools to adapt Y! Messenger to Dialpad’s existing VoIP network. Time will tell.

VoIP roundup: buzzword syndrome and more…

2005-06-16T23:20:00.000-07:00

Leonardo Faoro - The VoIP Weblog

In his “VoIP More than Hype” article, published at SearchCIO.com today, Eric Krell re-asserts that VoIP is a good enterprise investment and that it isn’t going to fade away any time soon. File this along with the hundreds of other feel-good VoIP articles that have been written by various columnists over the last several years. Do these guys read each others’ work?
eWeek’s Libe Goad opines that the Yahoo / Dialpad merger will push VoIP to the mainstream, despite the fact that Dialpad has been a nearly non-existant player on the outskirts of the market for years. He does pick up on the idea that Yahoo could be trying to butt heads with with Skype.
Then there’s Viper Networks, the fledgling VoIP telephony service provider that today announced it is opening a retail brick-n-mortar VoIP store. Curiously, nothing that I could find about it is mentioned on their web site. My question is this—do you really need retail distribution to sell VoIP? Lack of store frontage hasn’t hurt Skype much.

Satellite Update

2005-06-16T23:19:00.000-07:00

by Mark Evans

The three applicants for a Canadian satellite-radio license - Canadian Satellite Radio (a.k.a. XM), Sirius and CHUM - have all been approved by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. The CRTC is requiring Canadian content of 10% and at least eight channels of local programming. In its press release, XM said it a "Canadian music ambassador" will be stationed at XM headquarters in Washington to "promote Canadian musicians to all of XM’s channel programmers and the greater U.S. audience". Not sure how an ambassador would operate but it could require him or her to nonchalantly slip Celine Dion CDs in programmer's pockets, or play Stompin' Tom Connors really, really loud.

Skype Rules North American VOIP

2005-06-16T23:18:00.000-07:00

by Mark Evans

According to Sandvine, Skype dominates the North American VOIP market with 46.2% of minutes and 40% of bandwidth. Waterloo, Ont.-based Sandvine, which tracks 1,100 VOIP service providers, said Skype users also account for 35.8% of individual VOIP callers on North American networks. “So this is not like five guys who figured out they could call Slovenia 24 hours in a row; this is a mass market phenomenon,” Sandvine’s Steve McGeown told Lightreading.com. If Skype isn't already a thorn in the side of U.S. and Canadian carriers, this is more evidence Skype is becoming a major telephony player. All it needs to do now is figure out how to squeeze more money out of its users with premium products like SkypeIn, SkypeOut, Skype Voicemail and SkypeVideo. Om Malik has a posting on a video calling applications developed by Santa Cruz Networks - providing a strong signal how an eco-system is starting to surround Skype.

Cisco is Vulnerable, Owens Contends

2005-06-16T23:17:00.001-07:00

by Mark Evans

In light of Nortel COO Garry Daichendt's sudden decision to walk away from Nortel, Networld World managing editor Jim Duffy's interview with Nortel CEO Bill Owens is a must read. Check out the Q&A here. Among the highlights are Owens' bizarre contention Cisco Systems is vulnerable because they don't have any strong competition. Hah! I guess Juniper Networks CEO Scott Kriens may have something to say about that.