When I received a “Mention” on a Tweet earlier this week:

my curiosity was piqued. Obviously Marcus had read one of my previous posts about CounterPath’s Bria on the iPad and iPhone and had encountered the CounterPath name in association with a new Rogers service. Over the years CounterPath has become associated with providing IP-based communications clients for enterprise, carrier and consumer use on PC’s, smartphones and tablets.

After some investigation it turns out that this past Monday Rogers sent an email to many of its consumer wireless customers asking them to take part in a beta program for a forthcoming service called Rogers One Number.

The concept basically is to provide a PC softphone that is associated with a wireless account such that conversations can be mirrored onto your PC through a web browser plugin on a Windows or Mac PC. Exchange SMS text messages, place and receive voice calls, there’s even a hint of a video call option in call management menu.

So what does this service deliver? From a web browser you can:

• synchronize contacts with your wireless device address book
• receive and place voice calls
• send and receive SMS messages

Going forward it appears Rogers One Number will also offer:

• links to Rogers Yahoo Mail and GMail
• receive and place video calls

All conversation activity, initiated or received on the softphone, is also reflected on the wireless phone(s)associated with the account. For instance, at this time, a call to my BlackBerry not only rings on my BlackBerry but also results in a call notification on my desktop PC. If I have missed a call a small “missed call” notification appears near the system tray on Windows PC’s. Text messages sent from the softphone also show up under text messages on the BlackBerry. And the service also applies for iPhone or Android phones.

So how does CounterPath come into the picture? When setting up the service there is a CounterPath End User License agreement to be accepted; also Norton Utilities identifies the plugin software as coming from CounterPath. CounterPath’s business model, in their OEM activities, involves providing the chat messaging along with voice and video calling infrastructure behind a user interface designed to an enterprise or carrier  customer’s specifications. In this case Rogers Wireless is the CounterPath customer who is responsible for the final user interface.

From a start-up page a wireless customer can register for the service; once confirmed via SMS messaging of a PIN number you are taken to a setup wizard where you need to enter key information, including a physical location for associating with e911 services. At that point you are asked to download a browser plugin for either Windows or Mac. Once you relaunch the browser you can open up the portal at the user interface and start using the service.

Once set up I made a few test calls with good quality voice. On placing a voice call (green phone icon in the Header bar above) a small call management client appears with options to escalate to video, place a call on hold and end a call. The upper icon bar includes a call log, a dial pad and a settings menu associated with the audio and video hardware. The lower icon bar covers mic mute,switch between multiple calls, switch between “headphones” and “speakerphone” and add a third party for a conference call. The program automatically had designated my FREETALK Everyman Headset as the headphone and Yamaha SoundGadget speakerphone as the speakerphone.

The main question re the video is who can you have a video conversation with? At the moment it would appear to only work with calls where both parties were using the Rogers One Number portal where you can set up video. On a voice call to my Skype client (calling my Skype Online number), the client appears to support the G729 codec; however, given that CounterPath is now incorporating Skype’s SILK into other products, there may be a future opportunity to wider audio bandwidth calling – at least between Rogers One Number web portals, if not to the wireless device itself.

Also of interest is the line “My web phone Emergency Address”. This is the initial setting that one enters when working through the setup wizard addressing a CRTC requirement for support of emergency services.

The images below show the dial pad and audio/video settings. Of significant interest is the potential for support of HD video should a webcam support it. However, until I can find a party who can receive a video call, we won’t know the full answer.

Bottom line: The Rogers One Number client is a recognition that many users have only a wireless phone and a PC; landlines are losing customers, especially with the “under 35” demographic. It’s a convenience that allows their consumer customers to make and receive calls on a PC in parallel with calling activity on the wireless phone. As analyst Jon Arnold mentions in his post, Rogers Wireless “One Number” Launch – Upping the Stakes:

The twist with One Number is that it’s built around the mobile phone, which is pretty much where consumers live, breath and sleep these days….

Anyhow, it’s very much a Web 2.0-meets mobility-meets VoIP mashup, and I think consumers will love it. Most people under 30 have long moved on from a landline, and with One Number, their PC simply becomes an extension of their smartphone – you just don’t need anything else.

To go back to the original Tweet that triggered this post, is it flaky? No, but it’s still in beta. There are a few issues that need to be addressed; however, it certainly addresses the basic requirements of providing PC access to conversation activity associated with a wireless device. Its feature set is not at the level of Skype for both functionality and ease of navigation but it will certainly provide the basic text messaging along with voice and video calling features. (And text messaging will generate SMS revenues for Rogers.)

If there is one major disappointment, it’s that Rogers elected to use a web browser plugin instead of an independent client; that makes it somewhat clumsy to access along with the requirement for always having a browser open. And the browser plugin needs a fair bit of desktop real estate in order to be fully seen; not a client you can put to one side such as Skype or Trillian.

One other question: will this service also incorporate some aspect of social networking where it can follow Facebook and Twitter activity? Given it was subtitled, by default, “My Social Hub” I would expect it to include these features also.

With respect to that most important feature called price – other than to realize there can be associated SMS revenues, we still have not heard what the pricing model is for using Rogers One Number voice and video calls. Most likely it will follow the Rogers Home Phone long distance model where calls from a Rogers Home Phone customer to other Rogers Home Phone customers or Rogers Wireless customers within Canada have no associated long distance charges.

From a wireless carrier business perspective Rogers One Number is a feature that introduces unique competitive positioning into a Canadian market where six carriers are now looking for customers. For that reason I cannot see any other charges beyond what is currently charged for wireless services.

Check out Jon Arnold’s complete post for another perspective.

Last week I provided a review of my experience with a recent production model of the FREETALK® Connect•Me Adapter for Home Phone, initially available in the U.S. and Canada. To quickly recall its primary feature, the Connect•Me Adapter allows you to make PC-free Skype and SkypeOut calls and, optionally, landline calls from an existing home phone.

It turns out that adapting this product to other countries involves more than simply supporting another plug for the power connection. The landline telco industry backbones in each country also have variables that need to be addressed in order for the landline component of the FREETALK® Connect•Me Adapter for Home Phone to work properly in an individual country.

Effective today U.K. residents can “Skype from your Home Phone” with the launch of the FREETALK® Connect•Me Adapter for Home Phone U.K. edition. It’s available at the U.K. Skype Store, with options that include three month subscriptions for:

• up to 300 minutes** of international calls to landlines and mobiles, or
• unlimited* calls to landlines in the UK and Ireland and up to 300 minutes of international** calls to landlines and mobiles, or
• unlimited* international calls to landlines and mobiles in 41 countries***

It’s also available at Amazon U.K. and the eBuyNow UK store with similar options for Skype calling plans.

Of course Skype-to-Skype calls worldwide continue to be free.

For those U.K. residents who want a new dual mode PC-free phone (Skype and PSTN landline) a Philips VoIP855 cordless phone has also become available. This option allows you to include up to 200 of your Skype contacts in a phone book (and 100 names for landline numbers) as well as to make use of Skype’s presence feature. The previous GE Digital Cordless Expandable Telephone and RTX Dualphone 3088 are other options available.

Aside from the power adapter and firmware to support the U.K. landine PSTN, the discussion points in my previous review apply.

In conjunction with these product announcements Skype has issued a press release covering a survey they recently sponsored:

• No job too far – 50% of Brits say accepting a job abroad is easier with advances in communication technology

Note re the calling plan offerings:

*A fair usage policy applies. Excludes service, special, premium and non-geographic numbers. UK landline calls are those made to area codes beginning 01 and 02.
** The actual number of minutes may vary depending on your calling destination and the number of calls you make. A connection fee applies.
***Unlimited calls to landlines and mobiles in Canada, China, Guam, Hong Kong S.A.R., China, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Thailand, United States
Unlimited calls to landlines only in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Chile, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Luxembourg,Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia (Moscow and St.Petersburg only), Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom

Over the past couple of years I have attended quarterly briefings given by CheckPoint Canada that give me some perspective on Internet security issues from a third party (relative to Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Skype, etc.) who understands not only the issues that challenge a business’s Internet security but also how they are changing over time. I’m more interested in the security issues overview and what business issues need to be considered and addressed, not the technology details. (I’ll trust CheckPoint’s sales results to be the guide as to their credibility.) CheckPoint Canada’s presentations are quite educational in this respect, in part due to the knowledge and passion of their lead technical resource for Canada.

At the most recent presentation two weeks ago I learned (i) about the evolution of CheckPoint’s new approach to addressing security at the enterprise level and (ii) about an experience that demonstrated one simple example of CheckPoint’s thoroughness at identifying and addressing Internet security issues at a personal engagement level.

In taking a new approach there are several changes in the business environment that challenge the ability of simple solutions such as firewalls and IP address identification to manage security, including intrusions such as malware and business data loss.

• Users have more than one device: a PC, a smartphone, maybe even a tablet.
• Employees need to be able to carry on personal activities, such as banking, from their place of employment
• this creates data privacy issues
• IP address-based policies no longer work – users no longer belong to one network.
• The emerging IPv6 standard means that it will become very difficult to track activity via a “single” IP address; also the IPv6 protocol is not a simple extension of IPv4’s nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn format.
• Security policies need to synchronize with a customer’s internal business processes as the priority.
• Use of collaboration tools and services is on the rise; not everyone is at one “secure” location.
• Security needs to address permission issues involving both websites and applications
• 189 new websites were created every minute in 2010
• The rise of video use for, say, marketing and support create bandwidth issues

Yet businesses obviously continue to seek protection against security breaches and data loss at minimal overhead and costs to the operation.

CheckPoint addresses these issues with a focus on the business’s policies, people (employees and contractors who need access) and enforcement as opposed to the underlying technology infrastructure. This is reflected in their unique ability to configure their installations to meet a business’s needs. In its infrastructure CheckPoint maintains a dynamically updated database of critical data.

In part CheckPoint addresses these issues through engagement of users as they attempt to visit a website or use an application:

• For instance, when accessing Facebook, a notification comes to the user advising of company policy and a warning about the information that cannot be shared on Facebook.
• Exceptions can be established to permit access to, say, an online banking site without inspecting data.
• All traffic is inspected to ensure SSL certification where appropriate.

One issue CheckPoint addresses is data loss prevention, both internally and externally. Here is one example of how CheckPoint has a significantly complete offering that provides a warning to the individual employee’s activity.

CheckPoint Canada’s Regional Security Engineering Manager was recently checking out one of Checkpoint’s new data loss prevention (“DLP”) tools on his home network (no, they do not have a home product, yet). He attempted to check into an Air Canada flight via the Air Canada application on his iPhone. But the DLP software identified an issue:

His personal information data – including his Aeroplan number – was going across the Internet to Air Canada as unencrypted clear text. Apparently doing an Air Canada check-in via their website is encrypted; however, until Air Canada addresses this issue for their iPhone application (they have been notified), Kellman will not be doing check-ins via his iPhone (and probably the same applies to their BlackBerry application).

Bottom Line: What I can say from the presentation is that CheckPoint has developed not only the technology expertise but also the business experience that addresses they dynamic nature of the Internet, its growth, its usage and its security threats while ensuring that individual users can be comfortable with their work and personal activities. As with business use of social media, engagement of the individual user is a key to their ongoing success. (And their recent sales growth is the best indicator of that success.)

One final comment: CheckPoint employees are heavy users of Skype and, in fact, CheckPoint has no qualms about allowing usage; in the case below, the CheckPoint customer is giving permission for its sales department to use Skype. I’ll have more to say in another post about Kellman’s use of Skype to keep in touch with his young family while having a heavy travel schedule across Canada and to CheckPoint’s headquarters in Israel.

Jeff Pulver has been operating 140 Characters Conferences over the past two years at many U.S. locations where attendees hear stories about how Twitter has played a role in both personal lives and business activities. About six months ago an ambitious group of social media enthusiasts in the Kitchener-Waterloo region approached Jeff about about holding a session in Kitchener, Ontario – twin city to Waterloo about an hour’s drive west of Toronto. Jeff, who has had many reasons to visit the Toronto area over the past several years, suggested that it be billed as the 140 Characters Conference: Ontario to give it a regional perspective.

A historical perspective

During his keynote Jeff mentioned that his origins with real time worldwide communications go back to his early exploration of amateur radio – the only way to communicate socially with individuals worldwide prior to the Internet other than to make expensive international telephone calls. I recall several friends who immersed themselves in amateur radio due to the intrigue of finding new friends in far off locations. (Full disclosure: the author used the Radio Amateur Handbook to build magnetic resonance spectrometers at an early stage in his career.)

One of the applications that drove the adoption of Quarterdeck’s DESQview multi-tasking environment for DOS was community bulletin boards that used DOS PC’s with modems and dial-up connections to allow individuals to communicate via text messages. One of the more interesting applications of bulletin boards was managed by an child oncology doctor at Toronto’s Sick Kids Hospital. She had set up a bulletin board service whereby her patients could continue to communicate with each other once they had left a hospital and returned home. The key learning here was that an otherwise geographically dispersed community with a common interest could come together and share their experiences in dealing with their disease as they carried on their day-to-day lives at home. One of the key observations made by the doctor was that the kids could communicate without the need for others to see any physical impact of their cancers – “kids without faces” she called it; as a result it helped to keep discussions focused on the issues they faced in living their lives and gave them the confidence to raise their concerns.

So there was some early evidence that with the appropriate communications tools available, one can establish common interest groups and communities that engage in conversations sharing experiences and information that are otherwise “below the radar” of mainstream media. And they could do this across an electronic bridge that broke down geographical barriers.

So where are we today?

In the past fifteen years we have seen the evolution of many tools for engaging conversations with others through the Internet: email, web post comments, Skype chat sessions, Facebook and, of course, Twitter. For most of them, one is dealing with a closed or gated” community where you, say, accept Friends on Facebook, approve Skype contacts and put up anti-spam filters for email, etc.

However, what became apparent with yesterday’s presentations were:

• Be authentic, remember you are always presenting your “personal brand”, not only building relationships but also establishing legitimacy and credibility even if that is not your intention
• As a “broadcast” tool where anyone can see your Tweets if they have the right tools and filters, you can recruit a community to help you with your common interest.
• Whereas physically close family and friends may not see the nature of your issue, someone out there in Twitterland will be willing to share their experiences and information resources via 140 character messages. Yes, there are pluses and minuses but let’s focus on the positive outcomes here.

We heard stories about helping a single parent with no support resources, alleviating depression, losing your job and becoming an entrepreneur starting your own business, watching out for the “little things” to reward small but important achievements at a small business, growing a “new age” fitness business where the actual activity is secondary to the socialization and building community morale and enthusiasm in a town that has lost most of its “conventional” manufacturing industry. Taylor Jones describes it more completely here.

It was obvious from yesterday’s presentations that each presenter had built a community of interest but most interesting was to note that Twitter was not simply a tool for social networking but also a seed for changing lives. But, as AmberMac stated in her presentation, keep in mind as you tweet – with influence comes responsibility.

The Take Away

A couple of years ago, in conjunction with a CES show, I attended one of Jeff’s initial sessions where he was trying to identify a market to address built around this 140 character communications tool. At that session we listened to Twitter experiences but the presenters largely were achieving commercial success.

What was different yesterday across all the presentations was a common thread of not simply socializing via the Internet to build relationships but then using that socializing for experiencing follow up social change in our lives, whether the Twitter engagement involved dealing with individual personal challenges or driving a “community” to take the initiative to achieve a common goal.

Acknowledgement: Kudos to the K-W area team that organized this conference. Well done, well run. Look forward to hearing about another one in the future.

Whenever Skype has has a new feature announcement and I wanted to test it out, I would often approach Dan York who was always gracious enough to assist with the evaluation. And his Disruptive Telephone blog has become a wealth of information about the evolution of the IP-based communications world. He has become a significant reference for many of my blog posts.

About four years ago, Dan found what, for his skills and experience, was an ideal position, most recently as Director of Conversations, for Voxeo, a major vendor of hosted voice system solutions for businesses. The combination of his technical knowledge and writing skills brought an interpretation of the implications of the technology that became easily readable by his target audience, whether for technology personnel or from an end user perspective.

Dan has also been a resource for understanding open standards and security issues with respect to the operation of the Internet. Today he has announced his acceptance of a position as Senior Content Strategist for the Internet Society, a global non-profit organization with a very simple mission:

to promote the open development, evolution, and use of the Internet for the benefit of all people throughout the world.

where his role….

will very much be about the creation, curation and distribution of information. Writing articles, reviewing resources, blogging, creating videos, screencasts, etc. Once we have the initial repository built out, there will be a phase next year where we will be out on the conference circuit talking about these technologies and helping people understand how they can get started… and continually adding even more content.

Having always found the Voxeo team to set a high standard not only for their technology but also for dealing with its various market constituencies, whether developers, media (including bloggers) or its customers, this had to be a hard decision for Dan. I always appreciated the opportunity to deal with any of the Voxeo team members where Voxeo CEO Jonathan Taylor sets a leadership example to be emulated. Jonathan represents the ultimate entrepreneur who started experimenting with telephony hardware for PC’s several years ago and evolved a business that now is a major force in today’s telecommunications market.

Congratulations, Dan, and we look forward to listening to your evangelism for an open Internet. But we also expect that you will not let up on your mission as Chief “Skype for Mac” Equality Evangelist!

Related articles

• Voxeo Selected as a Top Vendor on “Shortlist” in Ovum’s Cloud IVR Decision Matrix (prweb.com)
• Voxeo Acquires Tenth Company in Four years: WebForPhone (prweb.com)
• Video: My Talk on “How IPv6 Will Kill Telecom” from eComm2011 (disruptivetelephony.com)

Since the demise of the Skype Extras program was first announced two years ago, several of the developers with third party applications worked to wean themselves off a dependence on the Skype Extras program for their survival. However, the products remained available via the fairly innocuous and plain Skype Extras page on the Skype Store.

Yesterday I learned that a new, unannounced, menu item had been slipped into the Tools menu of Skype for Windows 5.5 as shown on the right.

Click on the Get Apps… and you go to a new page on the Skype Store:

A couple of points:

• It’s called an App Directory, not an App Store. While there is a detailed description for each application , the “Get Now” Links go to an App Store or a file download; on installing the file, you will be led to the individual application developer’s “store” page.
• For instance, the link to Qik Video for Apple takes you to the iTunes preview page with a link for purchase on the Apple App Store.
• Currently listed products comprise previously available third party products or Skype utility products listed in the Apple or Android app stores.
• Applications are categorized by “genre” such as Business, Call Recording (audio and video), Call Recording  (audio only), Faxing, Desktop and Whiteboard Sharing, etc.

In a discussion with Ash Valeski, Skype’s Senior Account Manager for the Skype Store he pointed out:

• This is simple a starting point for building a third party applications distribution channel. The SkypeKit team wants to have a distribution channel that provides awareness of forthcoming applications while supporting publishers who currently have applications that use the legacy Skype API’s.
• Expect to see more features added to this page over time.
• They have reduced the available applications to those that are currently active and appropriately supported by the application publisher, including the availability of a shopping cart where payment is required.
• There is a carousel rotating through top downloads (free and paid) and top-rated offerings.
• The directory does provide an opportunity for ratings and short reviews (via Comments) for each application. (As a test I have submitted a comment on PamFax; note that, when you make a comment, you can sign in via Twitter, Facebook or other options.)

Bottom line: This App Directory is simply infrastructure for supporting the Skype developer program. The real challenge remains for the Skype Developer program to make SkypeKit an offering that can readily and widely be adopted by not only hardware developers but also software publishers. The initial feedback on the program has been provided in this post about a hardware partner whose offering will become available later this year.

In the meantime I still find these partners are using the legacy Skype API’s; for instance, Pamela just went through an upgrade based on the legacy Skype API’s. And, amongst the publishers listed in the App Directory, Pamela publisher Scendix is not alone in this regard. However, this launch is one small step that demonstrates that current management wants to get more proactive with both the Skype Store and the Skype Developer program.

Related articles

• Whither Skype Extras Today? Withered? (voiceontheweb.biz)
• Skype’s developer websites: an overview (blogs.skype.com)
• Skype Launches Third-Party App Directory (techcrunch.com)

On Friday PamConsult released PamFax for iPad, providing access to PamFax services from the most natural platform format for replacing a fax machine (or the fax feature of an All-in-One Printer).

In practice PamConsult, publisher of PamFax, actually released a new version of PamFax for iOS 4 with sensitivity to whether on an iPhone or iPad when displaying the user interface. The iPad version, which displays most completely in landscape mode, takes advantage of the iPad display size to present extra user guidance information on launching the application:

PamFax for iPad follows the usual five or six steps inherent to the PamFax sending process:

• selecting files (from the iPad – including photos, Dropbox, Google Docs or Box.net),
• entering a destination fax number (manual entry or from iPad Contacts),
• optionally selecting a cover page
• selecting fax progress and delivery notifications (via email, Skype Chat and/or SMS)
• checking for PamFax credits and
• submitting a fax for delivery.

In lieu of accessing the PamFax user portal, the Folders, Buy PamFax Credit and Settings buttons shown above take over the primary functions of the PamFax portal. For instance the Folders tab offers a menu for access to an Inbox, Outbox, Sent and Trash-bin folders.

Each of the folders provides almost instantaneous access to individual faxes and the ability to easily view them. In fact, I find this process easier than accessing them via the web-based PamFax user portal (although they are also available there).

It’s fast on delivery: On my test fax – with all steps handled on the iPad — (selected a file from a Dropbox folder, added a cover page, sent the file to my PamFax Inbound number and viewed the resulting file in PamFax Inbox – another Dropbox folder), the time between Sending the fax and Receiving it in the Inbox was somewhat less than a minute. This reflects recent “Summer Release 2011” to the PamFax “Back office” infrastructure that has significantly improved fax delivery speed. As is normal with any PamFax transmission, notifications can be sent via email, Skype chat and/or SMS messages.

Bottom Line: at this point I am cancelling my Bell Canada fax line and using my iPad as my primary fax “machine”. The only feature for which I need a PC are the scanner on my All-in-One multifunction scanner/printer for importing original document scans; in that case I can use PamFax on my PC or MacBook Pro for sending these faxes.

I am replacing a $15/month phone line with an all-inclusive $8.70 per month Professional Plan service, including 20 free faxes per month and ongoing archival fax storage, and low “per page” charges for sending additional fax pages (in lieu of using Bell Canada long distance for sending faxes internationally). A Basic Plan and Pay-As-You-Go On Demand service are also available.

Now if PamFax could just add a SkypeOut link to the “Remove this number from our Fax list” number at the bottom of every “spam” fax.

Voice On The Web’s Skype Reference Guide, under Hosted Services, provides a complete overview of PamFax: Obligation-Free Fax Worldwide On Demand.

Full disclosure: while the author has purchased a PamFax subscription (and cancelled a phone line for fax use), some links on this page lead to participation in the PamFax affiliate program.

Related articles

• Whither Skype Extras Today? Withered? (voiceontheweb.biz)

Over the past six years of covering Skype, there have been three “Masters” – the original founders – Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis (2003 to 2005), eBay (2005 to 2009) and the Silver Lake consortium (2009 to MS acquisition). And, once regulatory approvals and due diligence are completed, Microsoft will become the fourth later this fall.

But we’ve never heard the full background to some of these transitions. We knew there had been a major intellectual property issue – “you can’t drive the car without the engine”; we heard presentations on the Skype business model as Skype was presented to the investment community by eBay. But what happened behind the scenes that resulted in the many business decisions made to justify these ownership changes has never come out as one complete story.

At this past week’s Fortune Brainstorm Tech event in Aspen, a most interesting panel discussion revealed some of the history and reasoning behind this evolution, starting with, on John Donahue’s assumption of the eBay CEO position in 2009, eBay’s decision to “carve out” Skype as a non-core asset. On the Fortune event panel were three key players in this evolution: Skype CEO Tony Bates, Silver Lake Managing Director Egon Durban and Andreesson Horowitz cofounder Ben Horowitz.

It’s most interesting to watch the entire video but some highlights:

• Dealing with the dichotomy of a “wildly popular and deeply troubled” company that was in full blown litigation with its founders.
• How Skype continues to operate as an independent company and its sole responsibility to Microsoft during the due diligence period leading up to the closing of the Microsoft acquisition, expected in October, 2011
• Why Silver Lake, working with Andreesson-Horowitz, was able to execute on the two steps necessary to acquire Skype, in the process rescuing a “terrific asset that continued to perform, [had] fantastic network effects and continued to produce great product” from a “horrible cataclysmic outcome”. But seeing Skype as “resilient notwithstanding”, these investors recognized a unique opportunity that required a unique solution.
  • Yet they came up with a solution that would eventually give eBay investors a net gain on their initial 2005 investment in Skype.
• The internal Skype business issues that the Silver Lake consortium recognized and why they hired Tony Bates out of a senior executive position at Cisco to take over the reins.
  • In the course of this there is a lesson on how a private equity takeover can be highly successful and grow a business built around existing key resources. It’s a stark contrast to the more often publicized “slash-and-burn” approach of many private equity acquisitions where employee and product cuts become the recipe for repackaging a business investment for a subsequent sale.
  • There are some interesting comments mentioning one additional key asset, beyond the technology and user base, that made the Skype acquisition a “magical opportunity” when Microsoft was considering the acquisition last spring.
• What Tony Bates has done behind the scenes that has resulted in the release of five new products over the past six weeks¹– more than had been released in the previous two years.
  • What Tony Bates sees as a bigger revenue opportunity than SkypeOut calling.
• How the pending Microsoft acquisition of Skype will result in an entirely new business model for how Microsoft embeds an acquisition into it overall operations.

Bottom line: starting with the Silver Lake consortium acquisition, the Skype business case study is unique in how a wildly popular yet deeply troubled, engineering resource rich company can be converted into a an asset that will continue to be the “gold standard” for worldwide ad hoc communications in both the consumer and small business markets.

Watch the video; it’s a compelling – and revealing – story ….

Fortune: Lessons from Skype

¹Five new products:

• Comcast as a new platform for Skype calling
• Launch of video on Android phones
• SkypeKit public beta launch
• Mac 5.2 client announcement (post forthcoming)
• Facebook Video Calling

Related articles

• Skype CEO Teases In-Call Ads (mashable.com)
• Microsoft expects Skype buyout to close by October (electronista.com)
• Skype CEO promises brand will stay intact despite Microsoft acquisition (thenextweb.com)

Last week Skype and TELUS Mobility announced an agreement, where Canada’s third largest national wireless carrier will be closely working with Skype for free Skype-to-Skype and low cost SkypeOut international calling. While Canadians can use Skype for iPhone and Skype for Android on any Canadian carrier offering iPhone and Android phones, this agreement represents the first formal agreement between Skype and a Canadian wireless carrier with value-added services.

To give some background, both TELUS Mobility and Bell Mobility were spinoffs of legacy landline carriers where TELUS covers British Columbia and Alberta while Bell covers Ontario and Quebec. Since their respective cellular networks commenced operations back in the mid-1980’s , both have expanded to cover the entire county for wireless services; in TELUS’ case they acquired a major Bell/Rogers competitor who covered Ontario and Quebec.

However, whereas Rogers, the leading national carrier has always supported GSM protocols, TELUS and Bell both launched their services using the CDMA protocols (a la Verizon and Sprint in the U.S.). The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, where Bell Canada was the “official carrier”, was the stimulus for Bell Canada to upgrade their network to GSM-compatible HSPA+ service in November 2009.

But this is a large country, 90% of the Canadian population lives within 160 kilometers (100 miles) of the 6,000 km (4,000 mile) U.S.-Canada border. So the capital cost for a new network infrastructure, so long yet so narrow, runs up quickly. As a result Bell Mobility and TELUS Mobility partnered to build one 4G/HSPA+ network infrastructure to support the two retail operations. One ironic twist is that, at the time of the network’s launch in the fall of 2009, Bell and TELUS both launched an offering for the iPhone 3G S (and later iPhone 4) which already had support for HSPA+.

Launch of this network broke not only the Rogers Canadian monopoly on the Canadian iPhone franchise but also its monopoly on international roaming for visitors to Canada (since most of the world’s carriers supported GSM). There also occurred some legal and regulatory battles (Bell/TELUS vs Rogers) over the promotion of each network’s speed ; effectively they ended up in a draw. (Note also that Canada’s two legacy CDMA carriers were offering iPhone a year before Verizon could launch a CDMA-compliant iPhone in the U.S. market.)

From its launch in late 2009, TELUS has called their network a 4G 21Mbps network, with a speed increase to 42Mbps this year and plans to go to 4G/LTE “coming soon”. So they certainly have the data speeds required to support Skype calls over a data network using a native carrier-agnostic Skype client.

Under the leadership of CEO Darren Entwistle TELUS has been noted for aggressive, “outside-the-box” marketing initiatives that appeal especially to a younger demographic . The most recent example occurred earlier this week when, following release of a OECD report pointing out that Canadian carriers had some of the highest international roaming charges anywhere, TELUS came back immediately announcing they would be reviewing their roaming plans with a view to lowering roaming costs.

Upon reviewing the Skype/TELUS press release, along with responses to some questions I posed to Skype’s PR agency, here is how I see the positioning of the service:

• TELUS customers will be using Skype for iPhone and Skype for Android installed on the relevant devices via downloads from the respective application stores or via the web at skype.com/m.
• TELUS will be reinforcing the customer experience by providing enhanced customer support for TELUS customers using Skype on their smartphones
• Skype Credit can be purchased directly from the TELUS customer’s mobile phone with the transaction billed to his/her TELUS account
• A Skype edition LG Optimus Black phone will be launched in July by TELUS to give customers easy access to Skype through a pre-installed icon on the home screen, a detailed “getting started” guide, and Skype Credit to begin making calls to landline and mobile phones immediately
• TELUS customers will be able to make free Skype-to-Skype calls worldwide as well as use Skype’s Instant Messaging presence and chat features.
• TELUS  customers will be able to make calls to landlines outside Canada (and mobile phones in countries where phone owner pays for inbound calls) using either Skype Calling Plan subscriptions or Skype Credit on a pay-as-you-go basis.
• Carrier data charges will apply when used over the 4 G network. TELUS recommends a Data Flex plan or Wi-Fi connection when making Skype calls (according to the TELUS website)
• The Android-based LG phone will support Bluetooth connectivity (not available with Skype for iPhone currently)

Here’s my take on the announcement:

• This is Skype’s first carrier arrangement involving carrier-endorsed support of the native Skype client on a mobile smartphone as compared to the carrier-specific “Skype mobile” arrangements with Verizon and 3.
• It’s a major marketing move by TELUS to associate itself with leading edge services without the need for any major capital equipment costs (such as “Skype mobile” gateway servers) other than those already planned for their 4G evolution.
  • There are ongoing operations costs for TELUS involving marketing and customer support.
  • Skype does not have to develop a carrier-specific application for these services
• Skype’s significant data requirements will drive demand for TELUS data plan subscriptions and ARPU when the customer is making calls, including Skype-to-Skype calls, from within Canada.
• For the supported smartphones Skype basically takes over TELUS’s responsibility for managing TELUS Mobility’s international calling with Skype revenues coming from Skype Calling Plan subscriptions and Skype Credits required to make international calls to the PSTN.
• One would have to assume the above two revenue drivers would incorporate revenue sharing between TELUS and Skype.
  • Question: are there any Skype software royalties involved based on customer revenues?
• Will the LG Skypephone support Skype mobile Video that was announced for Verizon at CES 2011 or an equivalent service?
• When roaming internationally, it would be wise to turn off 3G/4G and only make Skype calls from WiFi connections in hotels, airports, restaurants, offices and other WiFi hotspots – which are quite prevalent in Europe from my own experience over the past two years.
  • Is WiFi growing as a Stealth Carrier? Can it be a viable alternative to roaming charges?
• Skype-to-Skype messaging will certainly impact TELUS revenues for SMS text messaging services but Apple’s recent iMessage announcement will probably have an even larger impact on carrier SMS messaging revenues
• With no native Skype for BlackBerry application, TELUS’s Skype service will not be available to their BlackBerry customers.

One final but very important concern: will the supported phones have enough battery life to support this initiative? I have covered this issue previously with some suggestions.

And one irony: While there are no Canadian Skype Online numbers available due to a conflict between a regulatory issue and Skype’s past policies re e911 services, TELUS Mobility customers can now set up as many as ten Skype Online numbers in any of the 26 countries (U.S., U.K. included) where Skype Online numbers are available. Calling a “local” Skype Online number in those countries, an “expat” relative or overseas customer can reach a TELUS Mobility customer via Skype on a call that would have no termination charge revenue for TELUS.

Bottom line: Skype is once again being endorsed for its ability to be a marketing tool that attracts a younger “always-on” demographic seeking lower cost communications and new communications services. Skype is a service that has a low implementation cost for TELUS while taking advantage of their higher speed network, yet expands TELUS’s appeal to a country where international communications plays a significant role not only for business but also for the various ethnic communities that want to keep in touch with relatives and friends in their country of ethnic origin.

We look forward to following its actual implementation, especially the launch of the LG Skypephone and its feature set, over the next couple of months.

Following up on last week’s two posts that coincided with the launch of the BlackBerry Playbook, iPad Competitor? and Infrastructure for New User Experiences, along with learnings from a recent Mobile Monday presentation on developer opportunities, this post will attempt to anticipate an example of the new user experiences that could result from the the technology behind the platform.

The primary question: Given that RIM wants PlayBook to become positioned as the tablet of consumer choice, can its technology foundation lead to the development of unique user experiences? Only if they bring unique benefits to the end user. But one can always speculate…

As background to this discussion, three comments:

1. With my current BlackBerry Torch I have two applications that are triggered immediately, via the Bluetooth connection, when I get into my car:
   • Make phone calls in a totally handsfree mode using the Voice Calling and Address Book applications on the BlackBerry
   • Commence logging my driving activity for tax purposes.
2. The PlayBook ads on local radio stations have highlighted three unique features:
   • Complete web browsing experience
   • Powerful applications
   • True multi-tasking
3. The BlackBerry Bridge feature, and a BlackBerry, are required to manage BlackBerry email, contacts and calendar – applications around which RIM built BlackBerry’s primary reputation. Great for enterprises that support secure BlackBerry communications but an inhibitor to broader consumer adoption until these native applications are available on the PlayBook. (Note also that Canada has carriers who do not charge additional for tethering.)

Certainly the three claims of their advertising ring true when it comes to the existence of the features. But what is the reality in terms of the user experience?

1. The Browser: combining its Torch Mobile webkit-based browser roots with its support of Flash, it appears that PlayBook would certainly be ideal as a complete, fully-featured browsing platform. In fact, it would even allow access to the web-based versions of popular email programs, including GMail, Yahoo Mail, MobileMe and the many web versions of popular client based email programs such as Outlook Web App (formerly Outlook Web Access).
2. Powerful applications: yes, there are some “powerful” applications (1700 according to this Mobile Gadgeteer report) that take advantage of the combination of QNX and a dual core processer. However, when I start using a new mobile device I initially look for clients that support cloud based services such as Twitter, Facebook, DropBox, Evernote, Four Square and the Google Mobile Apps suite of applications (Search, News, Mail, Maps, Docs, Calendar, Reader, etc.). Again all these services can be accessed via a web browser but they each have platform-specific clients to simplify the user experience and encourage adoption of the various services. However, they are lacking on PlayBook at launch time.
3. True multi-tasking: yes, this has been a feature of BlackBerry from day one; the QNX O/S certainly provides an even more robust multi-tasking environment. But until we see applications that take full advantage of the potential horsepower, users will not be driven to adopt PlayBook, especially as a consumer device.

Doing the BlackBerry “Thing”

Rim built its reputation on email and the associated personal information management applications. However, this feature only becomes available if you have a BlackBerry. The good news is that, given my experience with other Bluetooth-associated applications, these applications should become accessible on the PlayBook whenever the two devices are within Bluetooth range; also the BlackBerry Bridge incorporates BlackBerry’s industry leading security features. The bad news is that you need to have a BlackBerry to be able to use the number one application that drove the original adoption of the BlackBerry.

The Video Experience

PlayBook, in spite of its support of both front- and rear-facing webcams, does not support any video calling application at this time. Yet again the demonstrations of video content running in background and the underlying Playbook horsepower certainly would portend to seeing a video calling application. PlayBook needs to be participating in the mobile video calling space currently served by Facetime, Skype and Qik. While PlayBook certainly has its attractions as a top-of-the-line media player device, its underlying technology would seem to support its evolution into supporting real time video conversations.

But, in addition to the user experience its technology could deliver, PlayBook needs to find a way to access a large enough contact base that would drive immediate adoption. The real issue becomes one of interoperability; whom can you readily call with the launch of a video calling service? And across what platforms?  Certainly Apple, Google and Skype already have the large contact bases, well beyond the size of BlackBerry Messenger contact bases, that would be required to make a worldwide video calling application viable in the consumer market.

The Real Time Communications Experience

Which brings me to an application that would provide a significant boost to driving consumer adoption. Since the early 1980’s I have sold multi-tasking computers (yes, even mini-computers) and multi-tasking user experiences (DESQview). I have often commented on the value of BlackBerry’s multi-tasking. Most interesting is PlayBook’s lack of RIM’s heavily promoted BlackBerry Messenger application – one which I often use for private messaging to invited contacts; it could certainly take advantage of multi-tasking in some unique ways.

But there is one application lacking on BlackBerry devices that could demonstrate better than any other the benefits of multi-tasking on a QNX platform while driving consumer adoption. But there’s more! It also addresses the need for a video calling application that can immediately deliver an appropriate contact base.

With its support of voice, chat and video calling and its presence on a wide range of platforms, smartphones and other devices, Skype would be the ideal application to both demonstrate the power of PlayBooks’s technology infrastructure while driving accelerated consumer and prosumer adoption. Skype’s voice and video calls set the benchmark for voice quality and video resolution. Running chat in background as an interrupt-driven service, supporting desktop sharing and file transfer during voice and video calls are some of the Skype features that would perform best on a multi-tasking QNX platform with multiple webcams. And it would potentially become a benchmark mobile device for serving as a host for Skype’s Group Video Calling.

PlayBook Bottom Line:

At this time, PlayBook is a platform that demonstrates amazing potential for new user experiences. Its most immediate challenge is to bring into its applications library what many product managers would call the “hygienics” – the basic applications and services that users expect from any smart mobile device, whether smartphone or tablet. Google Mobile apps, Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox, Twitter, Evernote and Skype certainly fall into this requirement.

Skype serves as the most demanding example. With over 145 million active users across PC’s, smartphones (iPhone, Android, Symbian), TV’s and other devices), Skype has become one of those “hygienic” cloud managed services that consumers look for when making purchase decisions about smartphones and tablets. The business case is not about Skype-generated revenue; it’s not about competition with other services such as BlackBerry Messenger. Skype has become a “must have” application and makes the business case one about driving basic user purchase of the device. PlayBook provides all the technology infrastructure required, especially the video horsepower, to make Skype perform at its best on a mobile device.

As for introducing Skype on BlackBerry. Yes, Verizon and 3 customers can make calls to Skype contacts; however, only with a carrier-specific application. As demonstrated on iPhone, Android and Nokia smartphones, a carrier-agnostic Skype client would overcome a major barrier to consumer and prosumer adoption of not only PlayBook but also BlackBerry itself.

In conclusion Skype would not only provide a powerful demonstration of PlayBook’s underlying technology but also could be configured to provide one of the those “killer” applications that would establish user experience benchmarks for real time video calling, including conference calling.

Note: the image of a Skype icon on PlayBook shown above was reported by several bloggers when RIM first demonstrated PlayBook to the public at CES 2011; turns out this was an error. During March there came out reports that RIM may be developing a video calling app for PlayBook; this was vaguely confirmed in response to a question I asked at the Mobile Monday Toronto event. One primary issue is where would a large enough contact base come from? Certainly not BlackBerry Messenger with only 20+ million active accounts.

A month ago I wrote about the launch of Qik Video Connect, a video streaming and video mail service, on any iOS platform with a camera (iPad 2, iPhone 3GS and 4, later iPod touches with a camera).

Yesterday Skype announced that Qik Video Connect not only has an upgrade for the iOS versions but also is now supported on Android (2.1 – 2.3.3) smartphones.  Totally interoperable so that live video chat can occur between iPhones and Android phones.

One more point buried near the end of the blog post. Normally the premium service Qik Video Connect Plus is $2.99 on the iPhone and Android app store, but for the remainder of this week, it is free. However, Qik will provide a new revenue stream for Skype effective June 1, 2011 for the video mail service. Charges have not been stated.

As Andy Abramson stated, “At some point I expect the Skype platform and Qik platform to converge as the overlap in video is becoming more and more obvious.”

Related articles

• Qik Bridges the Android/iPhone Gap With Cross-Platform Video Chat (wired.com)
• Qik Video Connect Finally Lets Android And iOS Users Video Chat With Each Other (androidpolice.com)
• Qik Opens Its Video Chat to (Almost) All Android Users (gigaom.com)

Ever wonder if Skype could replace your home phone line? Borderless Communicator publisher and independent Skype “statistician” Hudson Barton has outlined, with encouragement by Skype Journal‘s Phil Wolff, the complete details of how he has deployed Skype to become his home phone.

If you are considering this option here are some of the considerations:

• Skype Online should be offering numbers in your local calling area.
• Create a separate Skype account solely for the home phone configuration
  • There are no Contacts associated with the account (optionally you can create a separate set of contacts)
  • All inbound calls are concurrently forwarded to their two  iPhones (leaving one more PSTN call forwarding number available)
  • They still use their original Skype accounts for making and receiving Skype calls with their Skype Contacts

• Hudson and his wife answer ALL calls on their respective iPhones using the carrier’s voice channel
  • not on Skype for iPhone
• They also subscribed to a North American unlimited US and Canada Skype Calling Plan
  • $60 per year (vs $360 for a Time Warner home phone line)
  • Results in a 50% discount on the cost of their Skype Online number (net $30 per year)
  • Required since all inbound calls are forwarded to their iPhones on the PSTN
  • Provides outbound calling options (see below)
• Hudson has outlined the issues with respect to outbound calling.
  • Where a SkypeOut call would be the lowest cost, he uses Skype for iPhone logged into the same “home phone” Skype account.
  • However, due to battery issues he closes Skype for iPhone when not making Outbound calls. (recall that they answer inbound calls on their wireless carrier’s voice channel).
  • For outbound calls he can optionally set either his Skype Online number or a mobile number as the callerID for SkypeOut calls.
• There is no 911 service for the Skype Online number; however, it is provided by their iPhone carrier.
• Voice mails are left on the iPhones’ carrier accounts for ready access, not Skype voice mail.

With Hudson’s implementation, the Skype client is never open except when required on the iPhone for SkypeOut calls; Skype’s infrastructure works in the background to forward calls. No PC is required once the account is set up and call forwarding configured. Other than the mobile phones, no PC hardware is required for the ongoing use of the service.

Over the years I have experienced a couple of other situations where, while it may not be their only home phone service, users have taken advantage of Skype.

Use a PC-free Skype-enhanced phone. While there were once several offerings for this, the current offerings are the RTX Dualphone 3088 (cordless, landline and Skype) which can combine a landline service and Skype into one platform and the FREETALK Office Phone (Ethernet, Skype only) . Since the Dualphone works via a DECT-supported base station, you can have as many as four handsets around the home. Once again:

• create a separate Skype account for your “home phone” service
• ensure that you can obtain a Skype Online number that is toll-free to most of your callers
  • low cost unlimited calling US/Canada landline subscriptions are very common
• you have configured call forwarding options to send unanswered calls to a mobile phone
• obtain a Skype subscription appropriate to where you expect to place outbound calls
• 911 calls can be made via the landline or the user’s mobile phone.

In one instance the user is moving amongst several countries over a few months and they simply take their Dualphone with them and obtain a local landline service if needed.

My own home phone is a Dualphone equivalent; but our landline uses the Rogers Home Phone service where the plan includes 1,000 minutes of US/Canada calling and free calls to other Rogers Home Phone customers as well as any Rogers wireless phone in Canada. But a similar Skype configuration is not feasible in Canada as Skype Online numbers are not offered for Canada.

Bottom line: Yes, with the appropriate services available in your local calling area, you can replace your home phone with a Skype service. However, understand you will need a smartphone for 911 calling and you need to ensure your iPhone is kept charged to be able to receive calls.

Other posts:

• RTX Dualphone 3088: The Bloggers’ Have Their Say
• RTX 3088 Dualphone: An Ideal Home or Small Office Solution for Easy Worldwide Calling

Related articles

• Skype hits 145 million users monthly (voiceontheweb.biz)

Note: While eBuyNow (formerly In Store Solutions and producer of the FREETALK Office Phone) was a client of the author’s, this is no longer the case. The author currently has no interest in any product sales resulting from links within this post. He has been using the no longer available Phillips dual mode cordless phone for his Rogers Home Phone service.

Ever wonder how those “free” conferencing services work? Why did Magic Jack offer such a low price compared to legacy landline service providers? And why did this only work in the U.S.? Yet, how can Skype and other IP-based communications service providers continue to offer “free”?

Seem like the U.S. had developed subsidy programs, of which the Universal Service Fund (“USF”) was the main culprit. Idealistic politicians wanted to ensure universal access to a variety of constituencies including “High Cost” rural markets such that small service providers could offer conventional phone services at rates comparable to urban rates. So they came up with this Universal Service Fund whereby the “large” carriers would collect an additional fee (or tax) which was then paid out to the hundreds of smaller service providers in “rural” states such as Iowa and Minnesota.

But then some smart people in Iowa caught onto something. The 150+ small carriers in Iowa formed a co-operative that applied for and obtained $80MM of USF monies to set up one of the most powerful fibre networks in the U.S. Of course this meant Iowa had significant extra capacity for terminating calls.

But there was another catch.

The North American numbering system means that a minimum of 10,000 numbers had to be tied up with each “exchange” or central office (the first three digits of the local telephone number). But some of these rural service providers, each of which was assigned an “exchange”, may have had a very low number of actual customers (as low as 150) and certainly many fewer than 10,000. So they ended up with a huge surplus of unused numbers that could, however, be used to collect revenue through access charges and they had the call load capacity due to the fibre installation.

Basically if a caller made long distance calls into these “excess” numbers, the local “rural” service provider could collect, from the larger carriers, termination fees (access charges) which they, in turn, supposedly would collect from the call participants. However, the larger carriers had invoked fixed price, unlimited minutes North American calling plans; this limited their additional customer revenue while driving up their costs. Not a great business scenario.

Once the “local” providers received their funds, they would pay a portion to the conferencing service providers. Effectively it was these access charges that would generate revenues for the “Free” conferencing services. There was one major problem; suddenly larger carriers such as AT&T were getting bills for several million dollars per month; they objected and took their case to the FCC.

And the gravy train has run off the tracks … largely at the behest of the FCC according, in one case, to the Telecom Law Monitor. Two stories corroborate this:

Calliflower, a conferencing service which I have covered often, has eliminated their free calling option. According to a recent post:

There’s an old saying that you have to break an egg to make an omelette.  Today I have some sad news as well,  which is that that we are eliminating our free conference calling offering on March 25th. Eliminating the free offering has been a tough decision, and one that we’ve given a lot of thought. We’re doing it because it is simply impossible for us to continue to offer that service reliably in the face of continued opposition at the FCC in Washington DC from larger, incumbent carriers.

You’re probably asking “what do these carriers have to do with anything?” A lot, it turns out. We were able to offer Calliflower at no charge by sharing a portion of the long distance fee you paid to your carrier in order to access the conference service. Those carriers don’t want to pay anymore. In fact, we haven’t been paid by them in two years. Unfortunately, we can’t operate the service any longer without any ability to recover our costs. That’s the reason we made this very difficult decision.

And this past Monday it came out that Magic Jack is in a position to lose its “Magic” because their parent was providing services not listed in their tariffs filed with the FCC. To quote Andy:

Basically  YMAX, the CLEC, was planning to make money on access charge compensation. AT&T said, we’re not paying the rates you want to charge. Well it seems the FCC agreed. That means that MagicJack’s model of cheap no longer means, almost free or at breakeven to them, and brings to light the fact that they may now see the possibility of losing money on every call without their sister company making a profit on the access charges which subsidized what they have been doing.

Read the posts for more details. But the bottom line is that, if you want to host a conference call, you’ll pay. However, even at the rates charged today – and most are at fixed monthly rates — conference calls are orders of magnitude less expensive than ten to fifteen years ago when the telcos would charge $0.50 to >$1.00 per participant per minute.

Nobody in his right mind is going to start a service today that relies on these “subsidies”. The dilemma for Magic Jack and their parent is that they have effectively offered one year contracts to their customers and must deliver on them or otherwise compensate their customer base. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

And how can Skype continue to offer free Skype-to-Skype calling? Because at the most basic level Skype calls are peer-to-peer between or amongst participating PC’s (or other Skype-enabled devices) with no intermediary beyond a directory service to establish the initial connection – and no termination charges. The “carrier” is essentially your Internet connections which see voice “packets”, prioritized but on a peer level with the data packets that deliver web pages or your email. But then they add in – at no cost to the user – chat and multi-party voice calling along with other services such as one-to-one video calling and file transfer. And it’s all encrypted. The user’s real costs are your local PC or other terminating device hardware cost and having a broadband or faster Internet connection. Other than for directory servers and, as a result of a recent Skype outage, super node servers, Skype has very little capital costs associated with these services.

Bottom line: even at today’s rates hosted and managed conferencing services are a bargain compared to a decade ago or earlier. But, without the cost drivers, it appears that Skype can continue to offer all its services with the only costs being for connections to the PSTN and multi-party video calling.

So where does Skype gets its revenues? Check out the most read Voice On The Web blog post (even after two years): Skype Business Model Revealed at eBay Analyst Event.

Related articles

• FCC Finds MagicJack Can’t Collect Access Charges From AT&T (blogs.forbes.com)
• Update: MagicJack Responds To FCC Ruling In AT&T Case (blogs.forbes.com)
• MagicJack trips on tariff ruling (calliflower.com)
• NetTALK positions against MagicJack and Skype (skypejournal.com)

When entering the BlogHaus suite over three years ago at CES 2008, I quickly learned I had to be careful with my activities as Robert Scoble was running around with a Nokia N95 recording short video clips(and sometimes “instant” interviews) using a newly launched service called Qik. The basic idea was that (1) you could record a video on a smartphone for archiving on the web and (2) during the recording period the video was also being live streamed via the Qik website.

Fast forward three years later when Qik supported a broad range of smartphones, had probably millions of video clips archived and was developing an comprehensive iPhone offering.  At the Skype press conference at CES 2011, Skype announced the acquisition of Qik. This past two weeks has seen the launch of two iPhone apps: the premium ($2.99)  Qik Connect Video PLUS (at SXSW 2011) and, last week, the free app Qik Video Connect.

Over the past couple of days I have been checking out Qik Video Connect PLUS with Dan York and Phil Wolff. Basically the (Free) Qik Video Connect  offers three services:

• Video Chat: a one-to-one video calling service over WiFi, 3G and 4G
• Video Streaming: Live stream a video to the net via the Qik website with promotion via Twitter and Facebook
• Video Mail: record and email a video message.

All videos are also archived at Qik for private or public viewing. And, within the iPhone app, their availability can be sent out over Twitter and Facebook; they can also be sent to the iPhone’s Camera Roll (video/photo library). In fact, there is even an option to send it to YouTube.

Qik Connect Plus adds:

• Real-time effects: Customize and enhance video chat and live video streaming with seven effects and filters.
• Video editing: Use simple video editing tools directly from your device to share the best moments.
• HD quality: Upload and share true HD quality videos captured on your phone.

The Real-time effects are created by using the image bar at the bottom of the picture to turn the video being seen to full color, black and white, sepia and five other “effects”. When you End a Video Chat session, an editing bar appears across the top of the screen; it can also be recalled for later editing from the My Videos icon on the Home screen menu.

Some screen shots:

Qik Video Connect Contacts are those amongst your iPhone Contacts who have the same mobile or iPhone number as they have registered with their Qik account; a green webcam indicates that the Contact has Qik Video Connect installed and is available to receive a call. (You can receive a call while in another iPhone application.) Note that as I already had a Qik account, I did not have to use the registration procedure available on the application yet I could pull up and view previously archived videos.

In the center image, Phil Wolff was receiving the call and used his rear facing camera to catch our simultaneous Skype video conversation on his PC screen. I was using the “front” facing camera on my iPhone 4. The right image shows not only the option to do further editing but also the many ways a video can be shared or distributed.

And a short clip on YouTube:

If there is one concern, it’s about the user interface, not for the screens, but rather for the random way in which some screens come up. For instance, sometimes when I asked for the Connect screen (showing the Contacts) I would get a screen asking me to Invite contacts – and it would act as if I had no Contacts. Touching other Home menu items and then going back to the Connect screen would bring up the Contacts but there appeared to be no logic as to why this was happening. Also the process of showing webcam presence in the Contacts screen was sometimes not in accord with what I knew Phil was doing at the other end (for instance, I knew he was trying to call me, yet I would see his webcam as gray). Also I have yet to discover what is meant by “HD Quality”; certainly the video was not 720p HD resolution (1280 x 720).

Bottom line: While Qik certainly has developed an appealing application that demonstrates not only video messaging, streaming and archiving but also the video technology that Skype acquired with the Qik acquisition.  Questions have to arise as to where Skype will apply the technology. Will it be used to improve the resolution of Skype video calling on the iPhone and Android? Will Qik Video Connect add Skype contacts to its “Connect” contacts list? What does Skype gain in terms of transmitting video at top quality over 3G and 4G networks? Will Qik’s technology be used for recording Skype video calls? (And I’m sure there lots of other questions.)

And one other note: There are now at least three video calling offerings for the iPhone: Facetime (calls over WiFi to other iPhone, iPod Touch and Mac users); Skype for iPhone (calls to Skype clients on multiple platforms over WiFi and 3G but at lower resolutions than Facetime) and Qik Video Connect’s video chat (calls over WiFi and 3G/4G between iPhones and iPod Touch where also video “mail” messages can be left and calls are archived).

Related articles

• Qik Free available in the US iTunes store (skypejournal.com)
• Handheld HD with Qik Video Connect Plus (insideview.ie)
• Qik unveils Qik Video Connect for iPhone, offers real-time filters and effects (thenextweb.com)
• Qik technologies should flow to Skype users (skypejournal.com)

Yesterday Skype released Skype for Mac 5.0 Gold version, addressing many of the concerns raised in the beta version released three months ago. And, rest assured, Skype received lots of feedback about the new user interface experienced in the beta version and the disruption it caused to those long time fans of the previous version 2.8. While not addressing all the issues (such as my major one – see below) the 5.0 Gold release certainly has a more usable and less intrusive UI.

When I interviewed Skype’s Neil Stevens, Skype’s Vice President of Consumer Products, at CES three weeks ago he had given me a heads up that this release would be forthcoming shortly. But he also expressed two other goals for Skype’s Consumer Product development process:

• Work towards a more common User Interface across all the PC platforms: Windows, Mac and Linux
• Reduce the release cycle time between versions from  12 to 18 months down to two to three months to be more responsive to market needs and user feedback.

In my earlier post discussing the beta version I mentioned how Skype for Mac was moving in a similar direction towards the Skype for Windows 5.1 user interface. While not going all the way there, the Gold release does address some of the outstanding issues:

• the chat window can very easily be brought up at the bottom of the conversation pane and resized (addressing Dan York’s major issue with the beta)
• the Skype client window can be narrowed to take up less desktop real estate although it can almost get too narrow when the Contact Sidebar gradually disappears if narrowed down to the extreme
• reduction of white space in both the main conversation pane and sidebar (click on View | Compact Sidebar for the latter).
• more prominence to the Contact Monitor (View | Online Contacts – see below on left) where you can see who’s online by Group. (Although I’m still trying to figure out whether it’s viewable outside the Skype application.)
• restored full screen mode for video calls – probably the most requested feature restoration
• moved the dial pad up to the tool bar such that its availability becomes more readily apparent.
• on video calls, the caller’s window can not only be readily moved within the Conversation pane but also resized
• in the Call settings of preferences you can add a Skype watermark that is viewed when your cursor is not within the Conversation pane (actually it’s also faintly there behind the red “end call” button when the Call Status bar is visible).

Also Skype for Mac 5 includes support for Group Video calling for which there is a seven day trial available following which users must sign up for Skype Premium which also includes access to Live Chat support for Skype. (Note the discount for 3- and 12-month subscriptions.) Yes, it’s another potential revenue generator for Skype.

My initial observations – it’s all about the navigation and call management:

• At the bottom of the conversation window are four icons: toggle Contact Sidebar on/off, toggle chat session on/off, full screen video on/off and caller video window on/off. Very handy.
• The Call Status Bar at the top of the conversation screen still lacks the Call Quality Information feature of Skype for Windows 5.0. When I mentioned my previous recommendation about this to Neil he said to expect this feature to be incorporated into a future release. Once again, it is a most useful and handy tool for facilitating Skype calls in Skype for Windows.
• The floating Call Monitor bar, which appears when you are in an application other than Skype, remains a very useful feature. In this version double clicking on the “presence” icon returns you to the Skype client.
• While the DialPad has been moved to a more apparent position above the Conversation window, it also make more sense to have it appear on the Call Status Bar as well (as in Skype for Windows 5.x).
• One always wants to have “View | Compact Sidebar” set as I can see a Contact’s profile picture in the Conversation pane when I select the contact.
• There is more visibility, and therefor emphasis, for Groups due to their inclusion in the Contact Sidebar whereas accessing Groups in Skype for Windows requires an extra click from within the Contacts tab.
• Update Feb. 10, 2010. Support for H.264 is now included with Skype for Mac 5. This now allows calls between Skype for Mac and Skype for TV. There is still no support for the H.264 processor deployed on HD webcams and in Skype for TV clients. This also means one cannot make calls between Skype for Mac and any Skype for TV client as the latter requires H.264 support on the other party’s Skype client.

Bottom line: Skype for Mac 5.0 Gold certainly brings the Skype for Mac client closer to the Skype for Windows UI algorithm. It’s definitely easier to use than the beta. Also I have to admit my own bias in that I have come to the conclusion that the Skype for Windows algorithm is easier to manage and use than earlier versions of the Skype client. You basically have all your searchable conversation history for a contact in one “Conversation” window pane.

Whereas, unless someone was serious about providing beta feedback, I was not recommending that anyone upgrade to the beta, at this point I can readily recommend upgrading to Skype for Mac 5 Gold. There’s probably a bit of a navigation training exercise to go through but once you experience the algorithm, you’ll find it easier to manage and track your conversations. But also let’s hope we see a new version in 2 to 3 months addressing additional feature requests, such as the Call Quality Information feature.

And one Skype for Windows 5 feature that’s definitely missing: nary a sign of any Facebook integration.

Skype Journal’s Phil Wolff tracked “user sentiment” about the new version by following social networking and other feedback during launch day.

Finally, here’s the video from Skype for Mac Product Manager Krishna Panicker:

Related articles

• Skype for Mac Leave Beta, Adds Premium Group Video Calling (readwriteweb.com)
• Skype 5 for Mac out of beta, group video calling part of Premium subscription (tuaw.com)
• Skype for Mac 5 Improves on Beta – Still Far From Perfect (newsgrange.com)
• Download: Skype for Mac 5.0 Gold (skypejournal.com)
• Skype 5.0 for Mac Exits Beta, Group Calling No Longer Free [VIDEO] (mashable.com)
• Skype 5.0 out of Beta, Group Video Chat Now Premium Feature (pcworld.com)

This morning Skype released, for public feedback, Skype for Mac 5 Beta 1 with a range of new features and modifications of the legacy user interface. My first experiences with it over the past couple of days generate some interesting questions (that I’m sure many developers face when developing applications for both Windows and the Mac). Keep in mind that this is a beta and Skype is looking for user feedback; I’ve already reported a couple of minor bugs encountered in my normal use of the application.

First, what’s new? Many features from Skype for Windows 5 and then some:

Bringing it up to Skype for Windows 5 features:

• Multi-party video (beta with the 28 day free trial; no mention of charges)
  • Dan York: Skype 5.0 Beta for Mac OS X: A First Look at Group Video
  • Speaking caller’s name turns green (instead of a blue halo)
• Offline IM: so you can send and receive chat messages while the other party is offline
• Improved experience with network-compromised calls
• Recovery of dropped calls (A most useful feature in Skype for Windows 5)
• Scroll up the bottom of a conversation window to expose the chat window for the conversation
• Join an ongoing conference call
• Add phone numbers to a Contact’s Skype profile (been very handy in Skype for Windows 5)
• Integration with the native Mac Address Book (vs the native Outlook Address Book)

And here’s what’s different:

• A significantly different User Interface (which is supposed to be more Mac-like)
• A Call Control Bar that stays above any documents or other application window that you have open
• Maintain a set of Favorites in the Contact Sidebar for frequent Contacts
• Contact Profile also contains all recent conversations with the Contact
• A Contact Monitor that lets you see a list of Online Contacts (upper left corner of the above image)

Dan York has a second post that covers much of the above: Skype 5.0 Beta for Mac OS X: A First Look with Screenshots.

And here’s what’s missing:

• Call Status Bar from Skype for Mac 5 Beta 1

• Call Status Bar from Skype for Windows 5.0:

• I would really like to see the DialPad, Screen Share and Add to Call, as well as the Call Quality Information icons included in the one primary Call Status Bar as done in Skype for Windows 5.
  • at the moment they tend to be scattered around the conversation screen and not easy to find. For instance the Dial Pad is buried obscurely in the lower left corner of the call window.
• And, talking about the Call Quality Information, the new version of this in Skype for Windows 5 is a very handy tool for determining the status of hardware and network connections with a readily accessible single click:

This is one other “would-like-to-see” in Skype for Mac 5 as it has really helped with determining the cause of any call issues in real time.

The User Interface:

With the introduction of Skype for Windows 4.0 (and enhanced in Windows 5), we had to get accustomed to a new User Interface algorithm. Once I caught onto its separation of Navigation (Contacts, Conversations Directory) and Content (Chat content, call History, File transfer history, etc.) algorithm, it turns out to actually be very efficient for dealing with all my Skype conversation activity. I can easily find previous conversations, Search old chat sessions, check out Facebook New Feed, and find other content. (And if I don’t want to look at the FaceBook News Feed, I don’t have to.) Most significant is its use of Tabs to help maintain focus on the task at hand:

I still need to spend some time using the Skype for Mac 5 beta user interface; there’s something not quite so simplistic about it. There’s an attempt at separation of Navigation and Content but it’s not so obvious. Fundamentally Skype for Windows 5 has figured out how to use Tabs effectively; the lack of Tabs in Skype for Mac 5 beta is what I feel is hindering the ease of user operations. Whereas Skype for Windows 5 “hides” what you do not need, Skype for Mac 5 beta appears to be totally ‘in your face” and cluttered. I would strongly suggest having some discussions with the Skype for Windows 5 product management team along with an investigation of the use of Tabs.

In another post I ‘ll have more to say about Tabs in the Skype interface as they can be used to address another issue that is arising at this time as well (but not discussed here).

What do I like about Skype for Mac 5?

• Video call quality; in the few video conversations I have had, the video quality has been excellent
• Multi-party Calling and the way it is presented; very “Mac-Like” (acknowledgements to Dan York for the image on the right)
• The Floating Call Control Bar
• The Contact Monitor
• Mac Address Book integration
• Handling of Favorites

Finally, Dan York made a video this morning where he demonstrates many of the features of Skype for Mac 5 beta, including a multi-party Skype video call; an eight minute training video to learn about all the new features in action:

Bottom line: it’s a beta, there are a few minor bugs but it needs feedback from the general Skype user community. And I really think a usability review would be in order along the lines suggested in this post. On the other hand, finally Mac users can take advantage of many Skype for Windows 5 features; it’s definitely a step in the right direction.

P.S.: Did I mention that Dan holds a copyright on requesting upgrades for Skype for Mac?

Two posts from Skype:

• The Big Blog: Introducing the new Skype for Mac, now available in Beta
• Skype Garage Blog: Skype 5.0 Beta for Mac (including Release Notes)

Download it here.

Related articles

• Skype For Mac: The TNW Complete Review [TNW Apple] (thenextweb.com)
• Skype 5 Beta for Mac Now Available (macstories.net)
• Skype Group Video Calls Come To The Mac In Beta (techcrunch.com)
• With Facetime Looming, Skype Outs a Better Mac Client (gigaom.com)
• Skype 5.0 for Mac Beta is now available — includes group video chat (tuaw.com)
• Skype Group Video Calling Comes to Mac (mashable.com)
• Download: Skype for Mac 5 Beta (skypejournal.com)
• Skype 5.0 for Mac beta gets group video chat, redesign (macworld.com)
• Facetime for Mac: Adding Millions to the FaceTime User Base (voiceontheweb.biz)
• Skype 5.0 Beta for Mac Arrives…But Where’s Facebook? (readwriteweb.com)

Following the Mood Messages of a Skype employee in my Skype Conversations window I came across this last Friday: “brand new version of Skype To Go available. Dead simple to use, nothing to download, call directly from your contact list !” Curious, I went to my Skype To Go subscription where I found all six of my Skype To Go contacts had suddenly, and spontaneously, sprouted individual 647 numbers (647 being the overlay area code for Toronto’s legacy 416 area code).

Previously I had a single Toronto-based Skype To Go number which I would call to access one of my six contacts by selecting a number between “1” and “6” when I called the number. This process, using a Bluetooth connection between my BlackBerry and car audio system,  meant my “hands free” calling to this number in my car required that I actually use the keypad on my car’s “phone” panel. The new Skype To Go resolves this issue and more.

Here’s what’s new:

• Up to nine Skype To Go contacts can be designated; each with an individual Skype To Go number
• Up to five of your mobile or landline phones can be registered as valid phones to use these numbers
• When calling from a registered phone to one of the nine contacts, there is no need to wait for any voice prompts; the connection is now immediately made.
• Validated with a PIN and entering one of the registered phones’ numbers, one can call these numbers from any other phone.
• You register also the Country and Area Code you are calling from. When you move to another Country you can change the registered Country and get new local phones numbers for each of your Skype To Go contacts. But when you return to your “home” country you will get back your original Skype To Go numbers.
• The listing also shows what your charges are to these numbers below the destination number.
• You can select which of the registered numbers you want to display as your callerID when making these calls.
• What’s not changed? Your old Skype To Go number which you can still use for calling numbers not included in your Skype To Go contact list.

Skype To Go numbers can be obtained in 23 countries (note that Canada was added earlier this year):

So what’s the cost?

• If the number called is on one of your Skype subscription plans, there is no charge to landlines and mobiles in the eight countries with totally unlimited calling; for the 33 countries with unlimited calling to landlines only you pay the going Skype calling rate for calls to mobile phones (for instance, $0.317 per minute to mobile numbers in Spain). Note that Skype’s fair usage policy applies.
  
• If not on a subscription you pay, via Skype credits, the normal SkypeOut charges plus a connection fee.

Bottom line: I can now make totally hands free calls to these nine “most frequent” contacts using Skype To Go from my car via my BlackBerry or iPhone simply by pressing the “Enter” button on my steering wheel and saying “Call [Name] Other”. To simplify this process I have recorded these Skype To Go numbers under “Other” in my smartphone and Outlook address books. Back to total compliance with Ontario law regarding use of mobile phones while driving.

The bonus: I added my wife’s BlackBerry as a registered phone and she gets to call three relatives in another Canadian city at no cost when calling from Toronto’s rather large local calling area, encompassing four area codes. (With 90% of  its population spread out across a belt 100 miles wide and 4,000 miles long, Canada still has long distance charges, although they are gradually evaporating into carrier calling plans at low or no cost.)

Yesterday Apple released FaceTime for Mac, making its popular iPhone 4 Facetime application available to all owners of MackBooks and iMacs that are using the Snow Leopard (OS/X 10.6) operating system. Most significant about this announcement was the immediate expansion by several million of the user base who could be reached on FaceTime calls. (3.89 million Macs were sold in Apple’s most recently reported quarter.)

The limitation for video calling (and any real time communications service) has always been how many users can really use the service, given the interoperability limitations. As pointed out by former Skype CEO Josh Silverman in an interview at CES last January, when Skype launches a service, such as video calling, it is immediately available to the over 100 million active Skype users in a quarter.

Other attempts at video calling services, such as Logitech’s Vid, are limited to either other users of supported Logitech webcams or any third party offering using Logitech Vid software but there was no contact base built up to communicate with.  Two or three years ago Rogers attempted to launch a wireless video calling service but nobody had the mobile handsets required to make and receive video calls; the service has at best languished. The launch of FaceTime on the Mac will certainly significantly expand the user base who can experience video calling, even if limited to WiFi or Ethernet connections.

So how does FaceTime for Mac work? Download the application from Apple’s website and install it. It will initially ask for an email address to be associated with your FaceTime for Mac. You then are given your own image along with a list of Contacts, which comes from your Mac Address Book. My initial call was to fellow blogger, Dan York, during which I found he could be accessed on his iPhone 4. I simply clicked on his mobile number and the call was made. Dan then associated his FaceTime for Mac with a personal email address and we then made a subsequent MacBook-to-MacBook call.

Orientation: on the iPhone you can change the orientation of the image simply by rotating the iPhone where its accelerometer automatically changes the orientation. On the MacBook it is necessary to mouse over your own image and a circular arrow icon will appear; click in the icon and the image goes from portrait to landscape (or vice-versa, as appropriate).

Dan has reported on our calls in Hands-On with Apple’s new FaceTime for Mac (Screenshots). He outlines three issues: How do you shut the video off? What about Windows? and the implications for Standards?

My own issue is this. FaceTime is pretty well a stand alone video calling application; it does not even link into iChat. Skype video calling is accompanied by an entire ecosystem of real time communications tools that allows concurrent chat sessions (I always like to ask if someone can take a call), file transfer, or multi-party calling. So it works when the daughter reluctantly wants to show her new braces to her Dad (watch an iPhone 4 TV ad) but there’s no chat session for sending the bill to Dad. Phil Wolff makes some interesting points in Skype beats FaceTime for Mac: 18—13.

Can you use other webcams than the Mac’s Built-in iSight webcam? Yes, I subsequently made a call to Alec Saunders using the FREETALK Everyman webcam on the MacBook Pro; it may be my personal perception but I thought it gave a better quality image, but have no evidence as to how this would have appeared at the other end.

And, as for the use of your Mac webcam for other video applications mentioned by Dan? I made some more calls that beg to differ with Dan’s thoughts on this; but that’s the subject of a separate post.

Bottom Line: FaceTime for Mac will give millions of more users the ability to experience video calling. The market usage is far from saturated and we’ll be seeing ongoing innovation such as multi-party video calling (now in Skype for Windows 5.0) and perhaps more services offering video calling on smartphones. (BlackBerry/RIM – are you following this?). Will we eventually see interoperability?

But the bottom line will be how many parties can you call using a service. The race for users has become serious. One certain call: the next version of iPad will definitely have webcam support. An obvious way to add more millions of end points for FaceTime.

Related articles

• Apple Fights Back In Video Chat With FaceTime for the Mac (newteevee.com)
• Why FaceTime And Not iChat? (crunchgear.com)
• Apple introduces FaceTime for Mac (macworld.com)
• Skype beats FaceTime for Mac: 18 – 13 (skypejournal.com)

When I interviewed Skype CEO Josh Silverman at CES 2010 in January, I had asked about the timing for a Skype IPO. Josh’s response:

“We’ll see. We don’t have a timeline for it. Our focus is to build a really great company. When we’re ready and the markets are ready, we’ll consider an IPO. At some point investors will want an exit, of course, but they’ re really taking  a long term point-of-view. This is not a quick flip; this is about building one of the great companies of technology.”

Today “long term” was defined as something between nine and fourteen months. Nine months after being taken private by an investment group lead by Silver Lake, Skype announced, through a blog post by Josh Silverman, they had filed a preliminary prospectus for an IPO. With a road show and other pre-IPO activities we’re probably three to five months from seeing the final transaction happen.

The prospectus makes for interesting read about both Skype’s business model and the communications infrastructure transition wrought by new technologies. Key Skype performance data includes:

• 2010 Jan-Jun revenues of $406.2MM vs same period 2009 of $324.8MM, an increase of 25.1%
• “Adjusted” EBITDA increase by 59.3% from $75.2MM to 115.8MM over the same periods
• $37MM in capital expenditures budgeted for 2010 vs $13.5MM spent in 2009

and some interesting user data:

One should really think of “Registered Users” as “Registered Accounts”. Especially with Skype for Business becoming more active, there will be a rise in accounts but lots of reasons for stagnant or dead accounts. (Personally I manage, via Skype Manager, over 25 accounts with about 15 users but really only use two of them for my own ongoing activities. The other users were created for one or more business activities and )

Most interesting are the “connected users” numbers, defined as “average monthly number for the three months ended [on] the date [shown on the x-axis]”. While Skype is showing a current number of 124 million“connected users” for the quarter ended Jun30, 2010  Hudson Barton’s “real users” number – which is more an indication of daily users on line is currently running at about 60 million.

The increase in paying users is the most significant number of interest. The prospectus confirms that SkypeOut represents Skype’s number one source of revenue and this number is the best indicator of how quickly these revenues can grow.

One other interesting metric relates to calling minutes, broken down as”

• Communications services billing minutes (SkypeOut minutes): from 5.0B in H1 2009 to 6.4B in H1 2010, a 28% increase somewhat consistent with the revenue increase, and
• Skype-to-Skype minutes: from 49.1 billion in H1 2009 to 88.4 billion in H1 2010, a 80% increase confirming that “free” really is the key marketing strategy for increasing Skype users and Skype usage.

Bottom line: Skype continues to grow at double digit rates but they are about to enter a phase where marketing activities and business communications services will become vital to sustaining its growth. Yet, regulatory and competitive issues will also become a significant factor and a real test of how willing governments are able to adapt to technological change as opposed to sustaining cost-inefficient legacy telecommunications operations whose fundamental business models are threatened. For the first time, we’ll be able to view quarterly the business success of Skype as an independent business operation.

There’s lots of other interesting marketing information and financial data in the prospectus but that leaves room for additional posts. And the statements re regulatory issues have the makings of several discussions.

Note that while $100MM has been put out as the amount to be raised, it was apparently only used as a metric to assist with determining SEC filing fees. The actual amount to be raised has yet to be announced.

Other posts:

• Dan York, Disruptive Communications: Skype, less than a year after eBay sale, files for $100 million IPO
• Business Insider SAI: Skype Spent $343.8 Million To Acquire Its P2P Software From Founders
• Andy Abramson, VoIP Watch: Skype To Go Public makes a couple of interesing points:

Now, going public brings with it a whole new set of responsibilities, not only SEC quarterly reporting.

For Skype’s lead investors, Silver Lake Partners, this is their opportunity to cash out. For many of the employees at Skype this is their chance for a nice reward for all the hard work they’ve put in over the past year.

• GigaOm: Skype Files for IPO

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• Skype Going Public With $100 Million IPO (thenextweb.com)
• Skype files for IPO (theglobeandmail.com)
• Skype Files For $100 Million IPO (techcrunch.com) (This one includes a block diagram of the various companies involved)
• Internet calling service Skype files for IPO (sfgate.com)
• GIPS, Google and All That Co-opetition Jazz! (voiceontheweb.biz)
• SkypeKit: “Naked” Skype Support Arrives for Hardware-Embedded Skype and PC Applications (voiceontheweb.biz)

Transcribing medical image (X-ray, CT scans, ultrasound) dictations by radiologists and other specialists is a critical pivot point in diagnosing patience conditions and outcomes. Just as important, for both medical and billing purposes, is the coding of the processes involved in taking an image as well as getting the resulting information into patient records. Suffice it to say that one of my previous clients was heavily involved in this area from the medical side; I’ve seen the ongoing demands in this area covering regulatory compliance, patient case management integrity and insurance claim issues.

Enter Oak Horizons, an industry leader in medical transcription training, education, and curriculum development. Simply put they have leveraged Internet communications technology to make their programs available to healthcare facilities across the U.S., not only for the new medical imaging technician or transcriptionist but also ongoing training programs for experienced professionals who need to keep abreast of new developments within their field.

They found that they needed a collaboration resource where they could readily and persistently store lessons and complementary background information, lead training sessions in virtual meeting rooms, and activate tutorial sessions on demand. Enter InnerPass whose combination of online document management, desktop sharing and Skype communications provides an appropriate communications infrastructure that meets these needs. From the press release:

“When students first start their program, be it medical transcription, coding or billing, the course content tends to be very overwhelming,” says Kathryn Martin, owner and instructor at OAK Horizons. “The real-time introduction is very important and helpful, since the course content tends to overwhelm everyone at first. We set up an InnerPass meeting room and walk our students through the first lesson in real-time, and then throughout the semester hold check-in and help sessions. I think it really helps us to set the right tone with our students; that they’ll be learning the material through directed study, but there is real-time help and instruction if they need it,” says Martin.

As OAK Horizons looks to expand its roster of partnership and client organizations, Kathryn Martin realized she needed to set the organization apart from a growing field of competitors. She adopted InnerPass and leveraged the technology to implement a system that facilitates real-time collaboration, content sharing and tutorials between teachers and students. Instructors can invite students to small-group tutorials with a live-participation component, for those students who request extra time with an instructor.

InnerPass provides easy-to-use tools, including screen-sharing and “persistent” meeting rooms, which reduce the cost of online instruction, expand access to education and training opportunities, and bring client organizations to the leading edge of educational and training technology.

Bottom line: For an activity where medical practitioners can lose up to 20% of their potential income due to faulty insurance claims, InnerPass’s aggregation of document sharing and communications allows Oak Horizons’s clients to increase not only patient case integrity but also simplify the revenue recovery process from healthcare insurance companies.

Previous InnerPass posts.

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• InnerPass Enables Global Education and Training with Distance Learning Technology (eon.businesswire.com)