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.

Voice On the Web’s Subscription Calling Plan page has been updated. Also Skype is offering a 25% discount on Skype Calling Plans if purchased prior to May 6, 2009.

Earlier this week Skype announced the addition of an “Unlimited Country” plan to the three plans available to Skype users in the U.S. and Canada.  At the same time Skype announced the addition of seven countries to their Calling Plan Subscriptions program which now supports 42 countries. Learning of these changes triggered a review of Skype’s Calling Plans.

One of the goals of Voice On The Web is to provide longer term reference information about Skype and other IP-based communications services. This overall reference guide is accessed via the links in the light green navigation bar above or further down the first sidebar on the right. (Improving this navigation is one of the goals for the next upgrade to Voice On The Web.) Many of these pages were written a year ago and are in the course of being updated to reflect current offerings and policies.

As a result of Skype’s announcement referenced above I have reviewed and updated the Skype Calling Plans page as there have been several changes since Skype Calling Plans were first announced a year ago:

• Six countries – India, South Africa, Argentina, Bulgaria, Columbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Thailand have been added to the various Skype Calling Plans worldwide
• An “Unlimited Country” plan has been added for Skype users in North America, providing a subscription option for those who want to call U.S. and Canadian numbers plus one additional country selected from the other 42 countries participating in the Skype Calling Plans.
• Rates for Skype “”Unlimited World” subscriptions, which now provide unlimited calling to 44 countries worldwide (up from 36), have increased to US$12.95 per month from US$9.95 per month
• A 25% discount applies to these plans if purchased prior to May 6, 2006. Click here to extend your current subscription at these discounted rates during the discount’s availability.
• Mexico remains a special case. Plans provide for unlimited calling to landlines Mexico City, Guadlajara and Monterrey. Discounted rates (which vary by plan) apply to calls outside these three cities and calls to mobile phones.
• There are unique plans for calling to Brazil, India and South Africa. None of these countries are included in any basic “Unlimited World” plan.
• Skype has modified their Fair Usage policy to a maximum of 50 numbers per day, six hours of calling per day and use by one Skype account only per subscription. All this in addition to the previous 10,000 minutes per month. Don Kennedy has written a utility, Subscription Monitor for Skype, that provides an real time accounting of your subscription status so that you know when time’s up.
• The 2 million Skype users who downloaded and installed Skype for iPhone can take advantage of these plans from any WiFi hotspot supported by the iPhone (not available to Canadians, argh!!)

Of course the most effective way to reduce SkypeOut and subscription usage is to have your contacts sign up for Skype. Skype-to-Skype voice and video calling is at the best price of all – Free!

Skype announces launch of a beta version of Skype for SIP, connecting IP-PBX’s to the Skype cloud.

Dan York, while a keen supporter of Skype, has been campaigning for a Skype to SIP interconnect on his Disruptive Telephony blog. In a post last fall, “Skype and SIP – the two sides of the issue raised by Michael Robertson”, he says:

We need to build the interconnect.

Yeah, there are a TON of issues out there that we still need to address to build that interconnect. There’s a whole host of security issues… there are billing issues… there are trust issues… there are network plumbing issues. Yes, there are all those issues. But if we are to succeed in ultimately bringing about the rich communication experience we want, we need to make this happen.

And for that, Skype’s walls need to come down…. at least a bit.

What we need is that Interconnect from Skype’s cloud out to the emerging IP infrastructure. Think about it… Skype right now has a two-way interconnect between Skype’s cloud and the cloud we know as the PSTN. It’s called “SkypeOut” and “SkypeIn” (or whatever marketing names they are being called now). If you dial my SkypeIn number, you can reach me on Skype wherever I am. From my Skype client, I can call anyone on the PSTN. The two-way interconnect is already there.

This morning Skype announced the launch of a beta version of Skype for SIP as a major initiative for further penetration into the business market. Basically Skype for SIP allows SIP PBX owners to access the Skype cloud as additional inbound lines , via Skype Online numbers, and outbound extensions to their existing PBX, via SkypeOut. From the press release:

Key Features

The beta version of Skype For SIP will enable business users to:

• Receive and manage inbound calls from Skype users worldwide on SIP-enabled PBX systems; connecting the company Web site to the PBX system via click-to-call
• Place calls with Skype to landlines and mobile phones worldwide from any connected SIP-enabled PBX; reducing costs with Skype’s low-cost global rates
• Purchase Skype’s online numbers, to receive calls to the corporate PBX from landlines or mobile phones
• Manage Skype calls using their existing hardware and system applications such as call routing, conferencing, phone menus and voicemail; no additional downloads or training are required.

In an interview with Skype Senior Product Manager Chris Moore, I learned:

• Skype’s’ goal will be to have a totally user friendly interface such that Skype for SIP is a seamless service
• Administration will be done through an extended Skype Business Control Panel interface which, amongst other activities will establish Skype for SIP account mapping, manage online numbers and perform appropriate configuration for the various PBX’s.
• Skype will be looking to work with the various SIP PBX and Unified Communications vendors, such as Cisco, Avaya, Nortel and Siemens. When I asked about Microsoft Response Point, which had been demonstrated to me the previous day, Chris confirmed, yes, they were another prospective vendor to be approached.
• during the beta, Skype will be used on a pay-as-you-go basis; pricing for the service once it is launched has yet to be determined
• Skype will be including security issues as one major consideration (I expect Dan York to have more to say on this issue)
• The service will be configured to take advantage of Skype’s royalty free SILK codec; if both endpoints of a call support SILK, then the SILK support will carry across the Skype for SIP interface.

This has to be a landmark announcement for the IP-based communications space. It effectively allows businesses to integrate the Skype cloud into existing infrastructure to handle all long distance and international calling. Some other initial observations:

• Does Skype for SIP impact the space currently served by Vosky’s PBX services?  It definitely leaves open for Vosky the analog PBX market; one question will be how does Vosky figure out a way to work Skype for SIP into their business activities and offerings during the six- to twelve-month beta?
• It’s currently a beta; applicants for beta participation can apply at www.skypeforsip.com. From the press release: “Applicants will need to be businesses, have an installed SIP based IP-PBX system, as well as a level of technical competency to configure their own SIP-enabled PBX. The initial beta is available to a limited number of participants.”
• Skype also expects to determine an appropriate distribution channel. While ease-of-use is a key goal, there will still be small business owners who will want third party expertise to manage their communications activities. So expect Skype to look to a VAR or Systems Integrator channel to support implementation.
• Skype for SIP broadens Skype’s penetration into the small-to-medium business market. Where Skype for Asterisk introduces a Skype feature-rich Asterisk channel to Asterisk PBX’s, Skype for SIP simply brings Skype cloud connectivity to a major subset of existing small business PBX installations.
• Along another feature axis we see hosted services vs on-premise implementations. Will widely geographically distributed small businesses favor a hosted service, such as OnState’s Virtual PBX, or one of these on-premise PBX offerings.

One sure call: the market for business long distance, especially international calling, is about to be radically disrupted as these services come into play. It brings about new business opportunities and, most significantly, makes any business a global business, if the will is there. With probably over one million IP PBX’s out there (Skype’s press release says over 438,000 were sold in 2008 along), Skype for SIP brings the slow but sure death of legacy international calling, one PBX at a time.

And, of course, Dan York brings his deep perspective, not only on how Skype for SIP works, but also on the security and codec issues surronding Skype for SIP: Skype tears down more walls with “Skype For SIP”.

At last fall’s AstriCon, Stefan Oberg, Skype’s Vice-President for Business, announced the launch of a development program with Digium leading to Skype for Asterisk. Today Digium posted a progress update outlining the current status of the beta program along with more details of the Skype for Asterisk feature set.

Digium claims to have logged “tens of thousands of hours of Skype-to-Asterisk communication”. They’ve also learned a lot about “the art of connecting Asterisk to with the Skype global network”. The post then goes on to provide more details of the forthcoming offering:

The SFA product will be the only solution that integrates Asterisk directly with Skype. This is not a “proxy” solution and the call quality will be superior to anything else on the market. Customers will have the ability to make, receive and transfer Skype calls from within Asterisk phone systems, using existing hardware and existing Asterisk configurations: Skype calls become just another Asterisk call.

Some of the features that will be supported in the market release are:

1. SkypeIn: Receive calls from the public telephone network using standard phone numbers

2. SkypeOut: Make calls to landline and mobile numbers at incredibly low rates

3. Standard phone features: Incoming/outgoing digits (DTMF), Caller ID

4. Smart call routing based on called Skype Name, Caller ID, country of the caller, language they have chosen in their Skype client and etc.

5. Retrieve Skype credit balance information

6. Store and call PSTN and Skype contacts

7. Retrieve and set Skype user presence information

8. Support for G.711 and G.729 voice codecs

9. Each Skype channel license includes a Digium G.729 codec license

Accomplishments to date have been with a very small pilot group of testers; this week they opened up testing to a second larger group. The next stage will be a public beta but no timetable is provided. What I can say is that I have been requested by a beta tester earlier this week to be added as a contact on their Skype for Asterisk test platform.

One interesting statement: “This is not a “proxy” solution and the call quality will be superior to anything else on the market.” Yet the feature set only shows support for narrowband audio G.711 and G.729 codecs. Will there be support of Skype’s SILK super wideband audio for calls routed through Skype for Asterisk that are effectively Skype-to-Skype calls once the end points are connected?

With over 3,000 applications for participation in the public beta, it looks like there is great interest; however, the final proof comes only with a successful launch.

Hat tip to Dan York for his Twitter retweet.

Update: Jason Goecke reports: Experience with the Skype for Asterisk Beta.

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• Skype for Asterisk (stateless.geek.nz)

OnState’s Virtual PBX incorporates Skype as a contributor to lower cost, yet more productive, small business communications management activities.

A mainstay for communications in any office with at least a few employees is the need to accept incoming calls, determine who is calling, what is their general need and getting the call to the right employee. In the interest of effective and productive customer and supplier relations, calls need an automated way to reach sales personnel, customer care, accounting  or technical support or “the boss”. Preferably this call management should be handled without any human intervention; over the past twenty or more years this has resulted in the evolution of increasingly effective Private Branch Exchange (“PBX”) offerings from telecomm equipment suppliers. And it traditionally required a reasonably demanding capital expense, from $15,000 up.

The basic functions of a PBX include:

• Receiving and answering a call from an external caller
• Offering a menu of options to determine to whom the call should be connected
• Transferring the call in response to answers provided either by entering alphanumeric or dialpad information or by using speech recognition.
• Accepting, recording and managing voice mails if nobody is available to take a call
• Ability to make a subsequent call transfer if deemed necessary

However, IP-based communications technology along with web 2.0 tools provide opportunities for enhancing the PBX to build more productive and effective business processes when it comes to managing relationships with both suppliers and customers. For instance:

• An individual agent portal for overall conversation management
• Intelligent call queuing would permit an “occupied” employee to either put a caller into a queue for answering when available or transfer a caller to another employee with the skills to handle the call
• Chat sessions can be offered as either an alternative or complement to voice conversations
• Building a searchable call archive integrated into an email system such as GMail.
• Making call transfer destinations independent of the recipient’s geographical location, whether “in the office”, at a home office or out “on the road”.
• Reducing and minimizing the costs associated with various PBX services.

Building on its Call Center experience OnState has launched its Virtual PBX which provides all this functionality as well as:

• Receives calls via Skype, SkypeIn as well as Local DID numbers and toll free numbers in over 20 countries
• Call transfer to employees, agents and other designated recipients on their Skype-enabled PC, landline phones or mobile independent of geographical location
• An extension-based agent/employee/representative portal for managing incoming calls, including call waiting notification, queuing and redirection
• Integration into GMail, Zimbra and Salesforce.com

A few weeks ago, OnState CEO Pat Kelly was our guest on a SquawkBox conference call where he provided more details about OnState’s Virtual PBX, including a sharable slide show presentation accessible as a Google document.

Bottom line; for as little as $15 per month per seat and no capital investment, small to medium enterprises and organizations as well can establish an enhanced PBX capability to facilitate both more productive business processes as well as more cost effective communications.

Definitely a business model disrupter.

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Phil has already pointed out the Skype for Asterisk news announced at Stefan Oberg’s AstriCon keynote this morning along with links to several blog postings and the news release. This afternoon I spent fifteen minutes talking with Stefan, Skype’s Vice-President and General Manager of Telecom, and Digium CEO Danny Windham to get more details.

First I asked who would benefit from the Skype for Asterisk announcement?

Danny and Stefan responded that the primary beneficiary would be the end user, especially small-to-medium businesses who have installed an Asterisk PBX. In particular:

• A generic SkypeID, say “acmesales”, could be setup for inbound calls to the PBX; think of this SkypeID as a “global 800 number”.
• The Asterisk PBX would then be able to hand off the call, as appropriate, to a call center, voice mail, IVR, conferencing and click-to-call from a website, amongst other Asterisk-based services and functionality.
• Each employee or agent can also access the PBX via individual SkypeID’s for taking inbound calls (including calls directed from the generic SkypeID) or placing outbound calls.
• Outbound calls can be placed to any location worldwide, either to a Skype destination or, via SkypeOut, to the PSTN in any country.
• Outbound calls can be to customers anywhere worldwide
• Also the PBX with its Skype inbound/outbound call handling can serve to provide internal company communications amongst offices worldwide. Remote employees are simply at “extensions” of the Asterisk PBX.
• As with any VoIP-based service, agents can be located in remote offices, work from home or be available in any location where they have set up a Skype-enabled PC with broadband access.
• Asterisk PBX already can be programmed to handle least cost routing of international calls; the Skype cloud will be added as an option for least cost routing.
• Calls that involve Skype at both end points will have the full HD (wideband) audio bandwidth of Skype, providing clearer, more readily understood calls than those that involve a PSTN connection at one end.

Naturally the major benefit to end users is the cost savings; Skype to Skype calls are free; calls involving SkypeOut have the normal SkypeOut charges as low as US$ 0.021 or €0.017 per minute. (On SquawkBox this morning Jim Kohlen of the VON Coalition estimated full implementation of VoIP throughout the U.S. could result in savings of up to $110B per year.)

I then probed about the extent of Asterisk installations. It turns out that there were over 1 million downloads of Asterisk via Digium last year; this year is on a run rate of over 1.5 million downloads. Danny estimates there are over 4 million active Asterisk servers worldwide that have been implemented and/or supported by Digium’s various services. Since Asterisk itself is open source, it is speculated there are many more installations out there that are not supported through Digium.

Product: Skype for Asterisk will involve a software module, developed in conjunction with Skype, that is downloaded and compiled onto an Asterisk server. Premium packages will also be available from Skype; these will be comprehensive packages tailored for various business functions and include the Skype Business Control Panel. There may be opportunities to include Skype Partner products and services, such as Pamela and/or PamFax. There will be “low” monthly licensing fees for use of the basic software module as well as the premium packages.

Distribution: Here is where this agreement is significant for Skype. Digium has an established ecosystem involving a market place, technology partners and Value Added Reseller partners (VAR’s). For the VAR’s Skype for Asterisk will be an incremental Digium reseller offering (channel driver) for which they will receive commissions for both the software licenses and premium packages described above as well as for all SkypeOut traffic brought through their customer bases. These VAR’s are responsible for implementation services as well as providing first level technical support to individual customers using Digium products and services.

The Beta program will involve two phases. Phase I will involve a limited number of participants to finalize the software while obtaining feedback from user experiences. Phase II will be a much broader public beta to provide both extended feedback as well as to train VAR’s and even end users on implementation and use of Skype for Asterisk. The beta program will require the use of version 1.4 or 1.6 of Asterisk; Skype for Asterisk will only support these versions once the commercial version is available.

As Rich Tehrani stated in his post:

What this means to Skype is that company has finally found a way to get into the enterprise in an easy way — by partnering with Digium/Asterisk which has great traction with developers, resellers, carriers, SMBs and more. Expect more enterprise use of Skype and as this happens, Skype should see more revenue from business users.

And to narrow down on Dan York’s speculation about any Skype-to-SIP gateway:

• Any existing SIP interfacing functionality within the Asterisk PBX will be available as appropriate to reach non-Skype extensions involving a SIP interface.
• The only additional Skype-to-SIP functionality will come through the existing SkypeOut gateways.

To follow on from my comments yesterday about the need for business transactions related to crossing a SIP interface, both these SIP interfaces will associate with existing business agreements.

Skype has been hinting at major announcements during the fall; this certainly has to be a significant new revenue channel for Skype while bringing new services to Asterisk end users and new sales opportunities for Asterisk resllers.

A little sanity moving into the blogosphere? Local blogging colleague Mark Evans¹, in a post earlier today, “The Wonderful World of Web 2.0 Whining”, comments on the demands for seven nines reliability and unlimited support from “free” services:

It’s bad enough no one wants to pay for anything, but the expectations placed on free services to deliver 99.99999% reliability are astounding. Come on, what do you expect for nothing?

Still, kvetching about popular services such as Twitter, Skype or Facebook when they have technical hiccups has become a popular game. When it happens, everyone wants to get into the action by complaining, criticizing, attacking and pontificating. The best one recently was Webware’s Rafe Needleman suggesting Twitter should close until its technical issues are resolved.

Ha!

For some more rational thought on the warped sense of free these days, check out broadstuff, who succinctly pointed out that:

“There is this weird idea in the air that if something is free to a user it is free to produce, and thus must still reach all those other norms we take for granted in paid-for services, like reliability, privacy etc.”

“Free” can be a great inducement to try out a service. Skype-to-Skype calling can remain free because there is little capital or operating cost associated with providing the underlying peer-to-peer service with several million positive user experiences. (You and I pay the capital cost when we buy the “peering” hardware between which Skype makes calls.) Skype is a marketer’s dream for sustainably building a user base while keeping the recruitment cost per user close to zero. Having built up this base, it becomes a target market for premium services such as SkypeIn, SkypeOut and partner offerings such as Pamela and Skylook.

Yes, we know Skype support is often via user forums and slow to respond; but then what can one expect for a “free” service. Skype can use their forums as feedback for determining which features are required to reduce support requirements while building more positive user experiences. New features such as providing CallerID for US/Canada users can drive adoption and usage.Of course they are missing a revenue opportunity by not providing a support service such as Red Hat does for Linux and Digium does for Asterisk.

Truphone, a great mobile VoIP service on Nokia N- and E-series mobile phones when in an accessible WiFi zone, finally started charging last week for calls to/from the PSTN while Truphone-to-Truphone calls remain free². Mobivox is finding they need to cover their costs, even for Mobivox-to-Mobivox calls; this tells me the infrastructure behind Mobivox Girl is an ongoing operating expense due to a different underlying architecture.

The Voice 2.0 Manifesto predicted that “voice will be free; the meter is off”. But we are now starting to see some of the lower bounds of what voice will truly cost, even if minimal, in a Voice 2.0 world.

¹Mark is known to be a heavy Skype user in his business activities.
²Truphone also launched Truphone Anywhere a couple of weeks ago allowing users to call Truphone users for the cost of accessing a “local” GSM wireless PoP.

Tags: Skype, Mark Evans, Twitter, Facebook, Truphone, Mobivox, Voice 2.0 Manifesto

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CES 2008 generated a few items in the blogosphere that may be of interest to our readers.

Mobivox gets Scoblized: Nitzan Shaer, COO of Mobivox, whose calling service provides access to your Skype contacts from any phone device, was interviewed for one of the last editions of the Scoble Show. Hat tip to Andy.

Don Albert, Skype’s North American General Manager, was interviewed by CBC News reporter Peter Nowak. Of particular interest to Canadians is Don’s response about SkypeIn numbers for Canada:

PN: You don’t offer SkypeIn in Canada because regulations require phone service operators to offer enhanced 911, which allows the operator to locate where a caller is. What are you doing about this situation?

DA: That is the gist of it. We are working on it and we hear from Canadian users all the time that they want to have that available, so we’ve been working with partners who we think can help us with a solution there. We’re hopeful that in the course of this year we’ll be able to offer that.

In this interview Don also addresses some misconceptions about getting access to Skype via wireless carriers.

Tags: Skype, Mobivox, Nitzan Schaer, Don Albert, CBC News, Peter Nowak, SkypeIn Canada

Having reflected on Skype’s accomplishments in 2007 and some of the more interesting devices and technologies that have crossed my way, now for my projections for 2008. (In the interest of enhanced objectivity — not that I can be totally objective — I have yet to read Phil’s 37 Sketchy 2008 Skype Predictions or Andy’s The Road in 2008 (links below after you have read this <gr>).

1. eBay will appoint a new Skype CEO in the first quarter. Andy has his insights into the search.

2. The new CEO will focus on “Delight the User”

• Introduce customer support plans (limited free and premium paid)
• Provide <24 hour response time on customer support requests
• Hire a Chief Marketing Officer who understands the role of, and process for, marketing a technology platform to both consumers and small businesses.
• Provide guidelines on optimizing end user configurations for highest quality voice and video.
• Set challenging goals for increasing SkypeIn and SkypeOut minutes used.
• Change Skype business and management structure to support the development and marketing of platforms as opposed to services
• Build a “Skype Inside” marketing program for Skype hardware
• Build a blogger relations program
• Improve dialogues with Developer Partners

3. Skype will introduce multi-party video conferencing (may initially only be three party)

4. Skype will focus on licensing two platforms:

• Skype real time conversation infrastructure (to additional social networking platforms beyond MySpace)
• Skype Developer API Toolkit: to include web services support

5. Skype users will rush out to replace their PC’s with Dual Core processors and their webcams with Logitech Carl-Zeiss optics webcams to take full advantage of Skype High Quality Video.

6. Skype will revitalize the Skype hardware program, improving hardware partner relationships, building a more effective hardware distribution channel (especially in North America) and building consumer awareness of Skype as a premium real time conversation offering.

• Skype will figure out how to open a Skype store for the 3.5 million Canadians.who have registered on Skype.

7. Skype will have to support emergency services for customers with SkypeIn numbers in countries requiring this.

• SkypeIn numbers for Canada will become available within three months of providing emergency services access for UK SkypeIn numbers.

8. The Skype Partner program’s business solutions providers will start to gain significant traction amongst the small and professional services business community.

9. Skype will execute on some form of significantly enhanced business relationship with Google.

10. Skypephone will become available in the U.S. via T-Mobile (and the Skypephone will be modified to support the required additional 850 MHz GSM band.)

11. Skype will upgrade its presence engine to deal with the fact that we may have multiple concurrent logins, especially on at least one PC and one mobile device.

12. Skype will gain significant placement on mobile devices.

• How extensively this goes depends on the (low cost) availability of “public” WiFi and./or 3G network access.
• note that I did not necessarily say there will be a mobile device Skype VoIP client.
• Should more (GSM) carriers invoke UMA/GAN we will see Skype continue the current “mobile” trend of IM over the data network with voice connectivity over the carrier’s inherent voice network.

13. Skype will conclude deals for local termination services in many more countries to improve SkypeIn and SkypeOut call quality.

14. Someone at Skype will review all the SkypeIn provider contracts to ensure we can keep our SkypeIn numbers permanently. (And Londoners will learn that their area code is simply “020″, not “020n”.)

15.eBay will begin reporting Skype usage numbers that are meaningful, such as number of users who actually made at least one Skype call in the previous quarter.

Will be interesting to see how much of these predictions actually play out but one can always hope for the best.

Happy New Year and Happy Skyping in 2008!

And for other predictions:

• Phil Wolff’s 37 Sketchy 2008 Skype Predictions
• Andy Abramson: The Road in 2008
• Ken Camp articulates his perspectives on Mobility, VoIP, Video, SOAP/SaaS and Social Media/Social Networking in his Unified Communications Watch List 2008. Well worth a read, especially for his comments on the decline of Windows Mobile — a trend I have also noticed.

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Previous posts have discussed OnState’s Call Center for Skype and its ability to manage customer enquiries by voice and/or chat. A conversation is launched via a website with three options (Skype, Callback and Chat) or via a SkypeIn number (where available). This week OnState added to their portfolio of communications options with the availability of toll-free services for Skype which can be integrated into the OnState CallCenter solution.

What this means is that an OnState-enabled business simply obtains a toll-free number in the U.S. or Canada and the customer enquiries can be directed to any Skype-enabled agent worldwide. Ideal for, say, the European business that wants to take enquiries from the U.S. and/or Canada using agents based in Europe or for Canadian businesses who cannot get SkypeIn numbers. From the press release:

“Skype changed the communications industry with its software and global calling rates,” noted [OnState CEO Pat] Kelly, “Now, OnState continues to challenge the call center market by providing integrated toll-free service at an industry-redefining price. All a customer needs to do is fire-up an OnState toll-free number in the US or Canada and that number can go anywhere Skype can go – this is revolutionary for traditional call centers.”

The service will soon be expanded to include European toll-free numbers.

Bottom line is that businesses can invoke OnState’s CallCenter service and take advantage of Skype’s low operating costs regardless of whether the customer comes via a website or is attracted by a print or broadcast media advertisement or press item. Adding toll-free numbers simply tells the customer “we care about your interest” in a product or service.

Tags: Skype, OnState, OnState Call Center, Pat Kelly

Perhaps the most demanded feature at last year’s Skype Developer Conference was Call Transfer API’s. We have seen some activity for Skype to Skype calls recently; however, information on activity related to calls originating or terminating via SkypeIn or SkypeOut (which require significantly more infrastructure) has been negligible.

Today Skype’s April Developer newsletter issued a post by Morné van Dalen, Technical Project Manager on the Skype for Windows desktop team, responsible for developing the Call Transfer algorithms.

This feature has been one of the most requested/anticipated features for a long time, so it is important for us to make sure we get it right. We want to be able to offer a feature that not only matches functionality available on your landline or mobile, but be able to deliver an even better experience. That seems like a tall order, so how are we going to do it?

He goes on to outline Functionality, Transfer Methods, Which calls can be transferred and Integrating with existing functionality, including Voice Mail and Call Forwarding.

To clear up one item that is a bit confusing in all this. The Skype to Skype API has been available for a few months; its first implementation in a Skype client was in the recently released Skype for Mac 2.6 beta and it’s used in Pamela 3.5. Separate development work is required for each of the API’s liniking Skype to SkypeOut, etc.; the releavant API’s will apparently become available over the next few weeks.

Note that call transfers to SkypeOut number and transfers of SkypeIn calls will only be available to Skype Pro customers. Hopefully it gets worked in for those of us on the Unlimited North American subscription plan as well. But Phil also asks in the Skype 3.2 Group Chat:

Phil Wolff | Skype Journal | Oakland, Calif |GMT -8 says: “I also think it’s weird that you can’t xfer calls to groups or skypeout unless you are in a pricing package. Why not just end the call if the account runs out of skype credits?

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