VoIP's March Towards Divergence

from the seems-sorta-useless dept

There's been a lot of coverage concerning the deal that Skype and Netgear struck to offer mobile Skype phones that work over WiFi. In fact, the deal seems to really excite some VoIP watchers, but we can't figure out why. This is a marginal step forward from the Skype-Linksys device that was announced a few months ago, but which still has almost all of the same problems. It's not about convergence -- but divergence, mainly because it's yet another "VoIP silo" that can only work with one provider. It's exactly the thing that people have made clear they hate about the mobile phone industry. People don't like that they have to buy a separate phone if they want to switch providers -- and having a phone that only works using Skype and only when connected to a WiFi router is even less exciting because you're quite limited in where you can actually use it. It makes for an okay replacement for a cordless phone at home, since you know you have WiFi there, but otherwise, you're totally at the mercy of where other WiFi hotspots are. So, if it's ubiquity you're interested in, then you're still going to carry a cellular mobile phone -- which probably comes bundled with so many free minutes that using the Skype phone for real calls is an added cost. So, it's yet another device to carry around that doesn't offer many real benefits over an existing mobile phone plan, and is completely limited to one single service. How is that exciting?
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    MM, 5 Jan 2006 @ 11:25am

    Perfect? No. Useful? Yes!

    For most people, there is no serious alternative to Skype - so discussing convergence is missing the point. Combined with SkypeIn and SkypeOut a phone like this can (ideally) give you all the benefits of a landline, but cheaper, and you can bring it with you to work or college or wherever. Is that good or bad?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Andrew Strasser, 5 Jan 2006 @ 4:27pm

    In other words.

    Un0til they give up and realize, no we don't allow monopolies nor do we even care for them much in the U.S. Then we will see them start to work together and we'll have our technology. It's just convincing the crazy er eccentric old man with the money he has to work with someone else.

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.