Skype Takes Aim At Business PBXes
from the lost-in-the-static dept
We wondered a couple of months ago if eBay was warming up the Skype Billion-Dollar Buyout Plan, a hype-driven business model aimed at inflating the perceived value of the unit to would-be buyers. But Skype's emerged with a real business plan to try and boost its business by targeting small- and medium-sized businesses with a version of its service that can connect to their PBX phone systems using the popular SIP standard. Skype is selling one major benefit of the service as the ability for companies to accept inbound Skype calls to their PBX system, but aside from that, it's just trying to undercut other providers' rates for outgoing calls. But perhaps the bigger issue for Skype will be the high level of reliability and support business users will demand. Few will be willing to sacrifice those metrics on something as critical as voice telephony, and Skype's 2007 outage -- and subsequent lame explanation -- may not help in this regard. Also, as a company that thrives on taking away customers from more expensive services, Skype should realize that it, too, can be undercut. If all it's offering is cheaper prices, it won't have a very strong hold on its customers when the next cheaper solution comes along.
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Skype is a nice idea, but it has way too many moving parts, most of which it cannot control.
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What technology is that? The Internet?
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Than try again.
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Harold is correct, soft of.
Harold believes in guilt by association, and since he knows that P2P is evil he assumes that Skype is also evil.
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Re: Harold is correct, soft of.
No, what I am saying is that Skype is dependent on nodes and super nodes that are not entirely in their control (they are on other people's systems, often people who aren't entirely aware) and uses a variation on p2p to pass the data. They operate like P2P, "borrowing" bandwidth from end users.
It also means that adding skype to your office network for calls could also mean your network resources get used for other people's phone calls as well.
It's easier to be cheap when you aren't paying for bandwidth.
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Re: Re: Harold is correct, soft of.
uhh, yeah. that's how you get to make high quality calls for nothing.
what is your aversion to other people's benefit? if you get a service super cheap, by helping other people get the same service super cheap, why is that so bad?
It's easier to be cheap when you aren't paying for bandwidth.
everyone involved is already paying for bandwidth. why do you insist that people aren't paying for bandwidth when it comes to p2p technologies.
you have to have internet access (which some one has to pay for) in order to use skype. you can't call someone for free unless they are connected to the internet (which someone has to pay for). if there is a way to get bandwidth for free, by all means let me know, i could certainly use some.
skype only routes calls through skype users. you have to opt in. if you have no bandwidth, you can't opt it. you make it sound like skype, or bit torrent, or any other p2p technology somehow uses bandwidth without paying for it.
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WTF Harold
What is wrong with you? Are you doing this just for attention? Don't you have a job? Do you have a mental disorder?
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Re: WTF Harold
It would explain his flawed logic..
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Once again, Harold, you're totally clueless.
Wait, you mean client to server, which is how the entire damn internet works?
Also, not one company out there has control over its network. A backbone goes down in Kansas, and San Fransisco is without internet service.
Skype is a different approach using the technology which is already available. Not once have I ever read about its purpose in controlling the technology.
Someone posted you have your own Techdirt-like site. Is this true?
I can't believe it is. If so, then, by your previous posts, I can assume you:
-Charge users on a pay-per-view license scheme.
-Allow no one to copy even a 1x1 pixel of your site due to copyright, and require everyone to pay to do so.
-Cover your website with hundreds of ads to pay for its support.
-Host it on a technology no one's ever seen before, so you can maintain full control over it.
-Have articles written by only big name stars, because no-names are non-existent.
-Must take tons and tons of pictures, because anything you use on the site would be copyright by someone else.
No wonder you post here all the time, given there's a good chance there are no comments on your site to take up your time.
The symptoms of ignorance can be removed with a small dose of education.
Bend over. It's time for your shot.
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No, i don't do it for attention. Actually, I do this while my computer is doing some other work for me. Killing time between the parts where I work.
Skype: How does skype work? P2P:
http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/~library/TR-repository/reports/reports-2004/cucs-039-04.pdf
P erhaps How Skype works:
http://www.technologyevangelist.com/2008/05/a_bit_about_how_skyp.html
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Now back to the topic:
"Skype has no central server to maintain the network. Instead, Skype uses peer to peer technology to decentralize the network and to help ensure a very high uptime percentage. Once you log in to Skype, your system becomes part of the network itself helping to decentralize the load of routing phone calls. This also means that your computer will be used as a node so a bit of your bandwidth and CPU will be borrowed to help the rest of the Skype network, even if you're not in a phone call."
Sounds alot like P2P to me.
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Make you a deal: You stop posting ignorant comments and I'll quit replying to them.
I notice how you tell others to STFU, so why not take your own advice?
It's one thing to reply with something relevant to the topic at hand, but all you do is denounce every damn one.
Worse, you do so with misinformation. So, it is my job (as well as others), to constantly correct you so another reader isn't misguided by your ignorance.
It's one thing to make a comment, but quite another when people give you definitive information to the contrary, but you dismiss it with a "STFU" reply.
So, the next step is yours: Take your own advice or deal with the crap your replies get.
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Cheaper methode comes along
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Good Idea
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Skype might have a problem here
VoSky uses Skype to make its connections. Why would I, as one with purchasing authority, go with Skype's offering when VoSKY has had months to work out bugs.
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never thought i would see skype work with SIP
i am of two minds about this news:
part of me says "it's about freakin time" and it optimistic about easier integration with skype and sip.
part of me says "too little, too late" and is pessimistic about what protectionist crap skype is going to pull against products like opensky:
http://www.gizmo5.com/pc/opensky
or the venerable vosky someone else mentioned.
skype has been so closed off for so long, that hacks and workarounds have been the norm when integrating with skype.
i have a vosky internet phone wizard (do they even make those anymore?) that i use to connect skype to the wiring in my house and my sipura ATA in this weird little daisy chain of boxes.
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Totally off the subject
First off all this service could possibly do is cut down your long distance bill. As previously stated I connects to your existing PBX, which you already own. Next you'll need to bump up your Internet speed to handle the extra traffic. You wont be able to drop any phone lines because when the Internet connection goes out or gets hi-jacked (this happens to small businesses more than you think) you'll still need to talk to your customers. And finally you'll have to have your inter-connect come in and reprogram your phone switch to access the Skype lines for you outgoing long distance calls.
By this time you've probably spent enough to buy a VoIP card for your switch and just let the PBX control everything. That is if your switch can accept a VoIP card, if not you need to replace it. At which point your better off to go with a company like Packet Eight(Sym:EIGH)that sells VoIP PBX's and phone service packages.
And as far as Harold goes, he seems like the only person that actually did know what he was talking about (at least in the first 12 posts).
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