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Tag: skype

  • O2 Germany Clears the Way for VoIP on the Mobile Phone

    Telefónica O2 Germany opens mobile telecommunications network for Voice-over-IP services. From today, all O2 customers in Germany can use mobile internet telephony services like Skype or Fring with the current internet packs from O2. Using VoIP services will not be extra charged.

    By opening its HSPA network for VoIP use, O2 Germany becomes one of the first traditional telecom operators worldwide which allows its customers using voip-based services and the first that doesn’t charge any further fees for doing this.

    "We operate one of the most modern and most rapid mobile data networks in Europe and our customers are to experience it without limitations, no matter whether they surf, email, use instant messaging or make phone calls", says Lutz Schüler, Managing Director Marketing & Sales of Telefónica O2 Germany.

    Earlier this summer T-Mobile announced that it is to end its ban on mobile VoIP applications within its German network – but will charge customers upwards of € 9.95 per month for the service. Vodafone Germany is also to introduce VoIP tariffs later this year.

    O2 offers the customers two mobile internet flat rates: Internet Pack M that allows surfing the internet at a volume of up to 200 MB and up to HSDPA speed for € 10/month and Internet Pack L with the full speed to 5GB for € 25/month.

    "By opening our mobile high-speed network for VoIP services, we set new standards in the area of the mobile internet," added Schüler.

    In Germany, the mobile data network of O2 reaches almost 100 percent of the population. Large parts of Germany are supplied with HSDPA at speeds of up to 7.2 MBit/s and the rapid upload technology HSUPA.

  • xMax Offers Alternative Path for VoIP Across Mobile Networks

    Resistance by wireless carriers to allowing customers access to VoIP services across their mobile networks has attracted the attention of the regulators, with the US Department of Justice, the Federal Communications Commission and the European Union all looking into the practice.

    xG Technology claims they had developed an alternative path that allows consumers to benefit from much lower cost mobile calls via the internet, avoiding the incumbent carriers’ networks all together.

    The company developed xMax, which is similar to Vonage or Skype, but in the form of a fully mobile handset that doesn’t require the use and extra cost of a computer or broadband internet connection.

    xG Technology claims they can offer consumers the prospect of lower phone bills because xMax transmits over unlicensed spectrum – the same as baby monitors and cordless phones and because xMax was built as a totally internet-based digital system from top to bottom in a extremely cost efficient way.

    The firm recently reported that they had completed more than 20,000 successful wireless pilot network calls using a new approach to mobile telecommunications.

    “There was understandable skepticism when we first announced that we were taking an entirely new approach to launching a mobile, broadband VoIP network,” said Joe Bobier, CTO and president of operations. “Our successful call completion experience proves that we are on the right track and that, with xMax, the future holds the prospect of lower costs for wireless voice and broadband”.

    According to the company, xMax networks can enable communication providers to aggressively compete with national carriers by offering customers unlimited voice and data plans both locally and long distance, extremely low-cost international calling, no contracts, as well as home phone and high-speed internet service.

    xG Technology is a US based company, but development of xMax is an international effort that involves companies in Europe and Asia. They currently have 50 US and 101 international patents.

  • Skype Users Rise by 37m, Revenues up 25% in Q2


    Skype’s subscriber base just keeps on climbing, with another 37 million people added in the second quarter – taking the total year-to-date increase to 75 million.

    Growing subscribers also means growing revenues and the VoIP company saw Q2 revenue jump 25 per cent year-over-year to USD $170 million.

    The Skype figures were contained within parent company eBay’s financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2009.

    Its news was not quite so good. The ecommerce company posted second quarter revenue of USD $2.10 billion, a $97.7 million year-over-year decrease.

    The year-over-year revenue growth of PayPal and Skype was offset by the effects of the stronger dollar and a modest decline in the Marketplaces business.

    Another healthy quarter of growth under its belt will do no harms to Skype’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) price as eBay prepares to take the VoIP company public in early 2010.

    Provided the P2P technology lawsuit gets settled first.

  • Bristol Interactive Offers TV With PC – Not PC With TV


    Being able to Skype or IM with your favorite app from your HDTV would be pretty useful.

    Well, Bristol Interactive has developed a digital TV with an in-built Atom-powered netbook that would appear to allow users to do just that.

    While there are plenty of PCs on the market with TV tuners – the UK-based television manufacturer is producing 22" and 32" TVs with a gig of memory, a 160GB hard drive, four USB ports, and an Ethernet port.

    The as-yet unnamed devices work as normal TVs, but hit one button and the screen flips across to Windows XP and full netbook mode.

    Screen resolution is 1680 x 1050 pixels – certainly a lot more than you get on a netbook.

    The sets also come with a wireless keyboard with integrated track (mouse).

    Paul Fellows, CEO, of UK-based Bristol Interactive, said the two models are regular TVs but have the convenience of an ultra-compact PC built inside.

    He said they instantly switch between TV mode and PC mode, with no wait for the PC to boot up or log out.

    The TV, which operates independently of Windows, is always instantly available at the touch of a remote control button.

    Fellows said the TVs don’t have Wi-Fi – because of the reliability issues and the potential for support costs.

    Bristol expects to launch the system in October, with 22" models being sold for under GBP £500.

  • Positive Signs For Interoperability Between VOIP Systems


    It would appear that efforts to address problems of compatability and interoperability between the various VoIP protocols, packages and services are making some headway.

    For users – and especially small businesses – the issue has been of growing concern as the popularity of VoIP has led to a huge increase in the number of VoIP services.

    As Erica Stewart points out in her NetSquared blog, these potential users may want to adopt VoIP for their communication needs – but compatibility issues prevent them from fully entrusting their operations to such a service.

    However, she goes on to say that developments have been made since Stefan Oberg, Skype’s Vice-President for Business, announced the launch of a development program with Digium (the developers of Asterisk) last autumn.

    The partnership aims to incorporate Skype with the Asterisk system in a way that will allow the Asterisk PBX handle Skype calls more clearly and efficiently.

    Stewart says clients using this service now have the capability to make and receive Skype calls from within their existing Asterisk software and hardware systems.

    She says the partnership between the two well-known VoIP providers points to the growing interoperability between the various VoIP systems.

    "A small business owner can become more at ease in knowing that despite the multitude of both open source and proprietary voice codecs available in the market, there are efforts to be able to connect them to one another," she says.

    "These moves towards partnerships and idea and technology sharing, only bodes well for the goal of interoperability between Voice over Internet Protocol systems."

  • Yuuguu Extends Instant Collaboration To Include Skype


    Yuuguu has expanded its screen sharing cross network application to include Skype.

    The Yuuguu for Skype Beta enables Skype users to screen share and collaborate with one or more contacts.

    Yuuguu can also use the VOIP calling feature of Skype.

    The application also allows users to combine their contacts on a variety of instant messaging services such as Google Talk, MSN, AOL, Yahoo and AIM into one place.

    Each month, Yuuguu is free for 100 minutes with a maximum of five participants in a session.

    Users can upgrade to Yuuguu Plus for USD $15 per month, which includes unlimited screen sharing and web conferencing usage.

    Co-founder and CEO of Yuuguu, Anish Kapoor said the Yuuguu for Skype Beta is the simplest and quickest way for Skype users to instantly screen share, and collaborate in real time with one or more of their contacts on Skype.

    "Our product developments over the last 18 months have been geared to strong customer demand for instant real-time collaboration tightly integrated with their instant messaging services," he said.

  • Skype Gets its Own Oprah Show


    Skype president Josh Silverman’s invitation to appear as a guest on ‘Oprah’ may not come as much of a surprise to fans of the show.

    The VoIP giant has already been featured on the program and Oprah Winfrey often uses it for interviews.

    But while Oprah is well known for promoting Skype, Kindle and Twitter, she doesn’t usually give over whole shows to them.

    What was the excuse for Thursday’s episode-long commercial for Skype?

    Josh Silverman Skype President

    Well the show was billed as an opportunity to discuss the features the technology offers to its subscribers.

    Titled "Where the Skype Are You?", it features people calling in from exotic locations around the world, with video chats on an airplane, a submarine, Antarctica, and London’s Harrods department store.

    It might have been interesting to have included a slot discussing Skype’s troubled relationship with eBay, would it not?

  • Truphone Improves iPhone Mobile VoIP App


    Truphone has launched a major upgrade to its free mobile VoIP application for the iPhone.

    The latest version of the Apple handset’s first-ever VoIP app boasts increased ease of use, speed of function response, intuitiveness and simplicity – along with improved voice quality.

    Truphone 3.0 also offers an integrated IM client which ties MSN Messenger, AIM, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk and Skype compatibility into a single page.

    Calls to users of Truphone, Skype and Google Talk are free over Wi-Fi.

    Use over cellular data is also possible.

    Similar improvements to Truphone for the Apple iPod touch are expected soon.

    Geraldine Wilson, CEO of Truphone, said the upgrade dramatically has also improved its UI and account management tools.

    "We’ve eliminated the need for compression by utilizing new advances in signal processing, making calls crystal clear," she said.

    All in all, Wilson claims competitors will have a "tough time" matching Truphone 3.0 in terms of quality and performance.

    The improvements certainly make Truphone a viable alternative to Skype, which also faces competition in the form of Vopium on the iPhone.

  • Internet Calling Companies Struggling With European and US Carriers

    As soon as Skype released its iPhone application  problems emerged with using it with some carriers. both in Europe and the US.

    In a USA Today article last week, a senior AT&T official, Jim Cicconi, suggested that the carrier, in cooperation with Apple, expects device vendors to block consumers’ access to Skype’s VoIP application that competes with AT&T’s own voice service. "Skype is a competitor, just like Verizon or Sprint or T-Mobile,” said Cicconi.

    According to Free Press, AT&T is not the only carrier limiting consumers’ wireless Internet access – T-Mobile is reportedly restricting the availability of tethering within Google’s Android Marketplace. And most major wireless companies have terms of service that prohibit the use of certain applications and services.

    That was the reason that, in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission, Free Press called on the agency to confirm that wireless networks must adhere to the Internet Policy Statement, which protects consumers’ right to access any online content and services on any device of their choosing.

    "The Internet in your pocket should be just as free and open as the Internet in your home,” said Chris Riley, policy counsel of Free Press.

    Free Press is asking acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps to inform AT&T and other US wireless operators that they cannot adopt discriminating terms of service prohibiting the use of certain applications.

    At the same time agencies informed that German carrier T-Mobile, an exclusive carrier of the iPhone in Germany, will not allow customers to use the application, and is blocking it both physically and contractually.

    “It is clearly stated in our customer contracts that such services may not be used,” T-Mobile spokesperson Alexander von Schmettow told The Local, a German online site. “There are two reasons for this – because the high level of traffic would hinder our network performance, and because if the Skype programme didn’t work properly, customers would make us responsible for it.”

    Skype quickly responded on that: “They pretend that their action has to do with technical concerns: this is baseless. Skype works perfectly well on iPhone, as hundreds of thousands of people globally can already readily attest. There is no technical justification for this arbitrary blocking of Skype, and it represents a barrier to online business put in place by a private company just because they can, because they control access to the Internet,” said Robert Miller, Skype’s General Counsel

    “Yet, no one can do anything about it: German or EU regulation does not forbid such blatantly unfair practices. But we are trying to change things, together with other Internet companies."

  • CTIA2009: Skype Coming to BlackBerry Smartphones in May

    After releasing its application for iPhone, Android-powered devices and other Java-enabled mobile phones, as well as for Windows Mobile, Skype announced at CTIA WIRELESS 2009 in Las Vegas that the lite version of Skype, a ‘thin’ Skype client for mobile phones, will soon be available as a free download for BlackBerry smartphones.

    A beta version will be available in May for the BlackBerry Bold and BlackBerry Curve smartphones, with support for other BlackBerry smartphones coming later.

    The lite version of Skype delivers core Skype capabilities to BlackBerry smartphones, including:

    • Make Skype-to-Skype calls to other Skype users anywhere in the world
    • Send/receive instant messages to/from individuals or groups
    • Make Skype calls at low rates to people on landline or mobile phones
    • Receive calls to your online number on Skype
    • See when your Skype contacts are online/available to chat

    The application works without needing a Wi-Fi connection. It uses local air time and a mobile Internet connection to sign in to Skype, update contact list and presence and to send/receive calls or messages. As a result, it’s necessary to have both a calling plan and a data plan to use the lite version of Skype.

    Skype will be available to BlackBerry users worldwide. The ability to make calls will be available in 10 countries: Australia, Brazil (Rio de Janeiro & Sao Paulo), Denmark, Estonia, Finland, New Zealand, Poland, Sweden, the United States and the UK.

    English will be supported first, with additional languages to follow. Those who download the beta version will be able to provide feedback on the application via an online survey.