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Tag: skype

  • Skype For Asterisk Version Announced


    Skype and Digium, creator and primary developer of Asterisk, the open source telephony platform, have announced the beta version of Skype For Asterisk.

    The move will allow the integration of Skype functionality into Digium’s Asterisk software and enable customers to make, receive and transfer Skype calls from within their Asterisk phone systems.

    Stefan Öberg, vice president and general manager for Skype Telecom and Skype for Business, said: “Throughout our individual histories, Skype and Asterisk have each disrupted conventional communication methods through innovative, cost-effective solutions.

    “We are excited to be working together with Digium to offer small and mid-sized businesses an even more powerful communications solution to conduct business worldwide.”

    Specifically, the beta version of Skype For Asterisk is an add-on channel driver module that integrates Skype Internet calling with Asterisk-based telephony products.

    Skype For Asterisk also complements small and mid-sized business users’ existing services by providing low rates for calling landline and mobile phones around the world.

    Danny Windham, CEO of Digium, said: “Working together with Skype, our goal is to help businesses boost productivity and reap the rewards of feature-rich telephony software, all while saving a substantial amount of money.

    “The Skype For Asterisk beta program is a first step towards adding Skype capabilities to Asterisk-based phone systems and enabling them to reach more than 338 million Skype users.”

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

    • Make, receive and transfer Skype calls from within Asterisk phone systems, using existing hardware.
    • Complement existing services with low Skype global rates (as low as 2.1US¢ per minute to more than 35 countries worldwide).
    • Save money on inbound calling solutions such as free click-to-call from a website, as well as receive inbound calling from the PSTN through Skype’s online numbers.
    • Manage Skype calls using Asterisk applications such as call routing, conferencing, phone menus and voicemail.

    Following the beta period when the product is released, Skype For Asterisk will be sold and distributed by Digium and its worldwide network of resellers.

  • Skype accused of hypocrisy by Gizmo

    Skype’s Christopher Libertelli recently questioned the major US wireless carriers’ commitment to open networks.


    Today voip.biz-news.com has the response from Gizmo Project’s CEO, Michael Robertson, who accuses Skype of hypocrisy for wanting others to open their networks while refusing to open its own.

    Robertson has written to Libertelli challenging Skype to enable other networks such as Gizmo5 to call Skype users in an official and supported capacity.

    “Mr Libertelli, I recently saw your letter to FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin demanding that wireless companies open their networks.

    While I concur this would be beneficial for consumers, Skype’s actions do not mirror their words to the commission which diminishes credibility for Skype to demand openness.

    I am CEO of Gizmo5, a standards based VOIP and IM network. We invite other networks to connect to our users and currently route calls to and from more than 500 networks big and small on the Internet. We cannot route calls to Skype users in spite of the fact that consumers would like to do this because Skype has a closed network.

    The wireless companies you chastise in your letter to commissioner Martin allow me to send and receive calls to the networks they operate but Skype does not.

    Skype operates the largest closed calling network on the planet.

    We have requested peering information from Skype in the past on multiple occasions and our requests have been ignored. Skype continues to deny Gizmo5 and others in the internet calling world the information and access to allow calls to flow to and from your network.

    It appears that when it is convenient for Skype’s business objectives Skype waves the flag of openness, at the same time conveniently ignoring competitors requests for openness.

    It is disingenuous for Skype to demand mobile operators open their networks so that Skype can infiltrate their systems with their proprietary, closed calling scheme which locks out all others.

    If Skype truly believes there should be open competition then they should start by enabling other networks such as Gizmo5 to call Skype users in an official and supported capacity.

    Until you remove the padlock from your own front door you would seem to have no right to demand that others adopt an open door strategy.

    I’m open to discuss and implement an open peering relationship which will demonstrates Skype true commitment to open networks and make your actions match your words. Contact me anytime at [email protected] .”

    Michael Robertson
    MP3 Tunes – Your Music Everywhere
    Gizmo5 – IM/VOIP/SMS from PC and phone

  • VoIP Providers Must Allow Emergency Calls and Give Caller Location


    The UK communications industry regulator, Ofcom, has told internet telephony providers that they must now allow emergency 999 calls over their networks or face the risk of enforcement action.

    Caller location information must also be provided where technically feasible.

    Effective immediately, the ruling for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers affects businesses such as BT, Vonage and Skype that offer services that connect VoIP calls to the public telephone network.

    Operators must now provide the ability to make calls to 999, the emergency number used in the UK, and 112, the number most used in other EU countries.

    Ofcom had previously told operators to place stickers on equipment or on-screen labels indicating whether or not emergency calls were possible over a service.

    The rule, known as General Condition 4 of the General Conditions of Entitlement, also provides that the network operator must provide Caller Location Information for calls to the emergency call numbers "to the extent that is technically feasible".

    Ofcom said that ‘technically feasible’ should be taken to mean that location information must be provided where the VoIP service is being used at a predominantly fixed location.

    In May, a child died in Calgary, Canada after an ambulance was dispatched to the wrong address in response to an emergency call placed by his parents using a VoIP phone. The ambulance had been dispatched to an address in Ontario, 2,500 miles away.

    The requirements already apply to fixed line and mobile communications providers but the VoIP industry had resisted their extension.

    In December last year, the Voice on the Net (VON) Coalition Europe was set up as a lobby group to influence the regulation of internet telephony.

    The group, which includes Google, Microsoft and Skype among its founding members, warned against the “premature application” of emergency call rules to VoIP services that are not a replacement for traditional home or business phone services".

    The VON Coalition said the move "could actually harm public safety, stifle innovations critical to people with disabilities, stall competition, and limit access to innovative and evolving communication options where there is no expectation of placing a 112 call".

  • Skype Questions Carriers Commitment to "Open" Networks


    Christopher Libertelli, Skype’s senior director of government and regulatory affairs for North America, has written a strongly-worded letter complaining that the major US wireless carriers are all talk when it comes to "open" networks.

    Writing to the Federal Ccommunications Commission (FCC) chairman, Kevin Martin, he said that if the Commission wanted to live up to its stated goal of making open networks more accessible, it would affirm that this policy covered wireless networks.

    Libertelli said that last week at the CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment conference in San Francisco, the major US carriers paid lip service to the idea of open networks, but strongly cautioned that too much choice would lead to chaos and damage the viability of their business model.

    "The attitude of the wireless carriers was perhaps best summed up in Sprint Nextel Corp,” he wrote.

    He quoted Sprint CEO Dan Hesse’s recent comment: ‘The big Internet can be daunting… There can be too much choice.’

    Libertelli continued: “This stands in stark contrast to the Commission’s wise policies designed to promote as much consumer choice as possible."

    He said Skype was mindful of the challenges wireless carriers faced in moving to an open network. But he also said it was not enough to simply talk about open networks.

    "Consumer choice, competition and free markets, not carriers acting to block competition, should win the day in wireless–now, not later," he said.

    "If the Commission believed that the transition to more open networks was going to proceed quickly, statements out of CTIA’s convention suggest just the opposite.”

  • 3 UK launches next-generation Skypephone


    Mobile operator 3 UK has unveiled the next-generation Skypephone handset, the 3 Skypephone S2.
    The new device gives users access to Facebook, Google and Windows Live Messenger and enables free Skype calls and instant messaging.

    Available since the beginning of September, the 3 Skypephone S2 has a revolutionary ‘carousel’ interface, with switcher key on the side of the handset to move quickly between applications.

    It has an improved 2.2-in QVGA screen, 3.2-megapixel camera, HSDPA functionality and memory that is expandable to 4 GB.

    The new device can be used as a mobile broadband dongle through its built-in modem drivers.

    It allows users to track up to 30 RSS feeds at once and is offered for GBP 69.99 on Pay As You Go and for free on any Mix & Match contract.

  • European callers become more mobile as landlines increasingly shunned


    Almost a quarter of European households have given up fixed landlines for mobile phones and online calling, according to a European Union survey.
    The poll, carried out in November and December, found that 24 per cent of European households now eschew fixed landlines in favour of mobile phones, up from 22 per cent in a survey two years earlier.
    The Czech Republic, Finland and Lithuania had the lowest number of landlines in use across the 27-nation bloc.
    The results chime with the growing interest in the use of mobile VoIP services – either via GSM/GPRS wireless standards or through WiFi – and the widespread installation of internet calling software on smartphones.
    The EU survey – which questioned 26,730 people – also found that 22 per cent are now using their personal computers for phone calls or video chatting via programs such as Skype.
    That is a rise of 5 percentage points from the last poll.
    The survey said the bloc’s newer members, most of them in eastern Europe, were leading the trend in a shift to online calling.
    In Lithuania, 61 per cent of the households were using Internet phone services.

  • Free high definition content is the future as viewers grow accustomed to the new "normal" television


    The head of the UK’s Freesat digital service believes viewers will begin to resent paying for HDTV as increasing numbers regard it as the new “standard”.
    Emma Scott, managing director of Freesat, which launched in May, said there were already over 10m HD ready TV sets in UK homes.
    But at the time of Freesat’s launch only around 5 per cent of those HD ready homes were actually watching television programmes in high definition – and by subscription.
    Addressing the Broadcast Digital Channels Conference 2008 earlier this month, she said consumers and retailers wanted HD content– but it was the broadcasters that had taken a while to catch up.
    “Free HD is a long term opportunity for broadcasters and for Freesat,” she said. “HD is not a gimmick, it’s a new standard for television and one which every broadcaster I’ve met would love to deliver its content in.
    “I do not believe that HD will remain a long term income driver for pay platform operators – consumers will resent paying for something they see as the ‘new normal’ television if it isn’t premium sport and movies, which they already ‘expect’ to pay for.”
    Freesat offers subscription-free high definition channels and services once viewers have made a one-off payment for equipment.
    It expects to have up to 200 channels by the end of this year, including two high definition services – BBC HD and ITV HD – both available for free.
    Scott said that only with the launch of Freesat, a joint venture between the BBC and ITV, was HDTV really free for anyone who wanted it.
    She pointed to the rise in popularity of HD in the US, saying that the 35 per cent of homes now watching in HD were increasingly loyal to the networks they watched – and sought out HD programming, even if they wouldn’t normally watch the genre.
    “And with 1m Sony Playstation3s and an increasing number of Blu-ray players sold – both of which allow you to watch HD content via an HD ready TV – there are an increasing number of homes who will never want to switch back to just normal, ‘standard’ definition content.”
    Citing other popular examples where consumers get free access to products and services – such as Gmail, YouTube and Skype – she said Freesat hoped to be as successful in broadcasting.
    “So, in a world where there is widespread availability of digital technology, consumers increasingly expect their media for free,” she said.
    “But just being free isn’t enough for Freesat. Freesat will be the best of free, and is only going to get bigger and better.”