Skype's $29.95 Calling Plan - Disruptive or Quick Money Grab?

This morning, Skype announced the calling plan we've all been waiting for. They have finally come to market with a plan to monetize their P2P voice service, and this is a nice change from the pay-as-you model they've been using since launching SkypeOut/SkypeIn.

Basically, it's an unlimited U.S./Canada plan for SkypeOut - outgoing calls to the PSTN - for an upfront, annual fee of $29.95. Of course, existing calls among Skype users remain free, but this really gives you a reason to use Skype for all your outbound U.S./Canada calls, presuming you have convenient access to Skype. And to sweeten the deal, the offer is 1/2 off if you sign up before January 31. Pretty hard to say no to this one - for basically a dollar a month, I can make all the outgoing calls I want in the U.S. and Canada - works for me.

I should also add that this is only for SkypeOut - outbound PSTN calls. SkypeIn is another thing altogether, where you subscribe to the service and they assign you an inbound phone number so people can call you on Skype from their PSTN connection. That's a bit more complicated, and I think it's fair to say that most people use Skype for outgoing calls, and not inbound.

Personally, SkypeIn is also of secondary interest because they don't yet offer Canadian area codes - that's mainly a 911 issue. So, to do this, I'd probably go with a U.S. area code, which I could live with, but it's not ideal. Mind you, nobody from Toronto would ever call me on SkypeIn, so it wouldn't matter much. I digress.

So, is this a disruptive offer that puts Skype into the big consumer VoIP fishbowl, or are they pricing it low to get as much revenue now to boost short term financial performance to keep eBay shareholders happy? After all, once you set the bar at $29.95 a year, it's going to be hard to raise prices or to get more revenue out of these subscribers. Of course, Opex and marketing costs are pretty low, so the margins will be very high, which is great. I guess it's a question of do you go deep or wide? Looks like they're going wide to get as many subs as possible with a really great offer.

On that basis, they're definitely going head-on against all the voice players, as their pricing plan is way lower than any telco, cableco or broadband-based offering. What Skype is charging for this service on an annual basis is what most plans charge per month. So, what gives?

Well, Skype is not a replacement for your landline, plain and simple. However, if people start shifting more and more minutes to Skype with this new plan, it starts to look a bit more like one, doesn't it? There may be some basic calling features there, but there's no 411, or 911, and it's still best-efforts Internet for the most part, and of course, it's largely PC-based calling. Of course, that's changing too, and that's where things get more interesting. Yesterday, for example, they announced that now over 120 mobile devices support Skype for use with the Windows Mobile software.

They're doing a lot of things to make the pie bigger, and in that regard, I see Skype as more of a disrupter than doing a cash grab. Of course, being a disrupter attracts attention from the disrupted, and if this offer proves wildly successful, you can expect to see new roadblocks and tactics to stall them, much like we saw a variety of well-timed actions from Vongage's competitors just before their IPO. Could 911 become an issue? Sure. Could network operators do things to block or degrade Skype traffic? Maybe. Bottom line is that Skype needs to anticipate these things if they truly want to be on big stage with those from whom they will take traffic.

Finally, I briefed with Don Albert - Skype's North America General Manager - last week, and came away with good sense that this is the beginning of their grand plan to make Skype a truly mainstream offering. With Skype 3.0 out now, and an ever-growing multitude of Skype support on devices beyond the PC, there is a lot more going on here than shifting from free calling to almost-free calling. Look to see a lot more social networking type of applications for Skype, where voice is really just the entry point to a richer platform that will look to take advantage of Skype's community.

I also wanted to add that it was nice to see the press release refer to research from ChangeWave, which showed Skype to be the #1 VoIP service in the U.S. I've been posting about ChangeWave for a while, and I commented about these particular research findings more extensively a couple of weeks ago, and concluded that this research was good news for Skype. Looks like Don Albert thinks so too!


Technorati tags: Skype, Jon Arnold

ChangeWave's Latest VoIP Survey - Good News for Skype and MSOs

I�ve been receiving research from ChangeWave for some time, and they publish a quarterly survey called �Consumer Home VoIP Trends�.

Their latest survey was done in mid-October, and with a base of 2,640 ChangeWave members, the data is pretty current and substantive. As with my previous postings about ChangeWave, I�m only going to present some high level findings. It�s not my research, and I don�t want to cross any lines here.

First off, the respondents are ChangeWave members, so it�s not truly a Main Street sample. I�d say this audience is probably above average in terms of being tech savvy, which is probably closer to what readers of this blog are. So, here�s what they�re saying at a high level.

Market Penetration
21% are using residential VoIP, and another 13% plan to in the next 12 months. That may be above average for the general population, but I think this says a lot about how the takeup of VoIP continues to be strong, and that landline is going in the other direction.

VoIP Offering Used
So who�s #1? Well, among the 562 �users�, it�s Skype. Huh??? This is the only real problem I have with their survey. I don�t consider the IM/P2P offerings like Skype to be replacements � they�re complements. So, I wouldn�t call it a �service�, but perception is reality, and the reality is that Skype was the most popular response � 29%. Vonage was #2 at 24%, with �my cable company� third at 16%.

There�s a lot to digest here. First, Skype is the most popular. I buy that, but I wouldn�t put Skype on the same level as the services people are paying money for (of course some do pay money for Skype Out/In, but you know what I mean). If I were King, and doing this research, I would qualify this, and furthermore ask if they�re using Skype in conjunction with the VoIP service they�re subscribing to. I suspect the majority uses both. Believe me, I�ve offered to help them on this, but nobody is getting back to me�.

Also, consistent with Vonage�s general fall from grace, they were #1 as recently as ChangeWave�s April 2006 survey. In fact, since this survey started in June 2005, Vonage�s share has steadily fallen from 36% to where it is now at 24%.

So, why lump all the cablecos into one category? We all know they�re taking over this market now, and I really wish they would break out the providers out by name. That said, it�s useful to see that collectively, cable has 16% of this sample. I suspect the real market share number is higher - remember, Skype has 29% of this sample, which I don�t get at all.

Finally, I wanted to mention that new names are showing up on this list that weren�t there before, like Jajah, AIM Phoneline and GoogleTalk. That�s a good sign. Hopefully ChangeWave knows what to do with this, as future waves need to refine this question to properly reflect the various types of VoIP offerings out there now.

Satisfaction with Service
Overall, people like their service � 90% are either �somewhat� or �very� satisfied. That�s a really good sign, and it holds up pretty much across the board. That said, it�s not surprising that satisfaction with Vonage is a tad lower than the others.

The same holds true when asking about the likeliness of changing services in the next 6 months. Overall, 16% are either �very� or �somewhat� likely. Cable users are well below this, and Vonage is notably above. Again, no surprise here, and the data is likely consistent with what more exhaustive studies are finding.

Who ya gonna call?
Lastly, I wanted to cite the big question � for those considering switching, who would they go to? Here, the response base is only 88, so you need to be more careful with the data. These are current VoIP subscribers who are �very� or �somewhat� likely to switch in the next 6 months.

With 42% saying �don�t know�, the market seems pretty open for stealing away VoIP subscribers. Cable leads the pack at 11%, with Skype close behind at 9%, and then Vonage at 7%. These are whom you�d expect to see, and no real surprises there.

There are several others mentioned on the list, all much less frequently, and all pretty familiar � except one. Google Talk. Yup � 5% mentioned them. That�s probably the standout data point of this whole survey for me. I know the base is small, but to see Google Talk right up there at Vonage�s heels tells me they�re on a lot of people�s radars, and that�s not good news for everyone else on this list.

Finally, there is another key segment to consider � those not using VoIP, but are considering doing so in the next 12 months. For this sample, the base is 332. This really says a lot about market sentiment for the next wave of residential VoIP adopters.

Number 1? Skype � 20% said that�s who they would mostly likely go to. Hmmm. It sure is interesting to see what people�s perceptions are � Skype is who they think about first � ahead of the rest. Am not sure if that�s really money in the bank for Skype, but no doubt they�d be happy to hear it. Even more interesting � less than a year ago � December 2005 � only 3% of the sample said this. Wow.

Who�s #2? The cablecos � 17%. Again, they only report aggregate data for this group, so we don�t know which MSOs they�re talking about. Regardless, as a category, cable VoIP comes through very nicely here.

Where�s Vonage? Thought you�d never ask. They�re #3 at 15%. Back in April � just before the IPO � they were #1 at 21%, so things have changed.

Something else to watch for � just behind Vonage on this list are the RBOCs � VoiceWing at 8% and CallVantage at 4%. So, they�ve got heavy competition both ahead of them and behind. Not a fun place to be, for sure.

Just one more thing to build on from this point, which I think says a lot about the direction the 3 main players in this survey are going � Vonage, Skype and the MSOs. Let�s look at the net results when you consider both churn and adds for each.

Vonage � 22% of subscribers are �very� or �somewhat� likely to switch. That itself is a huge finding. Hello - 1 in 5 Vonage customers are at risk, Mr. Citron.
Conversely, 15% of new subscribers will most likely go with Vonage. That�s a net loss of 7%.

Skype � only 12% are at risk, but 20% will come to them. So, they would have a net gain of 8%.

Cablecos � same story here. Only 9% at risk, but they�ll get 17% of new subs. Again, that�s an 8% gain.

I know it�s a relatively small and focused survey sample. However, I think these results are pretty indicative of where the market is going, even if the data is predictive rather than behavioral. I don�t think it�s a stretch to say that things are getting harder, not easier for Vonage, and it�s very clear to me that the same is true for the overall competitive landscape.

To wrap, I'd like to thank ChangeWave for putting this research together, and I don't think I've gone too far sharing these high level findings with you here.

Comments???

Technorati tags: Changewave, Jon Arnold, VoIP, Vonage, Skype

TalkPlus - Friend or Foe for Skype?

Very interesting post today from colleague Phil Wolff at Skype Journal.

If you're a fan of either TalkPlus or Skype, you'll want to read this, and more importantly check out the video clip. Phil has posted a raw clip of TalkPlus CEO Jeff Black doing a live demo of him calling into Skype's echo123 number on the fly using TalkPlus.

The details are better left to Skype-o-philes like Phil to explain, but basically, Jeff demonstrates how TalkPlus subscribers can access Skype and make SkypeOut calls from their mobile phone. Remember, you don't dial phone numbers to call other Skype users. With TalkPlus, Jeff shows how a 10 digit phone number is generated on the fly, allowing you to make this call on your cell phone.

Jeff has talked about how TalkPlus has reverse engineered Skype, and if this allows TalkPlus subscribers to access the Skype network directly, without going through as a Skype subscriber, then you really don't need a SkypeIn number. You just use your existing number and interface with Skype via TalkPlus.

Am still getting my head around this a bit, but if it all holds water - and if it scales - this could put a crimp in Skype's revenue model. I don't that's what Jeff has in mind, unless there's another form of reverse engineering going on - such as becoming an acquisition target for Skype/eBay. Or how about the other big fish, like Google, Yahoo, etc.? Lots of scenarios to speculate about there.

So, kudos to Phil Wolff for this great post, but now for the hard question. Phil - you taped this clip 2 weeks ago, and TalkPlus is just getting their story ramped up this week. Why post today and not 2 weeks ago, unless you were under embargo? It's not clear to me from your post - under the Skype Journal mantle -if this is welcome news or not. Your post is totally objective - 100% neutral, and I just can't tell. What's your take? I'd say it's the former...

Quick hat tip to Alec Saunders, who posted on this earlier today.


Technorati tags: TalkPlus, Jon Arnold, Skype, Skype Journal, Phil Wolff

StockIM - Getting Attention in Barron's

A few weeks back, I posted about StockIM, and how J Arnold & Associates has an affiliation with them.

It sure looks like they're getting some traction now, which is great to see. Last week, they were cited by Barron's, and they just passed this along to me. Thought you might find it interesting, especially in the sense that IM-based platforms look to be finding a home in the investment community, esp among small cap traders. It's my understanding that StockIM is approaching 1 million hits a month now, and I don't mind getting that kind of exposure at all...



Technorati tags: Barron's, Jon Arnold, StockIM, J Arnold & Associates

Skype Blocking/San Jose U. Story Addendum

I haven't been commenting directly on this story, where San Jose State University had been pushing to block on Skype on campus, and by extension, other broadband-based applications stood to be at risk. On that note, I mentioned about how this could include video calling services such as SightSpeed, an emerging market leader that I have been following.

This comment happened be part of a post where I was lauding SightSpeed's recent success as being chosen the top video calling app by PC Magazine. That issue is now online, and you can read more about it here.

I'm revisiting this because some clarity is needed on the SJSU issue. I won't get into the technical details - that's not my thing - but in short, not all forms of peer-to-peer are based on the Skype model. Others can explain this better than me, but I wanted to share some commentary on this from Peter Csathy, SightSpeed's CEO. In true Web 2.0 fashion, Peter walks the talk, and provides a nice update on things via a video message.

Aside from the fact that this clip demonstrates SightSpeed's quality very nicely, about halfway into the message, Peter provides a short explanation of how SightSpeed does not use super nodes the way Skype does, which makes theirs a purer, more direct form of P2P. One benefit here is that SightSpeed will not have the firewall blocking problems that Skype runs up against in large institutions. Since SightSpeed does voice as well as video, it stands to be a better enterprise solution. By all means, watch the clip - it's just a few minutes, and you'll see for yourself.

While I've got you, SightSpeed is really on a roll. Check out this posting from Andy Abramson that just broke late last night. MTV is now using SightSpeed on its Total Request Live program. This demographic will totally get what SightSpeed is all about, and it's an ideal place to showcase the technology. This is a great company to watch, folks.


Technorati tags: SightSpeed, Jon Arnold, Andy Abramson

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Jim Courtney on VoIP and the Skype/Google News

On this week's podcast on the Pulvermedia Podcast Network, I spoke with Jim Courtney, industry colleague and fellow blogger. Jim wears a few hats, mainly as an industry consultant, and an Associate Editor of the widely-read blog, Skype Journal.

Jim has a long history in tech/telecom, and offered his perspective on the trends he's seeing here in Canada's IP communications market. Also, having posted earlier in the day about the Google/Skype news on Skype Journal, the podcast was a timely opportunity to explore the implications of that development more deeply.

You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Jim's background.

Technorati tags: Jim Courtney, Jon Arnold, Skype Journal, VoIP Podcasts

Rebtel - the Next Skype?

Leave it to the Scandinavians to yet again come up with the next best thing. I've been away from the blogs for a few days, and just came across Jeff Pulver's entries from earlier this week about his trip to Sweden. On his Tuesday post, Jeff reveals the reason for his trip - to visit Rebtel, a Stockholm-based startup that is doing for mobile VoIP what Skype has done for the PC.

Jeff does a great job explaining what Rebtel is doing and why they could become a real disruptor in the mobile market - he's definitely a fan now. There are an infinite variety of twists for VoIP calling plans, and nobody has found the holy grail yet, and Rebtel is another step along athe way.

In a nutshell, here's how it works. Like Skype, or any IM platform, you first need to be in the club, so to speak. So, once you have your Rebtel buddies, it just costs $1 a week to have free mobile-to-mobile calling. Say I'm here in Toronto, and I have a Rebtel friend in Vancouver. The $1/week fee gives you access to local phone numbers, so in this case, my Vancouver friend gets a Toronto-based phone number, and once that's in place, we talk free, as if it was a local call. There's more to it than that, but I think you get the idea. Currently, Rebtel works in 30 countries, and of course the economics are much more compelling when making calls from country-to-country.

I'm commenting on Jeff's post mainly because it's the first blog piece I've seen about them. I learned about Rebtel recently via a consulting project, but there was nothing I could really post about. They since slid off my radar, and until now, I haven't seen anything out there about them. So it was great to see Jeff's post, especially since he's sharing his first hand impressions. I can't think of too many other people who will pick up and go to Sweden just to check out a new company. Jeff may be pretty focused on video these days, but his heart is still in voice!




Technorati tags: Rebtel, Jon Arnold, Skype, Jeff Pulver, VoIP

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Podcast - Stephane Marceau, Voxlib

This week's podcast was with Stephane Marceau, President and CEO of Voxlib, a Montreal-based startup. Voxlib is another up and coming vendor focused on bridging mobility with PC-based communications.

My previous podcast was with EQO Communications, and both companies are honing in on Skype as a key voice application to demonstrate their technologies. Stephane talked about the benefits for both operators and subscribers, and explained how they are using voice recognition as a key enabler for the seamless handoff of calls from one device to another, as well as from one network to another. Pretty neat stuff, and worth a listen. You can download the podcast here, as well as learn more about Voxlib.

Technorati tags: podcasts, VoIP, Jon Arnold, Skype

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Podcast - Bill Tam on Bringing Mobililty to IM

The most recent segment of my podcast series was with Bill Tam. He's the CEO of EQO Communications, one of the cool startups I've been coming across at some recent events.

EQO has come up with a way to integrate Skype with your mobile phone and take your buddy list to go. It's pretty neat, and I can see this being a lot of fun for the mobile set. On the pod we talked about the attraction of mobile IM, and who it will hold appeal for. You can download the pod here, and find more about EQO.

Skype - Free Outbound Calls - Good Deal Gets Better

Skype's move to offer free SkypeOut calls for North America is pretty compelling, and is a great way to make their platform more sticky, and to rachet up the adoption of their PSTN connectivity service. Most of their SkypeOut takeup has been outside North America, so this is an effective way to get this market more engaged on this level. To me, even though no money is really changing hands, SkypeOut users are more valuable than Skype-to-Skype users. They may be giving up some short term revenues, but I'm sure the hope is once they revert to a paid model, SkypeOut users won't balk too much. It's all about changing behaviors and keeping your customers with you. There's just so much pressure and competition from the other IM platforms, esp Yahoo/AT&T and AIM Phoneline that this is just the cost of doing business.

This story got some good press coverage, and both Business Week and Light Reading were nice enough to cite me - here and here. It's nice to see as I'm in the thick of the Mesh conference now here in Toronto.

Note - the link to the LR article may not work. If so, just go to their site - it will be there in today's stories.

Sidebar to the LR article and the writer, Mark Sullivan. Mark reports that both Andy Abramson and I are at VON Europe in Stockholm. Andy might be, but I'm here in Toronto - I'd love to be there, but not today!

Skype Brings the Secret Sauce In-House

Today, Skype announced their acquisition of Sonorit and Camino Networks for $27 million. Not earth-shattering news, but Skype watchers are anxiously looking for clues as to how they're going to spend eBay's money and build themselves up into something that reflects what they themselves were acquired for.

The press release is not up on Skype's home page yet, but it's included in Phil Wolff's informative posting from earlier today on Skype Journal.

In short, much of Skype's initial success was due to the voice processing technology they licensed from Global IP Sound. Some key people left GIPS last year and formed Sonorit, which has developed their own voice processing technology. GIPS has been contesting this in a lawsuit over unfair competitive practices, but that doesn't seem to be moving very quickly.

Skype's acquisition of Sonorit comes off as a shrewd move in that they now can keep their secret sauce in-house - presuming, of course, that Sonorit performs as well or better than GIPS. Buying Sonorit is a clear signal to me that Skype recognizes the value of this technology, and deems it too important to share with others. GIPS has a healthy roster of blue chip clients, and as the Googles of the world start to horn in on Skype's turf, it's going to become increasingly important for Skype to protect its advantage, which in large part is its voice quality.

Why leave this to chance and let Google, et al license the same stuff as you from GIPS? Or worse yet, let one of them acquire Sonorit/Camino themselves. So, looking at it that way, Skype is playing it smart, and really not breaking the bank along the way.

I'm late to the game posting about this for good reason. As a shareholder, I'm obliged to stay quiet until this becomes a public story. Even then, I have reservations, but given how widely the story was covered, I'm hardly speaking out of school here. Fellow blogger Erik Lagerway is in the same position as me, and commented to similar effect on his posting today.

Erik's post also makes references to two earlier posts, both worth reading for followers of this story - uberbloggers Andy Abramson and Alec Saunders.

Skype Allegations - Ripple Effects

This isn't breaking news, but I feel compelled to share it anyway. My PC was out with a virus for a couple of days, am I'm behind on everything, including blogging. That said...

The blogging community knows full well that Andy Abramson was first to market with this story last weekend. On Tuesday, James Enck noted that ZD NET UK was the first major news pub to "break" the story WITHOUT properly citing/crediting Andy as the source - which we all know to be true. You knew it would happen sooner or later. I empathize with blogger Russell Shaw, who writes for Ziff Davis, but would not have done such a thing.

The Skype story itself may be time sensitive, but the above issue is not, and maybe it will go down in the Web 2.0 annals as the "Abramson Precedent". I've always had mixed feelings about journalists who blog, and this scenario with ZD NET has crossed a line. In the blogger world, most of us know the credibility behind most other bloggers. It's a given that we would only post items of substance, or least will cite our sources.

However, ZD NET did not extend the courtesy and tenents of professional journalism to Andy in this case, as if a blog is not deemed to be a credible source. To me, that's crossing the line. It doesn't take much to ascertain that Andy's credentials are A-1, and he should have been accorded credit, without question. This is certainly not the first time that a quality story has come from the blogosphere, and it sure won't be the last. Blogs, of course, and gaining lots of credence in the publishing world due to their immediacy and the closeness of many bloggers to the best sources.

I'd like to think this won't happen again, but if/when it does, bloggers need to stake their claim, and keep making noise. Traditional journalists need to know these things get noticed, and we have our code of behavior as well. We know who the sources are in cases like these, and that's an easy story to tell if need be.

The blogs have been quiet about the Skype story the past day or so, but I just wanted to add a post from Monday that I haven't seen referenced yet. It's from "Mr Wave Theory", and he's got some very interesting thoughts about what's behind the Skype allegations. I didn't know "Mr. Wave" until now, so I can't really comment on the strength of his views.

Skype/RICO Allegations - the plot thickens....

As Jeff Pulver notes this morning, the ripple effect is starting to happen on this story.

In short, a company named StreamCast is suing Skype, as they claim to own the FastTrack P2P technology that powers Skype. This seems rooted more in the world of Kazaa and Morpheus than VoIP, but Skype is the company they're after, and that's why this is getting so much attention. As with a lot of things in life, when people want something, they follow the money.

Andy Abramson has posted the full 30+ page formal allegation and is probably the best source to follow directly, certainly until it becomes a mainstream story, likely later today. Andy wisely notes that eBay has not been named in this allegation, but by association, they can't be very happy about any of this.

Say it ain't so Niklas - Skype - Alleged RICO Violations???

Andy Abramson posted the scoop on this last night. I got his message via Skype just after he posted (the irony of being the messenger of your own - potential - bad news), but was too tired to do anything with it.

Since then, Jeff Pulver, Om Malik , Phil Wolff (Skype Journal)and Alec Saunders have put up posts, but they're not adding anything to Andy's which has all the detail that's probably available to this point. Mind you, by the time most of you read this, it will be front page news everywhere.

So, I'm being careful here, as these are just allegations, and no doubt there are lots of people out there who will use sensational tactics to go after such a big target as Skype. I certainly can't comment at all, and am only trying to bring the story to your attention, and I'm sure we'll all be following it very closely. Being a long time Skype supporter, I'd sure hate to see anything like this come to pass - it's just so not in the spirit of IP. Am keeping my fingers crossed that it's a lot of noise.

Nimcat/Avaya - More P2P Validation

Better late than never on this one. I wasn't at Voicecon, but I'm aware that Avaya came away with a Best Of Award at the show for their one-X Quick Edition for small business.

I just wanted to draw attention to this, as there's a good Canadian story here, and it's great validation for peer-to-peer as an enterprise technology, especially for SMBs. Avaya's one-X is the revamped Nimx plug-and-play embedded P2P solution developed by Ottawa-based Nimcat Networks. Nimcat was acquired last year by Avaya, and their CEO, Mahshad Khoogoli has stayed on through the transition. He brought this to my attention recently, and I've been meaning to post about it since then.

Skype for Business is Here

Today Skype has announced its formal entry into the business market. Branded "Skype for Business", it's rightly targeted at the small end of the spectrum - under 10 employees. This makes sense in that there will be fewer firewall traversal issues here, and this demographic should overlap nicely with current Skype users.

BusinessWeek's online edition ran a nice piece about it this morning, and were nice enough to cite me.

The article does a good job of focusing on the under 10 market as being underserved for VoIP,and notes how other IM vendors like AOL, Yahoo and MS are already or will be offering voice for small business as well as other business applications like file sharing.

So, Skype will certainly not be alone in this space, and it was nice to see the article also include Tello, one of Jeff Pulver's latest launches. I mention Tello because I really see Skype as an entry level small business tool - it's a great deal for low cost voice with IM - but that's about it for the most part.

Tello is pushing the envelope further by offering an instant collaboration platform, that in addition to voice and IM, supports business apps like spreadsheets. Furthermore, it operates across IM platforms and all types of phone networks. It's much more of a Web 2.0 solution, where voice is just one application instead being the main attraction.

That said, today's story is about Skype, and I think it's great news for them. I'm sure their brand will translate nicely into this market, and I know their offerings will expand as they gain traction here.

Canadian Thought Leaders Podcast - Skype From Someone Who Knows

This week's podcast for the PPN - Pulvermedia Podcasting Network - was with Andrew Hansen. He's a "serial entrepreneur" - where have I heard that before? - but one of his main focus areas right now is Jyve, one of the leading applications developed for Skype. Andrew is based in Collingwood, Ontario, a small resort town about 2 hours North of Toronto, and Jyve is a major client of his. He knows the Skype culture quite well, and Jyve won the global competition for Skype developers this summer - really!

Andrew was my guest on this week's Canadian IP Thought Leaders series, and we talked about the Skype culture, and how it's evolving in the eBay world. Pretty interesting, and I plan to revisit this later this year to see how things really are panning out there. Andrew was also at CES, and he shared his impressions of the show with me. To listen to the podcast, and learn more about Andrew and his blog, click here.

If you go to the site, you'll see there's a link at the bottom of the post to subscribe to my podcasts on iTunes. I think that's neat! I'd love to hear from anybody who'd doing this.

NOTE - no podcast from me next week. I'll be at the TMC show, and the PPN facility won't be available anyway. Pods will resume the following week, where my guest will be Henry Dortmans of Angus Dortmans Associates, one of Canada's leading telecom consultancies.

Ascalade Deal with Skype - More Good News From Canada

Here's another good news item to make Canada proud about its contributions to IP. Ascalade Communications is a B.C.-based telephone vendor who I haven't been following until now. They're a vertically integrated company, meaning that they design, engineer and manufacture all kinds of voice endpoints - wired phones, cordless phones, conference phones and even baby monitors - on a white label basis.

The company had a $40 million IPO this summer on the TSX (ACG), and according to their website, shipped just over 3 million handsets in 2004. That number is certainly much higher now, and with today's news of their agreement with Skype for cordless phones, Ascalade looks to be getting some serious traction.

Between Ascalade and Aastra, Canada is shaping up as a major global player in the IP handset business, something I don't think many people are aware of. It's a good story, and to me, yet another example of how Canadian vendors are showing market leadership largely serving markets outside of Canada, while our service providers and regulators languish with IP here at home. Enough said - let's focus on the positive - good for Ascalade!

Wired Magazine Looks at VoIP

The current issue of Wired is their �Test� edition, where they highlight the �best-of� across a wide variety of tech products and services. It�s not available online yet, so I�m just going to hit the high points here.

Among the numerous categories covered, there's a 2 page spread on VoIP services. Eight services are profiled � Packet8, CallVantage, BroadVoice, SunRocket, Vonage, Dialpad, Gizmo and Skype.

It�s not clear why these particular offerings were covered, but the focus of this profile was very mainstream � �save a bundle on long distance with VoIP�. That�s nice, but this kind of thinking will quickly ghettoize VoIP into a cheap commodity, which is death for innovation. Hopefully next year's version will expand the coverage and talk about how voice is just an application and the really cool stuff is in the Web 2.0 space. Then we'll start seeing them talk about Google, Yahoo, eBay, etc.

That's next year. So, for today, if it�s all about cheaper long distance, you can see where this is going, and it sure explains why Gizmo, Dialpad and Skype are lumped in here with subscriber-based offerings. This is probably the issue I spend most of my time explaining to the media � Skype and Vonage don�t belong in the same bucket. I know that�s how it looks to the journalists, especially for long distance savings, but Skype is not competing with Vonage in terms of displacing POTS. To be fair, the article segments the offerings into two categories � Full Phone Services and Software Services, but there�s not much explanation, and you�ve got to look carefully to even notice. So, if you just look at the big logos on these pages, it's easy how you'd think Vonage and Skype are apples to apples.

Whatever. The good news � great news, really, is that both Gizmo and BroadVoice got the Editor�s Picks for this article. BroadVoice has been out there for a while, and is one of many good VoIP pureplays that have to struggle to break through the clutter. I�m glad for them on this one. It�s also great to see Gizmo get some recognition. I�m not a true Gizmo acolyte � that territory is covered very well by the uberbloggers (Andy, Om, Mark, Alec) � but I know enough to say that Gizmo is the answer when people wonder how powerful Skype might be if it supported SIP.

Gizmo is getting some good traction now, and with Skype becoming an e-commerce play, there�s good reason to believe there�s a lot of upside coming for them. It�s also interesting to note that the article says that Gizmo�s sound quality is better than Skype. That�s saying a lot, especially for anyone who has experienced Skype when the service is working really well. It's always been one of their big claims to fame.

It�s become fashionable to rain on Vonage lately, which is somewhat understandable. This article doesn�t veer far from this trend I�m afraid, and they point out that Vonage has �fewer features than other providers�, and the website is �clunky and plastered with ads�. Gee, you�d almost think they were talking about an RBOC!

Amazing how fast Vonage has gone from being a cutting edge, disruptive RBOC-killer, to being �pricey� (as the article says) and behind the curve. It wasn�t so long ago we were all cheering them along, bringing VoIP to the masses. VoIP is an exciting space, but it sure moves fast, and it�s no wonder nobody has figured out how make money with it yet!

Quick coda - yesterday, Alec Saunders comments on his blog about a Consumer Reports profile on VoIP. Again, it's all about saving money - no surprise really. When mainstream bastions like Consumer Reports start talking about VoIP, though, you know it's really out there.

Using a Camera to Skype - Really

Strange but true, and we're not talking about video - this is about using a digital camera to help make a Skype voice call.

The Skype buzz has certainly tailed off since eBay, which is understandable. Well, the buzz is just different now, and the uberbloggers like Andy, Om, Alec and Mark have that ground covered very well. That's not my thing, but I'll contribute in my own way. Next month one of my VON Radio Canadian IP Thought Leaders podcasts will be with someone who knows the Skype culture quite well, and will share some of that insight with us. Don't miss it!

With that said, I thought this post would be timely to talk about yet another cool way to use Skype. And this one definitely did not come out of an engineer's head! It never would have crossed my mind in a million years - and probably not yours either.

This is actually a quasi-guest blog from my 13 year old son, Max. Welcome to your Dad's blog, son! I've been meaning to guest blog Max for a while - I think it's real important to start sharing how kids today view technology and where things like Skype and VoIP fit into their communications habits.

Max is showing all the signs of early geekdom, and is an avid Skype fan. I'll even go so far to say he may be the only kid in North America who has met with Niklas Zennstrom on our shores, so he's a pretty lucky guy. See for yourself - here we are at VON Canada, which was here in Toronto last April. So, Max can now say that he knew Niklas before when....














So, back to the story - how do you use a camera to do a Skype call? That's easy - tell us, Max....

So, basically what I did was use the audio capture function on my digital camera to Skype my father (Jon Arnold) while he was in Florida (my headset wasn't working, so I couldn't hear him). Most digital cameras feature a webcam function, and digital cameras that bear a microphone feature can also be utilized as an audio capture device, both on the digital camera, as an audio/visual function on webcams, or it can be used individually on a computer. That last function is the one I put to use during that 10-minute Skype call. I don't really know how else to explain it, but that's how I did it.

Well, duhhh - it's obvious! Moral of the story - listen to your kids! Now that I'm getting more comfortable testing the Nokia N90 (check out the blog page), I have no doubt we're just at the tip of the iceberg for really cool digital, IP-enabled wireless devices that seamlessly bring voice, video and data together. If Max can figure this out, it must be true - somebody should hire this guy.....