Skype Sees Huge International Growth Unveils Skype for SIP to target business use Tuesday Mar 24 2009 10:11 EDT According to Telegeography (via GigaOM), international voice traffic continues to rise, despite the availability of an ever-broader range of substitutes for standard telephone calls. Gobbling up the lion's share of this growth is Skype. Skype’s cross-border traffic grew approximately 41% in 2008, to 33 billion minutes -- equivalent to 8% of combined international telephone traffic. Meanwhile, Skype this week unveiled a new plan to target businesses by unveiling Skype for SIP, which allows the Skype software to work with business PBX phone systems. |
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Cheap phone calls to emigrant relativesWith the proliferation of broadband worldwide, unlimited USA for $3, unlimited UK for $5 (I think?) and people are contacting their emigrant relatives on the cheap. | |
| | en102Canadian, eh? join:2001-01-26 Valencia, CA |
en102
Member
2009-Mar-24 11:33 am
Re: Cheap phone calls to emigrant relativesI may be considered an immigrant (gringo, etc), and Canada is included. | |
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Re: Cheap phone calls to emigrant relativesSorry about that. I really meant North America. But you guys in America's hat know what I mean. (j/k) | |
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SIP is goodThis could be an interesting way to bypass ma bell at least for some calls if Skype can deliver a SIP service that is reliable enough.
Adi | |
| | SSX4lifeHello World Premium Member join:2004-02-13
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SSX4life
Premium Member
2009-Mar-24 9:41 am
Re: SIP is goodI personally LOVE skype, and use it for all of my home / personal use. | |
| | | MrMasterRum Connoisseur Premium Member join:2000-12-16 St Thomas, VI |
MrMaster
Premium Member
2009-Mar-24 11:23 am
Re: SIP is goodsaid by SSX4life:I personally LOVE skype, and use it for all of my home / personal use. I was till 4.0 destroyed video calling. What a debacle. | |
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Re: SIP is goodHow did 4.0 destroy video calls?
Good reason for me not to upgrade anyway... | |
| | | | | nixenRockin' the Boxen Premium Member join:2002-10-04 Alexandria, VA |
nixen
Premium Member
2009-Mar-24 7:09 pm
Re: SIP is goodsaid by fifty nine:How did 4.0 destroy video calls? Good reason for me not to upgrade anyway... Well, I know with my Mac client, I can't participate in multi-party video conferences. The Windows users get a message about one of the participants having too old a version. It's the one I DL'ed from Skype just last week! | |
| | | | | MrMasterRum Connoisseur Premium Member join:2000-12-16 St Thomas, VI |
to fifty nine
said by fifty nine:How did 4.0 destroy video calls? Good reason for me not to upgrade anyway... The new interface isn't the worst. I can live with that. The quality of video calls is terrible. Fiance and I do skype video minimum of once a week. We have to hang up and call back several times in just 1 hour because the quality is bad. Just this past monday. Three dropped calls and 2 callbacks in 1 hour time frame. Before 4.0, 1 dropped call a MONTH. I had this problem with the beta so I went back to the old version. I had no idea that they wouldn't even admit that there is a problem! and before anyone asks I have 2 laptops and a high end desktop and they all have these issues. | |
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to adisor19
you still have MaBell delivering your last mile network and more than half of the internet backbone in her control. you won't by pass her. Especially if you're ISP relies on her greatly; especially the Resellers. | |
| | en102Canadian, eh? join:2001-01-26 Valencia, CA |
to adisor19
Skype has been VERY reliable for outgoing calls. I have used it for ~ 3years now for making business calls, as I don't want my cell minutes to get eaten up.
Positives on Skype:
1. Reliable / softphone (vs. Magic Jack) 2. Cheap 3. Video conferencing 4. Portable (can be used on Windows, Linux, Windows Mobile, and cell phones in general) 5. International calls are CHEAP 6. Mobile client for 'normal' cell phones to avoid International LD charges by doing a dial around through a local # (can be VERY handy for mobile!) 7. Smartphones can use WiFi to get around ToS on cell carriers, and use service internationally and not have to pay roaming or LD. | |
| | | Rob_ Premium Member join:2008-07-16 Mary Esther, FL |
Rob_
Premium Member
2009-Mar-24 4:08 pm
Re: SIP is goodthe new interface sucks, i went back to 3.8. unless there's a way to have the classic view on the new version (which isn't very blind friendly, either)
-Rob | |
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nixenRockin' the Boxen Premium Member join:2002-10-04 Alexandria, VA |
nixen
Premium Member
2009-Mar-24 7:07 pm
Cheaper Than International Cell PlansI'm on business in Germany (recently, it's been frequent/prolonged - actually writing this from southern Germany). When I'm over here, Verizon charges my employer $1.29/minute, not just for outbound calls, but inbound calls, too. Imagine the bill my employer's gonna get after last week's two conference calls I had to participate in...
Any way, being gone for non-trivial amounts of time means that phone-type services are one of the few ways I can preserve my marriage. Skype comes in DAMNED handy. My wife and I can just ring each other up and sort of "hang out" for an hour or more on the video chat.
Yes, I know you can supposedly get local SIMs that will reduce your per minute charges. However, even though Verizon has given me my unlock code for my crackberry, I've not yet found a telephon store that will sell me a replacement SIM for it. So, "Skype it is". | |
| | nitzan Premium Member join:2008-02-27 |
nitzan
Premium Member
2009-Mar-24 11:22 pm
Re: Cheaper Than International Cell PlansJust get a cheap local pre-paid phone (or SIM) that has free incoming - and use callback for all your calls. I did that in Japan and went from something like $1.2/minute to 12 cents a minute. a little PITA to deal with, but well worth it IMHO. | |
| | | nixenRockin' the Boxen Premium Member join:2002-10-04 Alexandria, VA |
nixen
Premium Member
2009-Mar-25 2:08 am
Re: Cheaper Than International Cell Planssaid by nitzan:Just get a cheap local pre-paid phone (or SIM) that has free incoming - and use callback for all your calls. I did that in Japan and went from something like $1.2/minute to 12 cents a minute. a little PITA to deal with, but well worth it IMHO. One of the major points of having gotten a GSM phone was that it has the flexibility to change networks via a new SIM. It's simply *finding* a new SIM that's proven challenging. Getting a new phone is both pointlessly expensive and defeats the purpose of having a "world phone". A SIM card makes much more sense financially and in the concept of equipment reuse. It's just the challenge of actually being able to re-use. | |
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