VOIP News

Scott Coleman has another installment in his ongoing discussion of Lawful Intercept. Today, Scott discusses the so-called “full-pipe recording” approach that the FBI is using to tap into some digital streams. This is fascinating stuff, and for the VoIP Service Providers among my readers, it’s critical that you should be doing something ahead of the May 14^th deadline for CALEA compliance. I urge you to check out Scott’s blog, and feel free to send him any questions you might have regarding Lawful Intercept.

I had to chuckle — and scratch my head — when I heard about the “glum” news regarding the financial performance of Ebay’s VoIP operation, a.k.a. Skype. According to Ebay CEO Meg Whitman, “The monetization efforts we outlined at the time of the acquisition are not developing as quickly as we had hoped.” During 2006, Skype generated $195 million in revenue — after Ebay laid out $2.6 billion for the company in 2005.

Am I missing something here? A lackluster “monetization” result was basically guaranteed given the decision to give away free Skype Out calls for the entire 2006 calendar year for North American subscribers. But what this announcement implies is that Meg or the Ebay staff in charge of overseeing Skype’s bottom line either were not included in the initial decision to provide free calling (which I have a hard time believing), weren’t exactly completely in agreement with the strategy (a distinct possibility given the recent management shake ups at the company), or were completely clueless about the net results of such a strategy (which I also have a hard time believing.)

I always believed that the Free Year was a shrewd strategy to boost Skype’s subscriber count, and based on the disclosure that Skype managed to triple the number of registered users to 171 million over the course of the year, it seemed to work as planned. I also believed that Ebay was willing to forgo short-term profits in order to grow market share (given Ebay’s deep pockets, not an unreasonable strategy.)

Now that Skype has announced a variety of new plans — most notably a $29.95 all you can eat annual package for U.S and Canadian customers — revenues are picking up. Apparently, Skype generated $66 million in the fourth quarter of 2006 — up a whopping 164% from the year-ago — so it seems as if Skype has some opportunity to mine its installed and growing base of customers to generate some good revenue numbers in the near future.

 

In fact, I expect the company will accelerate the introduction of new “for pay” features, functions and associated plans to goose cash flow in the months ahead.

Toshiba is a company you think about in just about every area of tech. In fact I recently ditched my old laptop from another manufacturer for a Toshiba laptop and so far so good. When you think of this Japanese electronics giant you may not think about VoIP or even communications. But Toshiba is in fact taking the communications space very seriously and in fact they have had business communications systems for a long while. Generally the company has kept a low profile on their communications products in the US but perhaps that will change going forward. I have seen a bit more activity from them in the past 12 months and this in encouraging.  Last January, the company announced the appointment of Brian Metherell as Toshiba America Information Systems’ vice president and general manager of its Telecommunications Systems Division. Since he was having his first anniversary I decided it was a great time to ask Brian a few questions about his vision, open source and the competition. Here is the full Executive Suite interview. Why did I pick Metherell as a person to interview? In a word – quality. In a meeting a while back he reiterated his company’s desire to deliver VoIP systems with the best quality. He drilled it into my had in fact. If the company can deliver on the quality promise and also continue to up the level of noise they produce in the market, they are in a position to gain some share from other vendors.



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Michael Robertson over at Gizmo Project has some thoughts on how he expects the world to embrace free advertising supported content. His company SIPphone has launched a new service called GizmoCall.com allowing anyone to speak for free to virtually any phone for up to 5 minutes. If you register you can speak for 10 minutes. If you pay, you can speak longer. The genius of GizmoCall is that it does not force you to download software – you just use Flash. And since the program uses Flash it can support the display of ads as well. Michael likens this approach to exactly how YouTube became so successful. His point is that services proliferate much more quickly when they do not require you to download software. Is this an accurate statement? Absolutely. The challenge is that this new service is obviously behind Skype in terms of popularity and it seems people do not mind downloading Skype and other software packages. In my opinion, had this service come out a few years back it would have forced Skype to change business models. This doesn’t mean I believe the service isn’t destined for success. I think there is ample room for many VoIP players and this is a unique enough approach to providing VoIP that many people will use. This is especially true in situations where people are not allowed to download software to their computers. I have a great deal of respect for Robertson and I wish him luck with this new “project.”



Tags: GizmoCall, Gizmo Project, Michael Robertson, SIPphone, YouTube

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The SuperBowl brings to mind many traditions — watching TV, snacking, having a beverage, getting together with friends, etc. — and how about the new one of buying a new large screen TV for the game?

CE companies would love it, retailers would love it — what better way to take in all of the action of XLI?  Especially in HD bay-bee!

So how many of you have already made the plunge this month?

Or are you waiting for the weekend? (Hey, it’s this weekend!

The SuperBowl brings to mind many traditions — watching TV, snacking, having a beverage, getting together with friends, etc. — and how about the new one of buying a new large screen TV for the game?

CE companies would love it, retailers would love it — what better way to take in all of the action of XLI?  Especially in HD bay-bee!

So how many of you have already made the plunge this month?

Or are you waiting for the weekend? (Hey, it’s this weekend!

 )

If you have, let me know on what model what you shelled out the simoleons …

Vringo’s Jon Medved launched Vringo, a mobile application that brings “video ringtones” to mobile phones. Yeah, that’s right. Video ringtones. When you call your buddy, you can send or receive video clips that will appear as your ringtone. In a nutshell, Vringo allows users to share short video clips each time they make a phone call. Vringo is launching its service simultaneously at the AlwaysOn Media and Demo conferences. Vringo is now opening its private Beta program and hopes to invite the general public into the community soon.



You can choose from a variety of movies, trailers and comedy clips for free. Vringo also gives you the option for to capture your own video clips and use them free of charge.

Ok, let me get this straight… First we have mobile phone ringtones (which I hate), then we have paid Skype ringtones, VoIP ringback tones, and now we have video ringtones? When will this madness ever end? Can’t we just talk on the phone without forcing our music or video tastes on someone? Seriously. What if I just want to talk to someone without Britney Spears music hurting my ears, or a Paris Hilton music video hurting my eyes. I mean, sheesh!

I just received word that American Telecom Services, Inc. (AMEX: TES), a provider of converged communications solutions, is scheduled to feature its VoIP phone on the QVC channel tonight at midnight (ET) during the “Your Home Office” broadcast.

The ATS Voice-Over-Internet Protocol Phone (QVC Item #E0381) is a multi-handset, cordless Internet telephone that includes an integrated IP voice platform in the base of the phone to ensure easy and clear connections for the user. The phones come bundled with Internet telephone service from SunRocket.

I believe this is the first VoIP product I’ve heard of that is being featured on the QVC channel. Of course, I don’t watch QVC, so I wouldn’t know. Boy, I have to say, VoIP used to be so “niche” years ago. Now you’ve got Chloe on 24 talking with a guy in a bar about VoIP. You have Cisco VoIP phones at CTU headquarters and prominently displayed on each 24 episode (wonder how much that plug costs Cisco). I recently saw some VoIP products advertised by affiliates at my local movie theater. Yes, yes, I know VoIP is mainstream now and has been for a while.

The niche is over.

Heck, there are a ton more VoIP blogs today than there were just a couple years ago. Blogging is all about finding a “niche” to write about, but the VoIP space is getting mighty crowded. Maybe I should just retire my VoIP & Gadgets blog and move on to another niche? Hmmmm…. “No, don’t do it, Tom! We love you. We need our morning VoIP & gadgetry fix!”

Nah. No worries. I’ll stick around. Still plenty interesting VoIP stuff to write about.

Skype for Mac 2.5, as I previously mentioned back in November, has now gone into public release and can now be downloaded

This from their PR rep…

As you know, the beta version of this beautiful piece of software has been available since mid-November. Since then, Skype has worked hard at ironing out the beta wrinkles and is pleased to release a public version into the wild. Skype has even added a nifty little birthday reminder feature, to help you impress your Skype contacts (and secure an invitation to the party).

Skype for Mac 2.5 features the ability to send SMS messages to any mobile phone in the world, bringing friends, family and colleagues yet another step closer. Also, Mac users can now use Skype to hold conference calls with up to nine other people. Calls can be made to Skype contacts for free and to landlines and mobiles for a small fee, via SkypeOut. So, whether your contacts are in one city or scattered around the world, you can now get together to share a laugh or hatch the next killer business idea without hassle.

Of course, Skype for Mac 2.5 also does free one-on-one video calls (assuming users have a broadband Internet connection).

Reminder: Today is the final day for Skype users in the U.S. and Canada to subscribe to the Skype Unlimited Calling plan for the introductory rate of $14.95 ($17.50 Cdn) for 12 months of unlimited SkypeOut calls to landline or mobile phone numbers in the U.S. or Canada… the price goes up tomorrow to the regular rate of $29.95 ($35 Cdn) for the same 12 months of unlimited SkypeOut calls.

I get all kinds of stuff in my e-mail (you can only imagine!), but intrigued with today’s Wal-Mart Wire, which featured — can you believe it! — Windows Vista! (Wire is the weekly e-flyer from the big bad boy of retailing.)

Now I don’t know about you, but I still connect buying software with computer retailers like CompUSA or CE big box stores like Best Buy or buying it on a vendor’s site and opting for the download.

But hey! plenty of software is sold at stores outside of those channels, so why shouldn’t Wal-Mart with all of its retail might make a strong play in this area?

You can buy the software there or get systems with pre-installed software; there’s even a guide to finding the right Vista for you.

(How about a look inside the Microsoft marketing barage in this report?)

Maybe I will check it out …

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