Unbound Spiral: Skype The Mobile Operators Friend? Another good assessment from Stuart about Skype.
All Skype is doing is having their software embedded so a Skype call can end up on a cell phone’s handset and vice versa can be made. I don’t think it’s overly complicated and is much like the ability to have Instant Messages end up on a cell phone and to be able to send to IM clients from cell phones. The key is when Skype based technology ends up inside the switches or phones add always on IP connectivity.
I for one don’t see that happening to fast in the USA. Already we have walled gardens from Verizon Wireless and to some extent T-Mobile when it comes to data. Cingular/AT&T doesn’t have the speed and Sprint’s coverage is just not the greatest. That said, what Skype on cellphones does in theory is replace IDEN, or more importantly gives Motorola a way to go beyond their iDEN offering which is exclusive to Nextel.