Jon’s Phone Dialer 3.0

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If you have a Mac you’ll like the idea of what Jon’s Phone Dialer can do for you with some select VoIP carriers (CallVantage, Vonage) plus IP phones from Cisco and the Xten line of softphones. This latest revision seems a lot smoother. I’ve got it installed and will run it through its paces over … Read more

OVUM On Skype Revenue Generation

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Ovum’s Julian Hewitt has an analysts’ view on Skype, their acquisition cost to eBay and what can affect the earnout. He also poses a big “if” at the end of the summary. I’d say the jury is still out.

What’s VoIP For Life Worth?

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Well if you look at the results of the United Online charity auction, about $1,400 a subscriber. That puts a damper on companies asking $2,000 a sub who have been shopping themselves to some of the bigger names on the net. In Vonage terms that would price them at $1.4 billion, but this is all … Read more

SMB Market A Boon To VoIP

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It seems the SMB market will be a big play in 2006 for the VoIP industry. I’ve previously mentioned that companies like CallTower, Covad and Speakeasy are nicely poised in the space. Others have made noise as well. According to a Vonage spokesperson I spoke with recently, the long awaited Vonage SMB play seems to … Read more

Another WiFi Play for Skype

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I got told late this afternoon that the city of Taipei will be launching Wi-Fi in the city tomorrow, Tuesday, Dec. 20t. The little birdie told me the mayor of Taipei will be using Skype to talk the mayor of Tao Yuan – showing the power of the Skype service via the city’s new Wi-Fi … Read more

Do You Know What’s Going Over Your Webcam Network?

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With a very detailed account of one teenage boy’s life, the New York Times today has a very extended feature on the illicit use of webcam by teens who make money selling their bodies. Over the past months I’ve mentioned on multiple occasions that the web cam market has a large percentage of “adult” conversation … Read more

Skype and Linux

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Skype is expected to announce that Mandriva a publisher of the Mandriva Linux operating system, that the Mandriva 2006 Linux operating system will integrate software from Skype that add Skype capabilities. If my information is correct Mandriva Linux 2006 is the first, and only, Linux operating system to offer the Skype application.

Wait Until They Pay You to Call

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IP Democracy has a great analysis of the current pricing model that the pure IP VoIP players (i.e. Yahoo, Skype, GizmoProject) are moving forward with.

But I think there is a whole other model that will eventually come into play. That’s where they pay you to use the service. While it won’t be so transparent, the more added value services you purchase (i.e. voice mail, find me/follow me, unified mailbox messaging, etc.) plus ads that you click through on, merchant club, frequent buyer programs and more that you become a part of, loyalty, affinity and such, all that is data base driven, will result in telephone service being a basic lifestyle amenity.

I keep thinking the mobile guys are a natural for this play also. Imagine having your unused monthly minutes rolled over to your IP calls, and you getting a bonus for calling your friends and family who are on network with you, but the traffic goes IP to IP.

That’s the future as I see it, especially with more VoIP via WiFi coming online really soon.

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How Much VoIP Traffic?

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Digital Media Europe reports that he largest inbound location for VoIP traffic is Mexico. There are other interesing facts in this account.

If T-Mobile Was Smart……

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…they would invest heavily in this phone from Nokia around the world, the way they have with the Sidekick and go all out to get the business customer on their GSM networks. The E61 will also handle SIP I’m led to believe. That would really make it a world phone for if one could get … Read more