Skype is a simple piece of software you can download for free onto your PC. Millions around the world have done so.

Then you just need a headset, and you can make calls free anywhere in the world to other Skype users. You can also buy phones that work with Skype.

You can also call landlines at very good rates; and have your own geographical incoming number.

www.skype.com

eBay has just brought Skype for $2.5 Billion.

Why?

Because eBay are going to integrate Skype into their offering to buyer and sellers. They're going to encourage all eBay users to have a Skype account - and they are going to make it easy for them to do so.

Example: You have Skype on your PC and your looking at an item on eBay. There will be a link for you to click on - and viola! - your PC will dial the seller's Skype number and you'll be speaking to them for free.

There are many, many large organizations now selling on eBay - and now the general public are going to be introduced to the concept of calling companies for free on Skype - just like they speak to their friends free on Skype.

This WILL start to filter into the outside world. Customers will start to ask why the company they are dealing with don't have a Skype number. And at some point not having a Skype number will start to become a commercial disadvantage.

And at some point the government - oh so desperate to be seen as "hip" and fully in tune with latest IT - will start to feel the pressure.

It's not going to happen overnight; and yes, there will be a wailing and gnashing of teeth - but it's coming. Not just Skype - but other VoIP systems (based on the more universal SIP protocol).

At the moment the public know that if they call an 0800 number it's free; but they sort of think that 01/02/0845/0870 are somehow the same-ish.

But they KNOW Skype calls are free - and that it's easy. So the demand will rise for companies to have Skype.

It won't be the end of 0845/0870 - but it's a poke in the eye. And yes, companies will have Skype for sales; but 0870 for customer services. And yes, some clever-clogs will develop some premium-rate service for VoIP/Skpye.

But the screw will get tighter and tighter.

OK NGM - do you're worst  8)

Good point mikeinnc - I agree totally!

$3Billion is a CRAZY price to pay - CRAZY. SIP based VoIP softphones are two-a-penny and easy to install and set-up. And SIP will be the dominant protocol.

But just as the internet didn't disappear with the dotcom crash; VoIP is not going to disappear after this mini-VoIP-bubble.

And "naked" DSL (net connection without the telephone line) will come at some point - as it already has for millions of cable customers.

I have DSL with a phone line at present. But it's still cost-effective for me to use VoIP. With VoIP I pay no line rental; get VERY cheap calls ($20pm for unlimited calling to 24 countries); and I can call any other SIP users in the world for free. Plus I get lots of other goodies like VoiceMail to Email etc...

Yes - it's bizarre.

But their logic (!) is that the income projections for Skype in the future are so great that their investment will be justified.

Plus they get INSTANT access to millions of users and an already well-established brand (Skype).

But it would be so easy for them to splash out just $100K (or even much less if they just licensed existing SIP software or even Skype) and then push this out to their huge eBay user base.

They could have called it "eBayTalk". Just a simple link to a bit of software, that automatically puts in your eBay member name; your country; full name etc... Then a link to ultra cheap headsets or USB phones on the eBay site itself. What could have been easier?????

And they could have picked a SIP softphone - so those with existing SIP hardphones/softphones could have just slotted in the registration details??

The only thing that's missing is a mini-program in Windows/MacOS etc... that recognizes that you've clicked on a VoIP link with an embedded VoIP number and then dials in via your "preferred" phone. Just like happens with email.

But their are still a few issues that have to be ironed-out with this.

And then they could have spent the rest of the $2.5billion on marketing!!! Or even free headsets/USB phones.

Except of course that VOIPcheap and VOIPbuster only seem to work once in a blue moon. So while I agree about open protocols being better - only if they work.

Don't know if Skype works - like you said it is always more expensive than the 1899 family so I haven't tried it. However other people on this forum do seem to have tried it and appear happy. It may be that because they charge they can ensure that the product actually works unlike Voipcheap/Voipbuster.

Unless anyone cares to defend them?

Quote:


You mean www.voicheap.co.uk who have such appalling software that it takes over one's PC and refuses to uninstall properly without numerous anti spyware and registry repair tools.  If one doesn't totally eradicate it from one's pc it then stops one's pc coming back to life from a Hibernate about 1 time in 3.  The rest of the time it makes the restore from Hibernate process take 10 times longer.

So voicheap is marvellous and all that PeDaSp old chap except that it doesn't yet work properly and consistently and generally relies on the other person having their computer turned on which they often don't.

I know that in 8 years time this will all have been overcome but we are currently in the equivalent of Windows 3.11 days so far as the reliability and ease of use of Voip is concerned.

I only spend £3 to £5 per month for my PSTN calls with 18866 so why should I spend £60 to £100 for special voip kit to work with my existing phones that is actually less convenient to use and often doesn't work.

When there is a minimal equipment cost implication and it works properly I will go for it.

18866 is a reliable service that works properly whereas voip at the originating caller end very often doesn't

Dorf,

You and I seem to be as of one mind on this matter.

The fact is that if those useless telecoms company loving so and sos over at Ofcom ever forced BT to offer an unbundled broadband only line rental (that is they just commit to maintaining the copper wire if it goes down) on every line in the country (not just for those lucky people on unbundled exchanges) that was a lot lower priced (like half the cost of a PSTN line) then I might consider moving everything to voip and getting myself a geographic voip number.

But as I am forced to pay a large amount for BT line rental and then only half this amount for my actual phone calls annually then all the hassle of voip for a non reliable service that could leave me stranded and reliant on a mobile phone is not worth it.

PeDaSp likes to bang the Voip drum but he has to face the fact that at the moment Voip is like an email system that loses 5 out of every 10 emails that you try to send through.

When Voip is as simple, cheap and reliable as email is then I am sure we might all be interested, except that I would of course be worried about the Voip equivalent of spam email.

The all calls being directed to me wherever in the world I go for free bit is attractive except that one cannot yet gain cheap mobile access to the internet with your notebook PC when on the move or be guaranteed a fixed line broaband connection to plug into wherever one goes.  One can of course in the very best Grade 1 hotels that Morgan Stanley can no doubt afford to pay for.

My Liechtenstein Riiing mobile seems more practical for the time being.  Voip will be great when there is cheap wirelesss broadband to use with your notebook pc of course.  Also unlike you I regularly seem to spend time in the countryside where such things are very infrequent and costly.