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SkypeIn Reaches Beta Users
galdur writes "Skype quietly released a new 1.2 beta featuring SkypeIn (in US, UK, France, China & Hong Kong), central voicemail (for those not using the free 3rd party SAM or Pamela), and finally centralised contact list. SkypeIn is the opposite of the company's SkypeOut, allowing you now to receive normal telephone calls through Skype."
The missing piece for me would be the ability to use a standard telephone, with an ATA (eg like the SPA-2000) with their service. I have no interest in using a PC soundcard (however hi-fi it may be) as a telephone.
Skype is one of the few who is aiming to provide this kind of service and actually being able to pull it off. It's simple to use and to setup, and it "simply works" as they say. Open-source supporters may be quick to wave it off since Skype are using their own closed standards. But the fact remain, no open source alternative has yet been adopted by any company who will provide this kind of service. Sure , skype isn't perfect. Their 6 month credit limit (before they eat your paid money) is questionable. But most people will be able to use those 25 euro within 6 months calling worldwide. The phone-companies are still living in the eighties where they will do anything to stall the process where communication will be cheaper. In my own country (sweden) we have Telia, which was unwilling to provide low-cost internet-access for very long time. Now they are slowly adopting to VoIP and the new trends. Flatrate is becoming more common (not with cellphone networks yet though) and people realise there are alternatives to having to pay high phonebills even for cellphone. I cant wait for the new Motorola cellphone which makes it possible to call through VoIP in wireless-lan connected areas and use GSM in other areas. :)
What advertising? I don't think I've ever seen Skype advertised, anywhere...
It seems to have mainly spread through word of mouth, it really is a cool product.
That being said, I do hope something open source comes along to replace it at some point, I'm pretty uncomfortable with being locked into a proprietary service...
They'll just sign termination agreements, like every other player on the planet.
I'm a fairly big Linux person.
I run nothing but Linux on my desktops, and I purchased a Powerbook about 6 months ago.
I know my way around computers. I can take them apart, put them together.
I've futzed with non-supported and almost supported hardware for a long time.
I'll be damned if I can get a SIP solution that will work anywhere near as well as Skype.
I want it on my Mac.
I want it on Linux.
I want it to traverse NATs with (at best) minimal setup that I can describe to someone over the phone.
I want it on Windows. And I want the Windows version to talk to the other versions.
I'd prefer an easy install (no mucking around with text config files), so that I can point other people at a download, and have them install.
I've even tried to come up with some kind of similar solution myself, create a package my friends/family could download, but it just isn't possible to do with the current 'open' solution.
So I point them at Skype. They can download it, and install it with no problem.
The ONLY time they ever have problems is when they forget to plugin the microphone, or plug it in to the wrong port.
These are not stupid people. These are well eductated, and generally economically succesful.
But they only have a modicum of computer knowledge, and when push comes to shove, they can get Skype working.
WhiteWolf666 an exBush supporter. All you new-school,compassionate,save the children Republicans can rot in hell
This is a real breakthru. Not just for Skype users, but for everone - and most importantly, for SIP users. Because until now, Skype was a noninteroperable, proprietary "standard" protocol. Now that any phone can connect to a Skype phone, either in or out, it makes no difference that the protocols are different - they interoperate. Sure, SIP server APIs might be more open, so call control and a galaxy of new features - some perhaps useful only to a tiny nice of users distributed around the Net - will be more available to SIP users than to Skype users. But that means SIP and Skype can compete on features, rather than just price. Which will force not only Skype to open their API more to compete better, but also SIP companies with closed APIs/ports, which will need to compete with Skype. Writing to two server APIs will be frustrating, but better than nothing - and the extra market competition benefits will likely be worth it. Skype had been a troublesome island, out of reach to developers, splitting the VoIP platform too much at its early stage of development. But now it's joined the party, and we can all connect.
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make install -not war
Let's review.
On the one hand: Skype is easy to download, set up, and use; supports every major PC platform and is cross-platform compatible; offers free calls (with no recurring fee) to other Skype users; and offers extremely cheap calls to POTS phones.
On the other: Firefly is single-platform and charges a minimum of twice what Skype does for POTS calls; you didn't mention a softphone that actually uses E164 or DUNDi, and there's no reason an end user should give a damn; ditto that last point for IAX; again for Speex; and I can't find any information about what free interconnects are available, if any, at vonage's website or at firefly's or at FWD's (and FWD doesn't even provide POTS service)-- and interconnects don't matter to me anyway, if my friends are all using Skype.
So I could just grab Skype and have other people grab Skype and we can all use it. Or I can fret and worry about implementation details I don't have any real reason to care about, and pay more for the same service or try to cobble together some frankensolution on the cheap, which nobody else will be able to use with me.
I think I know which one I'm gonna go with for the time being.