[asterisk-users] Skype for Asterisk - RIP

[A J Stiles]

On Wednesday 25 May 2011, randulo wrote:
> On Tue, May 24, 2011 at 10:50 PM, Matt Darnell <mattdarnell at gmail.com> 
wrote:
> > "We expect that users of Skype for Asterisk will be able to continue
> > using their Asterisk systems on the Skype network until at least July
> > 26, 2013. Skype may extend this at their discretion."
>
> It's widely believed. However, it's very possible that this was not a
> Microsoft decision but planned by Skype before the acquisition.

Bgeh.  Serves 'em right for using that POC!  Who honestly *hadn't* seen this 
coming since the day Skype was first released?

A subscriber with one telephone company has to be able at least to contact 
subscribers with any other telephone company -- that much ought to be 
self-evident. It is also highly desirable, where multiple telephone companies 
are competing for business in the same physical space, to be able to use the 
same equipment with any of them. Such interoperability requires open 
standards that can be implemented by anybody, and the most preferable way to 
achieve this is through an Open Source reference implementation  (not just 
Asterisk; think OpenBSD and the Secure Shell, or Apache and HTTP).

Skype's secretive, proprietary nature -- surely the absolute antithesis of 
what telecommunications needs to be about -- means that only 
Skype "subscribers" can talk to other Skype "subscribers".  (It also 
potentially runs afoul of some European countries' telecommunications 
deregulation and competition laws -- except, as we all know, normal laws 
don't apply anywhere there is a computer involved).

We in the Asterisk user community should be persuading Skype users to move 
to "proper" VoIP solutions, sooner rather than later -- even if that means 
recommending another proprietary product as a pragmatic intermediate measure.  
At least Caged products which *correctly* implement Open standards are likely 
candidates for Free drop-in replacements later.

(Paraphrased and expanded from an earlier post by me on another forum.)

-- 
AJS

Answers come *after* questions.