[Asterisk-Users] Is SKYPE a threat or should we dosomething(together)

[trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com]

There are two sides to VoIP as I see it.  Those that want to make calls
and those that want to receive it.

ATAs focus on sending calls and receiving them from a regular telephone
(even if not connected via the PSTN).  That is one choice, but so are
others.  Softphones are a similar choice, and having a tool that will
interconnect as many devices giving the users the choice rather than
dictating to people how they will do what they want.

Long ago the only choices for contacting a company was by postal mail or
in person.  Then came the telephone and added a chocie for how to
communicate.  Eventually email and webbased forms came into play, and
now there are VoIP solutions.  I have a few PSTN numbers but also a FWD
number.  This gives people more choice than email to contact me.  I also
use irc, MSN, yahoo messenger and AIM (bitlbee is a great tool :) this
gives people choice in how to contact me.  I can publish a sip address
and let anyone with MSN messenger have 2 choices, anyone with a
softphone use that.  If I also had a skype number I could offer one more
choice.  

All 'phone' calls could come to me and I deal with them how I choose,
but the more ways that someone can make that voice call gives them the
choice.  Thus its a feature and makes it easier for them to get ahold of
me.

Because skype is designed for money (in early interviews when skype was
beta the founders were talking about the rates in various countries to
basically interconnect with the PSTN, they seemed to have the concept
all along) they wanct to maximize their profits, and in my opinion based
on how they have done things, they want to keep it proprietary becuase
they feel they can lock people into one service offering and then once
committed get them to sue the skype phone service and not someone elses.
I have no problem with a company choosing to do this, it is *their*
protocol, so it is *their* choice.  However if skype were more open
about their protocol I would consider actually using the skype account I
signed up for over a year ago.

There are hardware adapters available that speak skype, some dual
skype/sip.

http://www.voipuser.org/review_7.html
http://worldcall.brinkster.net/pcphoneline/skype/vta1000.htm
http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Skype+Gateways


And even a $1050 bounty so far to add skype functionality to asterisk
http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-bounty+skype

Because of the hardware adapters I doubt that there would be a lot of
protocol changing unless they use software to implement the protocol,
which they might (I havent checked, I dont want to add a bunch of stuff
to make it work).

For people who want to go a little further there is even a forum on the
skype API (which I think makes it a little harder for them to just
change the protocol)
http://forum.skype.com/viewforum.php?f=16




-- 
Trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com
UK +44 870 340 4605   Germany +49 801 777 555 3402
US +1 360 207 0479 or +1 516 687 5200
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