Source: andyabramson.blogs.com
Hot on the heels of the PhoneBoy discovery about iSkoot, and all the corrective action the iSkoot team has taken, comes another interesting post.
This post, from Martin Sauter of Germany, shows that G711 VoIP over WiFi can be snagged.
Source: gigaom.com
Tom Keating reports that the owners of Skype Wi-Fi phones and other standalone devices have been experiencing excruciating network problems, and points to the vitriol flowing freely on the Skype forums.
This raises the question: Why are these outages happening? And should Skype (EBAY) start to build its own network of super peers? After all, their big plan is to drive Skype’s non-PC usage, as indicated by their recent expansion into the mobile market. They have also been aggressively pushing the Skype brand, making money by licensing it to hardware makers who build devices like Wi-Fi phones and then sell them at mass-market retailers such as Wal-Mart.
Skype benefits from the increased footprint that comes from expanding into the non-geek markets. The problem is that many of these new buyers are using Skype over Wi-Fi and don’t contribute as much to the overall P2P network placing an extra load on some and letting others leech off the platform.
I think it is time for Skype to start buildinga network of company-owned supernodes to take the load off the consumer network. They have in the past built infrastructure to support expansion into the PSTN-connect business. However, the reason the company resisted expansion into the mobile domain was purely because it didn’t want to build its own supernode infrastructure, instead choosing to partner with startups like iSkoot.
Of course, such infrastructure comes with big bills, and one can understand Skype’s reticence. Some, like our good friend Aswath Rao suggested that the whole Skype economic model will break down if that it wouldn’t cost the company that much to build dedicated supernodes, but it would take away some of the P2P cachet. And while that might be, I think that when you pay for a device, you expect a higher quality of service, unlike us PC-people who settle for poor quality because it doesn’t cost us anything.
Maybe it is time for Skype to pony up!
Source: voipcentral.org
The above question is now prominently asked after a WSJ report claimed that T-Mobile USA is planning for a nationwide launch of mobile handsets that can roam on WiFi hotspots.
The new WiFi service is dubbed as Hotspot at Home, which has been in test in Seattle in the last couple of months.
The mobile operator is now geared up for a nationwide roll out of this service, most probably in June this year. Nokia and Samsung handsets will be equipped with this service, the report adds.
With Hotspot at Home, the customers can access WiFi VoIP services from their handheld devices when they are in the WiFi range.
However, T-Mobile USA has not revealed the launch of the service.
Source: voipcentral.org
In its recent report, the research firm Analysys highlights the benefits of Fixed-Mobile Convergence services, which it says would bring down their voice spending by thirty percent if they combine it with VoIP technology.
So, it is high time for the mobile network operators to work hard to slow the fall in enterprise voice revenues in the face of technology that can let companies to by pass their more expensive services, the report adds.
Margaret Hopkins, the author of Fixed-Mobile Convergence in the Enterprise Voice Market comments,
Companies are spending over 80% of their call bill on mobile services, and that is causing them to turn to new technology looking for savings. Wireless gateways, VoIP and Wi-Fi offer them ways of cutting this bill that are independent of the network operators. Operators need to come up with innovative services to minimize the revenue leakage.
Therefore, the mobile operators should start providing corporate home-zone services, which is based on femtocells to cut off demand for dual mode WiFi phones which threats them in terms of traffic and revenue.
Source: voipcentral.org
No set up fee, no monthly fee, even no roaming charge. It is all most free to make VoIP calls. For the Nokia E-Series (e60, e61, e70) users, the Leeds-based telecom service provider Aql has extended this free VoIP offer over a Wi-Fi connection.
The aim and objective of the free offer is to entice customers towards the companys other paid services, for instance calls to conventional landlines (from 1p per minute) or mobile numbers (from 8p per minute).
Like other telecom companies, Aql also wants to take the advantage of favorable market conditions for the WiFi VoIP.
Therefore, Dr Adam Beaumont, companys managing director stated,
The free offer is simply intended to prove that Wi-Fi VoIP calling can deliver an excellent mobile service, with the ability to run alongside GSM for whenever callers are outside a wireless hot spot.
