Skype
http://www.skype.com/
A proprietary protocol VOIP system built using Peer-to-peer (P2P) techniques.
Free for non commercial use when using softphones (PC to PC).
Offers toll access to PSTN via SkypeOut and SkypeIn
From the company that created KaZaA
Licenses the Global IP Sound VoiceEngine suite of codecs and related software including their wideband codecs (double the width of regular pstn.) If you find yourself asking, "why does Skype sound so good?", the answer is primarily this wideband ability.
Quote from website:
"I knew it was over when I downloaded Skype", Michael Powell, chairman, Federal Communications Commission, explained. "When the inventors of KaZaA are distributing for free a little program that you can use to talk to anybody else, and the quality is fantastic, and it's free. It's over. The world will change now inevitably."
-- Fortune Magazine, 16th February 2004
Skype PSTN Gateway: Rates
Skype API: http://www.skype.com/community/devzone/
An analysis of the protocol with focus on NAT capabilities and audio compression (PDF) http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~library/TR-repository/reports/reports-2004/cucs-039-04.pdf
Related Products
- IsrealNumber.com IsrealNumber offer a hosted VoIP to Skype service. We offer a trunk setup, on a fix number of channels, at a set price. A simple way to provide your users the option to receive their calls, on their Skype user.
- AirTouch AirTouch enable your PBXs phone system with Skype.
- PrettyMay Call Center for Skype - Set up your own Skype Phone System within 10 minutes.
- NPBX4Sky DMLink's NPBX4Sky Make or Receive Skype Calls from Any Phone, wherever you are.
- MyToGo Allows ANY phone to use Skype even iphones and it's FREE
- Call transfer Free program transfers Skype to Skype calls to Skype names and PTSN numbers
- Spintronics:Skype PBX/PABX/ISDN/E1-PRI Gateways
- UCTS Skype Chat Language Translator and Speaker, 14 Languages 51 voices
- ULRTCS for Skype - Automatically speaks Skype chat messages
- ULRTMT for Skype - Automatically translates Skype chat languages
- AmperorDirect.com Skype Solutions Offering Skype USB Phone and Adapters
- Atcom USB ATA ,with 1 fxs 1 fxo, au-600 forward skype to your mobile phone. Has been successfully used in conjunction with an Asterisk FXO as a single-channel Skype to Asterisk gateway.
- Atcom USB Phone ,au-100 also support x-pro/x-lite/msn/eyebeam/etc.
- Atcom USB Phone ,au-100 also support x-pro/x-lite/msn/eyebeam/etc.
- Bitwalker Boomerang A Skype based web callback system (AKA Click to Call).
- ++Skype C++ library for skype add-on platform independent software development. It is platform independent, easy to use, and easy to extend because of the flexible library design, inspired by modern C++ design ideas.
- Bombino Skype plugin for creating conferences on-demand via SMS. After being installed it acts as a server. It receives SMS-commands from a (remote) user, checks privileges and creates the requested conference. It can be used to call Skype user from ordinary PSTN phone.
News
- 2008-10-10 - IsrealNumber.com IsrealNumber offer a hosted VoIP to Skype service. A trunk setup, on a fix number of channels, at a set price. A simple way to provide your users the option to receive their calls, on their Skype user.
- 2007-11-15 - Skype releases V3.6.0.244 (Windows), adds good quality Video-Conferencing!
- 2007-09-19 - Skype V3.5.0.239 (Windows) Released - Minor bug-fix
- 2007-08-20 - DMLink's NPBX4Sky SS Released Make and Receive skype calls from any phones
- 2007-08-12 - ZOverLord Creations MyToGo ANY phone can use Skype even iphones
- 2007-01-29 - ZOverLord Creations Releases FREE Call Transfer Program for Skype
- 2006-11-19 - How to block Skype "SuperNodes" Skype FAQ
- 2006-10-27 - How to block Skype - Seven methods for blocking Skype on a corporate network
- 2006-10-26 - UCTS Skype Chat Language Translator and Speaker, 14 Languages 51 voices
- 2006-08-01 - Skype chats read and spoken to you when your busy - This is free to use
- 2006-07-25 - Skype in the UK Sprechen Sie Skype?
- 2006-07-23 - Skype, ULRTMT Translates languages in Skype chats Click here
- 2005-02-18 - Skype, Xandros Bundle VoIP, Linux Internetnews.com story
- 2005-02-10 - Skype VoIP software merged with cellphone story
- 2004-07-27 - Skype releases PSTN Gateway service
See also
- Skype Gateways: Interfacing SIP, PSTN and Skype
- Skype User Guide User Guide, FAQ, Help and hard-to-find technical info on Skype
- Skype Support Forum
- Getting Skype on your USB Drive - Take your contacts with you.
Skype Hardware
- DMLink's High density Skype Gateway - NPBX4Sky SH - Connecting Sky with E1/J1/T1.
- 888VoipStore - Linksys CIT200 Cordless Internet Phone for Skype $129.95
- NETGEAR SPH101 Just $249.99 @ .e4
- voipipbx.com Huge selection of Skype phones and Skip2PBX
- VoIP Supply has all of the lastest Skype Hardware!
- Voxilla Store - Skype Hardware
VOIP Service Providers
Wideband VoIP

Comments
333Hey your Skype on your USB Flash Drive
333Skype as a VoIP Social Network
VoIP has always been about calling, not really doing much of anything else.
You can Love or Hate Skype, if you wish to compare it to VoIP services only, focusing on a lack of a SIP interface, as one example, well you might Hate it, however if you can look at the other services included with Skype, some of them free as well then it just might not fit in that box.
I think it's hard to deny that Skype is taking VoIP services a notch up by adding social network type services, moving forward with a rich API interface for developers and doing this on a worldwide basis.
In todays time, users want more than complicated methods to save money on calls, they want other services that can enhance their VoIP experience as well, Sadly, most of the other VoIP providers don't get that.
333Skype on i-mate
So, where's the big deal here? Just install a Skype Pocket-PC client on your XDA or any other Pocket-PC with Wi-Fi/GSM connectivity, and you've got the same product.
Bousting out to say that i-mate and skype just innovated something is a pure j***-off and most of all, it's an insult to VoIP and technologists alike. The entire Skype model is an insult to the VoIP community, as it's completely prorietary and not based on a well defined standard. So it works great, I can't argue with that, but nothing interoperates with it and the only thing going for it as I see it, is a really cool marketing strategy.
Skype bases its origins in Kazaa and Kazaa's marketing/business model, which means, they will get 50% of the internet hooked up on it, then start charging an arm and a leg to get hooked into it.
If you are anything of a VoIP promoter, professional, evangelist or a technology aware person, I call on you to deny the usage of Skype in your networks and rid the world of yet another Spyware. Need I remind you, even Kazaa started out without any Spyware, and became the biggest Spyware of them all.
333What people really want
I remember we used to talk with a VoIp software long before Napster invented P2P.
It is true, we could call and talk, and understanding was something else.
Skype looks much better if you consider the voice quality, thanks also to the fact that now we have faster connections.
But what people really want?
When they want to call they want a telephone ( mobile), they want to dial a number and they want to talk.
If possible cheap and, why not for free...
The real revolution is what we can give:
www.worldonip.com
1) Access point that reaches up to 15 Kilometers and up to 90 users on one line.
You can have as many as you want...
2) Wireless mobile IP telephone that works in a coverage of 15 Kilometers( 10 miles) costs around 200 dollars, is as easy to use as any other GSM .
3) Any phone can call for free another Ip phone, locally, Nationally, Internationally, Intercontinentally.
Can call any other phone using a termination.
The VoIP Access Point costs around $1400 and you can share it among 90 people.
This is a Technological revolution.
Hard to believe, but it is true.
Marconi invented the Wireless and Antonio Meucci invented the Telephone, it happens that we talk the same language...
Patrizia
patrizia@worldonip.com