3 posts tagged “voip”
Skype appears to be back up in the U.S. Connecting to the service takes several minutes, but it appears to be running. However, since none of our contacts are online, we haven't been able to confirm it. So is it safe to log back into Skype?
Try it out and let us know what you uncover.
PS: If you're not a Skype user and are wondering what all the fuss is about, see this article.
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Currently, millions of Skype users worldwide are disconnected. The Internet voice over IP phone and video calling service--which boasts over 220 million users--is experiencing outages around the world.
In the U.S. service has been disrupted with callers unable to log into the Skype service. This is a serious issue for many small businesses who rely on the service and will doubtless hurt the eBay-owned company's credibility. Compounding the problem, Skype has done little to address user concerns, offering only this terse and uninformative note on its website:
"Some of you may be having problems logging into Skype. Our engineering team has determined that it’s a software issue. We expect this to be resolved within 12 to 24 hours. Meanwhile, you can simply leave your Skype client running and as soon as the issue is resolved, you will be logged in. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Additionally, downloads of Skype have been temporarily disabled. We will make downloads available again as quickly as possible."
24 hours? Uh oh.
Incidentally, we recommend NOT leaving the Skype client open. It's wiser to shut it down for now and wait until we hear service is back up and running.
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Lower phone bills? We're all for it. Well, almost all of us are for it. The folks at Verizon aren't too keen on it (neither are the folks at Qwest or AT&T for that matter). But the telecom world is changing, and lawsuits won't hold it back. Although they could result in much higher bills for you.
Struggling to come up with some way to stem the voice-over-the-Internet tide, Verizon has been suing Vonage for allegedly infringing on its patents, and Verizon won an initial judgement in March focusing on three extremely broad patents involving voice mail and how calls can be transferred over a public packet switched network (in other words, over the Internet to the plain old telephone lines). One point about the case, which is now under appeal until June, is that Verizon's patents appear to be too broad, potentially undermining the whole transition to voice over IP (VoIP) that is underway.
Another point is that if Verizon prevails in the Vonage case, Verizon could initiate threats against other VoIP providers. It might mean that other firms would pay inflated licensing fees just to stave off litigation. And it would mean...you guessed it...higher phone bills for you and me. Witness the fact that Verizon's own VoIP service is substantially more expense than Vonage, even though Verizon owes many of the physical phone lines. (All Vonage owns are a lot of computer servers.)
As a side note, it's interesting to point out that the issue of "Net neutrality"--in other words leaving the basic Internet protocol technology and access to it the way it is--wasn't an issue until companies like AT&T and Qwest floated the idea that they might start charging Web sites for better access to the Internet. In other words, they would blockade the lines on which Internet traffic travels and thus wipe out small, online businesses while delivering a major blow to Google's business plans. (Not only would Google have to pay for access, but Google also has a VoIP play of its own called Google Talk.)
All of this is a way of trying to squeeze revenue out of what is a dying telecom business model. The days of charging for minutes or long distance calls is already over. The old teleco's just don't realize it yet.
For more on the changing telecom business, see my article on past mergers in U.S. News & World Report.
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