The Federal Communications Commission has approved the mergers of SBC with AT&T and Verizon with MCI.

According to the Commission's Web site, [the FCC]... concluded that consumers will reap the rewards of the public interest benefits that will flow from these mergers. These benefits include integration of complementary networks, which will increase efficiency and provide consumers with new services and improved network performance and reliability. The mergers will create stable, reliable U.S.-owned companies that will provide improved service to government customers and benefit national defense and homeland security. In addition, the mergers will give the companies increased economies of scale and scope, which should increase their incentives and resources to engage in basic research and development.

Skype has teamed with IPEVO, a Silicon Valley-based subsidiary of PChome Online specializing in Skype-enabled devices, to offer affordable Skype devices in the US through IPEVO’s Web site.

IPVEO designs and develops a wide range of easy-to-use and affordable Skype devices, including corded and cordless USB phones, speaker phones and mobile devices. PChome Online launched the first co-branded website with Skype in July 2004 in Taiwan. This collaboration helped make Taiwan one of the most successful markets for Skype. PChome-Skype has attracted 7.5M downloads and 2.4M people have registered with Skype. PChome also offers Skype’s premium services such as SkypeOut, Skype Voicemail and SkypeIn and has attracted around 200,000 paid customers throughout Taiwan since November 2004.

Microsoft and Yahoo! announced that they will make their instant-messaging programs work together, a partnership ostensibly designed to give the combined companies more heft to compete against AOL.

The partnership, which would allow users of the two services to exchange messages seamlessly, gives the companies almost as many users (combined) as AOL has on their own. AOL’s AIM, has over 50 million unique U.S., compared to about 27 million for MSN Messenger and 22 million for Yahoo’s Messenger.

The companies said that they expect the service to start by June 2006.

On the Microsoft Web site, there’s a picture of Brad Garlinghouse, Yahoo!’s vice president of Communications Products shaking hands with Blake Irving, corporate vice president of the MSN Communication Services and Member Platform.

Mr. Garlinghouse is slated to give a keynote address at the upcoming Internet Telephony Conference & EXPO on October 24th in Los Angeles at the LA Convention Center.

Of course, that got me thinking… With all of the buzz surrounding consumer VoIP offerings merging voice and IM capabilities (from the likes of Yahoo, AOL, Google…) one realizes that it’s not much of a stretch to add voice peering to the service announced today by MSN and Yahoo!

Suddenly you have 50 million people able to see each others’ presence, able to IM each other, and able to speak to each other utilizing VoIP. That’s just the Microsoft/Yahoo! camp.

I came across an article on The Guardian Unlimited Web site entitled Breaking America’s Grip on the Net, which reminded me of the situation currently unfolding regarding the future of control over the Internet’s root servers. It seems that during a series of preparatory meetings, being held ahead of the World Summit on the Information Society, a group of countries including the likes of Iran, Cuba and China — bastions of freedom all — have seen fit to complain about who controls the Internet.

Apparently at issue is the stated position taken by the U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC) that they would retain indefinite control of the Internet's foundation — its "root servers" — which act as the basic directory for the whole ‘Net.

And so, representatives from Iran, Cuba, and China, together with Brazil and several African states insisted the U.S. give up control.

The U.S. refused.

According to the Guardian article, “the EU took a bold step and proposed two stark changes: a new forum that would decide public policy, and a "cooperation model" comprising governments that would be in overall charge.”

The idea proved popular, and now the world's governments are expected to agree on a deal to award themselves ultimate control. The issue will be brought up at a UN summit of world leaders next month and, according to The Guardian article, “faced with international consensus, there is little the US government can do but acquiesce.”

What does this mean for the future of the Internet? Is it a good thing or bad? Will giving control to a committee made up of a number of international members result in an environment conducive to forward motion? Or will it end up being a boondoggle? An innovation-stifling bureaucracy? How will the change in control over the Internet’s root servers affect human rights in those countries where the government stands opposed to the ideals of free speech? What effects will this have on the ability to conduct business over the Internet? And what about security? What about VoIP?

There are as many questions as there are interested parties, and when one discusses the internet, that list of interested parties is huge.

OpenPBX.org is announcing a fork from the Asterisk software PBX on their web site.  The OpenPBX.org software PBX builds on the solid foundation created by the developers of Asterisk.

The OpenPBX.org community plans to develop a robust offshoot from Asterisk building on its strengths, flexibility and user community.  Some of the planned features include modular architecture, native support for Sangoma TDM cards, integrated faxing and eventually integrated messaging.

OpenPBX.org will be community driven and released under the GPL.

Initial release of OpenPBX.org is slated for October 10, 2005.