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ITEXPO Keynoters Make News

It is amazing to me how much news is being generated by two of our star attraction keynoters at Internet Telephony Conference & Expo. Today, Michael Powell announced he is joining the board of directors of ObjectVideo, Inc a video surveillance software firm. This ties in really well to our security/surveillance over IP session in the conference program. If you want to hear Mr. Powell come to ITEXPO to hear his keynote speech.

In other news, Carly Fiorina also joined a board today. She joined Revolution health Group a company started by Steve Case the co-founder of AOL. If you would like to hear Miss Fiorina’s Keynote also come to ITEXPO next month.

We are so excited that these two keynoters can only be seen at Internet Telephony Conference & Expo.

This show is already the largest VoIP show in the world (as measured by attendance) but now we also have the best keynoters I have ever seen at a focused communications show.

Keynoters like these and a superior conference program are just two of the reasons I think we are experiencing record attendance.

If you want to see what an amazing amount of attendance ITEXPOs get, take a look at his video. There aren’t other VoIP shows that are able to match the level of enthusiasm and buying power of ITEXPO attendees. At least that is what exhibitors tell me.

I hope to see you at the show in Los Angeles next month.

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Ted in China?

Methinks Ted may not be too welcome in Shanghai for the next few millennia.

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Yet Another Skype Article

Thanks to John Wind a VoIP veteran and industry guru for sending me this link to a very good VoIP article that focuses on Skype and whether they will be purchased. It features an interview with Skype cofounder Janus Friis who has been pretty silent until this article. I just added his first and last name to my spell checker so I hope to hear more about him in the future. For the record, I feel like I should get a paycheck from Skype because I seem to be writing about them constantly today and yesterday:

China Bans VoIP
Skype and VoIP Ecosystems
What EBay Will Do For Skype and VoIP
EBay Buys Skype


I will have to bring this up with the company’s CEO Niklas Zennstrom in Los Angeles at Internet Telephony Conference & Expo next month – after his keynote of course :-) .

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Implement a Voice Channel

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China Bans VoIP

This article explains how Skype is annoying Chinese authorities who are seeing revenue dwindle. The Shanghai Daily reported that China Telecom's Shenzhen branch has already blacklisted users of Skype Out.

The paper explained a call from China to New York costs 27 time more via China Telecom than Skype! Ouch!.

Users of unauthorized VoIP services may be fined. Only six Chinese operators -- including China Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom and China Netcom -- are allowed to operate VoIP services, the paper said.

Skype is available for domestic PC-to-PC calls in China via Tom.com.

I wonder if the WTO is going to get involved in these sorts of disputes and force the world to allow VoIP in their countries. We will see. In the mean time, it seems that China is certainly an area of huge growth for Skype and I wonder if this is going to decrease their adoption rate in China for the short-term. For that matter will Skype adoption decrease its rapid growth for now?

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Dells US Call Centers

For all the public complaints I hear about Dell’s Indian call centers it is worth noting the company is also building and staffing new centers in places like Oklahoma. Way to go Dell and perhaps it is articles like this that push Dell to think about strengthening their US based support team.

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Skype and VoIP Ecosystems

I just read an article explaining Skype’s exciting new Voice Services Program, which allows any content provider to provide free or paid voice services. What differentiates this announcement from run of the mill partnering press releases put out by so many companies is the sheer volume of callers using Skype.

People say that Vonage will reach critical mass at around a million users. The company did in fact recently announce they have one million lines which for the sake of this article we will assume is the same thing. So Vonage has reached critical mass. A million subscribers is a phenomenal accomplishment as every Vonage customer has to install hardware in their home.

Contrast this to Skype where users have to merely download software. Sure this is easier but Skype has had according to their website over 162 million people download their software. Somewhere around 30-40 million people use Skype out of the 162 million downloads -- which is not a bad ratio in my opinion. When you look at an active community of 40 million people you realize you have a real-world phone company on your hands. This is a huge number.

Which is why it makes sense to slowly but surely extend your reach into other areas as the world’s largest VoIP phone company. The company has done lots of smart things lately such as launching a paid service allowing people to connect to the PSTN and also a developer program allowing companies to build products that interface with the Skype network.

The Voice Services platform is yet anther extension allowing partners to come up with services that users can use for free or a price. Companies like Map Telecom, Voxeo, and Tellme are part of the network of companies allowing developers to come up with applications the Skype community can use.

What are examples of applications that people will want and pay for? Live traffic reports, horoscopes, language learning tools and international delivery tracking systems. Well these are what the company suggest are going to be some of the applications we will see. I believe some of the biggest uses will be dating services and porn. I suspect porn will be big as there will be little to no paper trail when using the service. I checked Skype’s Terms of Service as I suspected porn might be banned but it isnt.

I have written about VoiceXML many times over the years. It is a very powerful programming language allowing developers to easily develop complex IVR and speech applications. Skype has essentially brought the power of VoiceXML into the world of VoIP.

VoiceXML is not new but this announcement allows service providers to make money from people around the world without the need for their customers to have to pay for long-distance. So if you have a killer voice service in Spain, people around the world can now connect to it without having to call long distance and you in turn don’t need a slew of international numbers to have a slew of international paying customers.

Really this is an arbitrage play enabling voice services to be provided via VoIP. The idea is great. It shows how amazing VoIP is and how it can be used to enable people to come up with new business models. People will get rich because of this sort of concept and customers will get services they are willing to pay for. Once again, VoIP shows how it can be used in ways we never envisioned just a few short years ago.

Update:

I have had great response to this article and the following are some of the comments that tell me I was right on with my assumption that porn will be a huge part of the Skype announcement.

In fact some industry experts tell me they think adult applications will almost certainly be the first "killer app" at the intersection of VoiceXML and VoIP.

In addition to the "clean paper trail" I mentioned above, Skype can help address another adult phone industry problem. It is very difficult for adult chat type providers to get and keep a merchant account to do credit card charges. The merchant account providers generally don't like the business because it has a high percentage of charge backs ("Honey, you said their is a charge for what on our credit card? That must be a mistake, I'd never call there. We need to dispute that.")

Merchant account providers are unlikely to turn off Skype in any scenario. Skype is just too big, and Skype users don't pay a Skype bill with their card, they pre-purchase Skype credit that sits on their Skype account.

In summary, Skype can solve billing issues on both the client and provider side. Think of the above as an amplifier. This will be very big.

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