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Global Telcos Plotting a Skype Rival?
gigaom.com — "AT&T, in conjunction with some 10-15 incumbent telecom carriers — British Telecom, Deutsche Telecom and NTT among them — is plotting to launch a Skype competitor, according to a research report issued this morning by ThinkEquity analyst Anton Wahlman."
dimmerswitch- 428 diggs
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- grodrigu, on 05/06/2008, -0/+20If it's free, bring it.
- rmxz, on 05/06/2008, -0/+7Unless it has other gotcha's - like annoying ads; or bad privacy policies. With the privacy track record of some of those phone companies I wouldn't be surprised if the business model is "free, but we'll listen in on your calls to work and trade your employer's stock based on what you said". Or just as bad - free but you have to sign up for our other service that's expensive. Or - free - but we'll sell targeted ads by listening to your conversations.
- robbiemuffin, on 05/06/2008, -0/+4if it was free, they wouldn't be bringing it. ;)
no seriously, AT & T and groups love tech like Skype. I'd put real money on them having already played an instrumental role in Skype. I'm amazed there's much they feel needs improving that they can step in on. the decentralized nature is not a problem for skype. The main problems with skype are things like a crappy forum and a lack of for-community tie-ins... they are simple problems that anyone with reason to script the public APi can solve. I'm curious what they will offer. :) - Genma, on 05/07/2008, -0/+1just so long as they compete by making things better and cheaper, not by ***** with competitor's connections.
- Alix7, on 05/06/2008, -2/+23I'll wait for Google
- vinnyvenus, on 05/06/2008, -0/+6Can''t they just skype from ebay?
- johnmearns, on 05/07/2008, -0/+1Ebay paid through the nose (or other orifice of your choice) for skype. Why would you pay anything near what they paid if not more? Just take their customers.
- punkcat, on 05/06/2008, -0/+16yeah feel free to compete with free.
- johnmearns, on 05/07/2008, -0/+1Free means something to broke college students but most adults are willing to pay some money for a certain level of service and convenience. Look at the number of sales off itunes for an example of where people will pay a few bucks over the "free" alternative. Skype has a huge list of issues (see wikipedia for a good summary). Take your pick of which of them might be important to you but I think any competitor who can bring a better product to market always has a chance, even if it isn't free.
- mrgoat, on 05/06/2008, -1/+10too little, too late
- Ryosen, on 05/06/2008, -2/+1The enemy of my enemy is my enemy? Hua?
- kevro, on 05/06/2008, -0/+11create some thing awesome with all the backing of the big telcos to best your opponent and give it away. Once the market is yours quietly add surcharges hear and there until the whole offering is monetized. sneaky.
- earthmansurfer, on 05/07/2008, -0/+1Great point, but I think we all know it's a little too late. Competing with open source that is at least in part backed by corporations is a losing battle.
- earthmansurfer, on 05/07/2008, -0/+1Great point, but I think we all know it's a little too late. Competing with open source that is at least in part backed by corporations is a losing battle.
- 1timeuser, on 05/06/2008, -1/+12I read global tacos instead of telcos. I am disappointed.
- martoq, on 05/06/2008, -0/+7They had their chance. I am perfectly happy with my Skype pro account now. 66$ a year for a phone line, voicemail, etc, vs TWC charging me 40$ a month, Verizon wants ~$50. I am happy companies like Skype exist.
- vw2005, on 05/06/2008, -1/+6Why do 15 telecom carriers need to start ONE competitor against Skype?
The startup overhead is far less than starting a traditional phone company ..... why not start your own.- zxof, on 05/06/2008, -0/+3why? so their users can call each other. how about that?
- yaosio, on 05/06/2008, -0/+5They decided that one management team is not enough to make the project fail, they need 15 teams, all trying to sabotage each other.
- lohphat, on 05/07/2008, -0/+3Hasn't anyone ever heard of a concept called "land grab"?
Sykpe has the free VoIP market sewn up -- you cannot gain market share unless you offer a significant improvement in a) cost 2) performance 3) features. Skyps has too much momentum to be sidelined as a de facto market leader. - Atomic1fire, on 05/07/2008, -0/+2Is this gonna be like hulu was to youtube (hulu doesnt suck so bad)
If so I am interested - Bonez, on 05/07/2008, -0/+2The only way i see this working is if they actually pay us to make calls.. I mean how do you compete with an established free service otherwise?
- johnmearns, on 05/07/2008, -0/+1Fixing some privacy/security concerns with Skype would make me happy.
- reddikilowatt, on 05/07/2008, -0/+3If this happens it is to avoid network to network termination fees. Right now, today, the wired backbone of AT&T runs VOIP. It has since about 2000. If they hand off a call to another carrier (like Verizon, Quest or BT), the call is send through a 5ESS switch so that the proper tariffs and fees can be applied. What this would do is not the same thing as Skype. You would still dial out the same way you do now, but if you call someone who is on a partner's network, they would avoid the switch and it would not be charged the same as a voice call.
BTW this is also why in-network calling is almost always free on your cell phone. They don't ever touch a switch (at least not in the traditional sense).- mrhahn, on 05/07/2008, -0/+1BT are in the process of switching their network from PSTN to IP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BT_21CN), I wonder if that's related?
- SceleiMcflaps, on 05/07/2008, -1/+1I read that as "Global Tacos Plotting a Skype Revival?"
- chokeaduck, on 05/07/2008, -0/+1You weren't the only one. I was curious what the hell happened that Skype needed revived. Heh.
- Popperian, on 05/07/2008, -0/+4Like anyone will use anything voluntarily AT&T ... a country that literally ran to the Bush lackies in order to sell their customers out related to spying on us.
The only AT&T will ever get from me is money that they basically steal / force me to pay because of monopoly control of markets (and I'm going to try and get around their monopoly plays as well).- earthmansurfer, on 05/07/2008, -0/+1There should be a feature to digg excellent posts extra cause you hit the nail on the head.
I don't care if it's free and better than skype, I'm not going to use somebody's product who doesn't give two ***** about people any business (as you said, if we can help it).
- earthmansurfer, on 05/07/2008, -0/+1There should be a feature to digg excellent posts extra cause you hit the nail on the head.
- KevinJim, on 05/07/2008, -0/+3If it's not Open Source AND compatible with my Google Account I don't care !
- kd1s, on 05/07/2008, -0/+1The problem is Skype already does video for no charge for skype2skype connections.
The big telcos day is done. They cannot compete.
And Skype needs to find a better parent than Ebay. - polko, on 05/07/2008, -0/+1more alternatives please...
- AndreyGolub, on 05/08/2008, -0/+1not sure it will work, but anyway it's a good idea to scare Skype!
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