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Joel 
Joined: 23 Mar 1999
Location: Mornington Peninsula
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| Post subject: Free Global Calls over the Internet |  |
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Global calls for free as file-sharing bares its subversive edge
I found this on: http://www.auspaytv.com.au/forums//index.php?showtopic=502 (hopefully everyone can view that), so I'm not sure of the original source. I'm downloading the program now, to try it out.
http://www.skype.com
| Quote: | I received a call the other day from Glen, a New York-based worker for IBM. He was homesick and wanted to talk to someone in Australia. We chatted for 20 minutes about the weather, cricket and rugby, and the state of the IT industry. We said our farewells and went our separate ways.
The cost of this phone call was exactly nothing, not a cent. We spoke over the internet in real time, and the voice quality was better than on a telephone. We sat at our computers and the conversation wove through the net just like an email - except that we were talking to each other, and at no cost.
We used a system called Skype; the software can be downloaded free from the net.
It was developed by the same people who invented Kazaa, the peer-to-peer file-sharing software that became notorious for giving people the ability to swap music.
Kazaa has now been sold to Sharman Networks, a company with Australian connections, which continues its merry dance with the copyright nazis around the world. The file-sharing technology used by Kazaa has been adapted to a potentially subversive use - the provision of free telephony around the globe.
This is how it works: you go to Skype's website and download the software. It's free. You then install it on your PC (no Mac version available yet), plug in a microphone and speakers (you need a sound card), and off you go.
You can call any other Skype user in the world, just like calling them on the phone. It's not a big problem if they're not connected - just email them and tell them to install the software.
Skype has only been going for a couple of months but already has hundreds of thousands of users, and it's not hard to see why. Free telephony has been a dream ever since Arthur C. Clarke forecast its inevitability in the 1960s.
The price of telephone calls has been dropping ever since phones were invented, but we have been some way from free calls, particularly internationally, until now.
Skype promises a revolution in telephony as significant as that which rocked the recorded music industry. Maybe even bigger, because what Skype is doing is not illegal.
And there's a lot more people interested in free phone calls than there are in free music. The internet knows no boundaries, and most computers being sold nowadays have a speaker and microphone.
What makes Skype so special? It has been possible to send voice over the internet for some time, and so-called VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) technology has become almost mainstream.
All the big telecommunications companies, including Telstra, are implementing it.
And there's the rub: the telcos are backing VoIP because they want to maintain control of the network. If they control the network, they can make you pay for it.
The merging of voice and data networks is inevitable, and the Internet Protocol has become the standard, so VoIP makes sense.
But the problem with standard VoIP, and with all internet telephony before Skype, is its reliance on Network Address Translation (NAT) and the fact that calls cannot get past firewalls.
Skype uses a new technology it calls FastTrack, which is similar to the P2P (peer-to-peer) technology used by Kazaa.
VoIP systems also rely on a central directory, Skype does not. You log on, you can see who else is logged on, and you call them direct.
The interface is intuitive and easy to use. It's very similar to instant messaging - except it's real-time voice.
The guys behind Skype are Niklas Zennstrom and Kanus Friis, two Swedish entrepreneurs who have developed it with the same smart group of Estonian programmers they worked with on Kazaa. They say they intend to create a global telecommunications company. I say go for it.
What's the business model? Hard to say, when Skype is free, but once they get a decent user base it's easy to imagine a lot of value-added services they could offer, like voice messaging and image file sharing.
They have already announced that they will be offering connections between Skype and normal phones soon, and that they will charge for that.
I have now made a few calls with Skype, and it works. Not only that, it works well. It is no more difficult to use than a telephone. Voice quality is superior, though it doesn't let you both talk at once, which leads to those pregnant pauses while you wait for the other person to speak.
I have broadband at home, but it works OK with dial-up as well, so long as there is no other traffic on your connection.
The only reason I am not using it more is because most of my friends and associates are not yet online.
It's a case of Metcalfe's law - the utility of a network increases by the square of the number of users.
Telcos should be afraid - very afraid. The file-sharers have already put the fear of God into the recording companies. |
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The Prototype 
Paint my face with a good-for-nothin smile.
Joined: 23 Apr 2003
Location: Hobart, Tasmania
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London Dave 
Ješte jedna pivo prosím
Joined: 16 Dec 1998
Location: Iceland on Thames
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| The Prototype wrote: | Now that is a damn good idea, shame I don't know anyone overseas  |
Yeah, it'd be real handy if ya did. |
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Blanch 
Joined: 01 Jul 2002
Location: Back in Perth!
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Yeah but think of the guys who work in remote Australia who want to call home - me!!!
NAT has been the bain of my life, with both families sitting behind routers and firewalls. I'll be testing this one out for sure.
_________________
My oxygen is Collingwood. Without it I die.
All WA Magpies join the Western Magpies now:
http://www.westernmagpies.com
(At least go and sign the guestbook). |
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