• Milo

    Free for Now

    Jan. 1, 2004
    Milo
    Visitors to the Skype (rhymes with hype) website who want to escape the clutches of regional telephone companies with their seemingly ever-escalating service fees and dubious taxes will surely welcome the message posted there: ??Skype is the new must-have application.??  So, what is Skype? Developed by two Swedish programmers, Skype, quite simply, enables users to make free phone calls anytime anywhere. You don??t need a telephone; your computer with a broadband connection to the Internet, a sound card, and a headset with a built-in microphone are all that??s required. And the software is a free download from the Skype website (www.skype.com).  Some of the features touted for Skype include free unlimited phone calls to anywhere in the world, excellent sound quality, and ease of use. It works with all firewalls and routers and all calls are encrypted to protect the users?? privacy. Of course, you only can communicate with other Skype users.  Making calls over the Internet is not a new phenomenon. It??s been around for quite some time in the form of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). But the quality of service available with VoIP is substandard at best. For one, the sound quality of VoIP is less than that from a traditional phone. Also, setting up calls can be difficult due to firewalls and even basic routers, which means call-completion rates are low. As noted on the Skype website, today 50% of residential computers are unable to communicate with traditional VoIP software.  Based on what??s described as a true peer-to-peer (P2P) application, Skype circumvents many of the problems common to traditional VoIP. As explained on Skype??s website, ??A true P2P system is one where all nodes in a network join together dynamically to participate in traffic routing, processing, and bandwidth-intensive tasks that otherwise would be handled by central servers.?? No central servers means no costly server infrastructure. Skype??s P2P system utilizes the processing and networking power of each user??s computer to expand the resources of the network itself. What this means to each user is more calls completed and voice quality equal to or better than traditional phone service.  A recent review of Skype, published on ExtremeTech.com, found it to be useful for anyone making frequent long-distance calls with a penchant for saving money. Other positive attributes include ease of setup, very good audio quality, and call encryption, and it??s free. On the downside, Skype lacks voice-mail capabilities. According to the review, sometime in the future, Skype will be able to place and receive calls to and from regular landline phones, although probably at some cost.  Just how widespread Skype will become is anyone??s guess. There have been more than 3 million downloads of the software and it??s still in Beta testing. Currently, its main attraction is no-charge worldwide calling, but as new capabilities are added along with their associated charges, can it compete effectively with traditional phone companies? With phone-call rates at only pennies per minute now, Skype will need an extensive and really inexpensive option package to be considered as a first-tier player. And don??t forget the FCC, which might step in with some restrictive regulations to limit the effectiveness of Skype. Your comments are welcome.Paul Milo
    Editor
    [email protected]    Return to EE Home PagePublished by EE-Evaluation Engineering
    All contents ?? 2003 Nelson Publishing Inc.
    No reprint, distribution, or reuse in any medium is permitted
    without the express written consent of the publisher.

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