The Blog known as Skype-watch.com, Skype-gadgets.com.

Overview of downloadable Skype studies.

Time to attempt to make an overview.... while looking for something specific, but a search on google reveals these :

• An Analysis of the Skype Peer-to-Peer Internel Telephony Protocol
• An Experimental Study of the Skype Peer-to-Peer VoIP System
• Silver Needle in the Skype
• Quantifying Skype user satisfaction
• Characterizing and detecting relayed traffic: A case study using Skype
• VoIP and Skype Security
• Analysis and Signature of Skype VoIP Session Traffic
• Characterizing and Detecting Skype-Relayed Traffic
• Analysis and evaluation of the Skype and Google-Talk VoIP systems
• Overview of the TREC-2006 Blog Track
• Revealing skype traffic: when randomnesNew Post | Post | The Blog known as Skype-watch.com, Skype-gadgets.com. | Your Weblogs | TypePads plays with you
• Future of telecommunication–Internet telephony operator Skype
• A Measurement-based Study of the Skype Peer-to-Peer VoIP Performance
• Fusion of Disruptive Technologies: Lessons from the Skype Case
• Traffic Identification and Overlay Measurement of Skype
• Skype uncovered
• Final project: skype
• Skype and the new regulatory framework
• Social Software in Academia
• Performance Analysis of a P2P-Based VoIP Software
• The Google Muni WiFi Network–Can it Compete with Cellular Voice?
• Can you hear me now: the return of voice to distance learning
• Professors and Students Ask Colleges Not to Hang up on Skype.
• Two VoIP Services Challenge Skype
• Following skype signaling footsteps
• Skype Traffic Identification
• Internet Telephony-Security Issues in Skype TM
• Will IPTV Ride the Peer-to-Peer Stream?
• Skype's Disruptive Potential in the Telecom Market: A Systematic Comparison of Business Models
• Enhanced Skype traffic identification
• Analysis of Skype VoIP traffic in UMTS: End-to-end QoS and QoE measurements
• Open Source VoIP Traffic Monitoring
• Internet telephony jumps off the wires
• Peer-to-peer multimedia applications
• Speech Privacy: Technophobes Need Not Apply
• The Windows Registry as a forensic artefact: Illustrating evidence collection for Internet usage
• A Worm Filter Based on the Number of Unacknowledged Requests
• Fast, Accurate, and Lightweight Real-Time Traffic Identification Method Based on Flow Statistics
• Skype, Elluminate, Adobe Connect, Ivisit: A comparison of Web-Based Video Conferencing Systems
  
• Pictures from the Skype
• EasyVoice: integrating voice synthesis with Skype
• Build a Linux-based skype server for your home phone system
• EasyVoice: integrating voice synthesis with Skype
• Measurement and Analysis of Skype Video Traffic
• Design for Facilitating eBay Transactions Using Skype
• VoIP USB Phone for Skype™
• recognition and Bandwidth Guarantee for Encrypted Internet Voice Traffic: Case Study of Skype
• Skype Fingerprint
• Use of eBays Reputation System in Skype
• IT Security Evaluation of Skype in Corporate Networks
• Secure telephony: SIP/SRTP (PKI) vs. Zfone vs. Skype
• Skype Video Responsiveness to Bandwidth Variations
• Design and Implementation of 2.4 GHz Wireless Skype Phone
• An Analysis of the Skype Peer-to-Peer VoIP System

seems to be an endless list. I give up :)

8.5 million more US households will start using VOIP for their home phone service. VOIP-connected households in the US will approach 30 million by the end of the decade.

" About 8.5 million more US households will start using VOIP for their home phone service over the next two years, according to a new forecast from Pike & Fischer's (P&F's) Broadband Advisory Services/

The number of VOIP-connected households in the US will approach 30 million by the end of the decade, generating more than $11 billion in revenue for cable operators, telephone companies and network-independent providers such as Skype, P&F predicts. P&F expects VOIP-connected households to grow at about 14% annually over the next five years. source : MarketWatch."

My take : is that we'll see how much marketshare goes to which players, but the market potential is there, if you believe report. I also believe that many open source players and competitors of Skype will get a piece of the action. In a diversifying market, I think it's not always an advantage to be closed source. Furthermore, well people don't really care. The existing telecoms and cellphone-operators will just present cheaper (inter)national telephony per minute rates of affordable fixed rates (flat fee). I don't know that many people with cellphones that are willing to upload all sorts of software into their devices. They simply don't know how to do it, and unless the network operator preloads it, they won't really trust it or get to know it either...

study commissioned by Skype and conducted by Harris Interactive of 3000 online adults

Survey shows untimely e-mail losing glow, being replaced by IM ...11 Jul 2008 by Howard Wolinsky 
A new study commissioned by Skype and conducted by Harris Interactive of 3000 online adults confirms that many of us, especially younger people, are opting for other means of communications, including instant messaging, social networks ...
Skype in the US - http://share.skype.com/sites/us/


I hope they counted right this time with their 300 mio users. Hahhaahhaaha

Europe calling via mobiles and VoIP on computers.

Some interesting research to read :

Europeans picking mobiles over landlines
Sydney Morning Herald, Australia - 19 hours ago
... questioned 26730 people _ found that 22 percent are now using their personal computers for phone calls or video chatting via programs such as Skype. ...
Mobiles replacing landlines, survey The Press Association
Europeans Choosing Mobiles Over Landlines AHN
Europeans abandoning landlines, phone booths in favour of mobiles ... EUobserver.com

Digital Influence Index Study; Role Of The Internet For European Consumers

Fleishman-Hillard (via) and Harris Interactive released a Digital Influence Index Study.   The study was conducted in Europe (France, the United Kingdom and Germany) using 5000 people and examines the role that the Internet plays in the lives of European consumers (although the findings are probably accurate across the US, South Africa and Asia). source : WebProNewsUK [webpronewsuk@ientrynetwork.net]

Telegeography : growth in cross-border voice calls dropping.

" Internet telephony hasn’t put phone companies out of business the way it was supposed to. But there's now evidence that Web calling is making it hard for at least international phone companies to continue doing business as usual. A TeleGeography Research survey has found that, for the first time in several decades, the growth rate for total international voice minutes is falling. Volume growth is a crucial factor in international carriers' survival strategies. And TeleGeography analyst Stephan Beckert says the lower rate has a lot to do with Skype Ltd. TeleGeography knows such things because its surveys differentiate between Skype and VoIP as a whole. The Washington D.C. firm has been measuring cross-border voice traffic since the late 1980s. Most of the time that has meant simply adding up the number of calls traveling over traditional TDM (time division multiplexed) circuits owned by international carriers." source.

Skype ARPU / Average Revenue Per User, Revenues. Sample report.

Sample of a report/case study on Skype's operational and financial data by Ovum. Get it here.

Anybody knows where we can get the full report ? Ah found it already here.

"By far the largest revenue earner (around 80% of the total) is SkypeOut; however
the margins for SkypeOut are low because the service competes on price with
other resellers. But margins for other on-net services such as voicemail, which are
sent peer-to-peer and not stored centrally, are very high (Skype currently charges
$20 for one year’s voicemail subscription).  Skype's mission is to be number one in ‘voice on the Internet’ and denies that it is trying to replace conventional phone calls. However, it is certainly the case that much of today's use of Skype is actually about avoiding high-cost international calls, though Skype-to-Skype international traffic represented just 4.4% of total international telecoms traffic in 2006. Key to Skype's mission is to build an ecosystem around its software. Today, this ecosystem includes over 1,000 third-party developers, more than 150 third-party applications and around 200 devices labelled as Skype-compatible. Typical applications include scanning web pages or emails for phone numbers that can then be dialled in one click using Skype, or plug-ins for salesforce.com" source : eBay/Skype.

ARPU : Average Revenue Per User. And what would that be for the Skype Userbase ?

VoIP white papers.

Dec. 6th Webcast: VoIP Visibility, Management, and Control (Packeteer)
VoIP-News IP-PBX Checklist (VoIP-News)
IP Telephony from A to Z: The Complete IP Telephony eBook (ShoreTel)
802.11n: Beyond the Hype (Burton Group) IP Telephony Pocket Guide (ShoreTel)

source : ZDNet Newsletter [newsletters at zdnet.online.com]

“Thoughts on the Social Graph ”." source : Solve Linking IDs Before Dealing with the Social-Graph.

Lee (met him one day in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) just threw me this blog article" Solve Linking IDs Before Dealing with the Social-Graph. by Lee S Dryburgh @ 6:54 pm.    Filed under "Social Layer",  Identity,  Social Networking OK first up - I put this site up more as a placeholder for my current academic work. I needed a space to portray the academic persona rather than the more common business persona. After getting some stub articles in place, I’ve left it alone as I’ve been thoughtfully at work. I feel the time is now right to begin speaking out on areas that I have been thinking about. I will start by replying to Brad’s call for feedback on his “Thoughts on the Social Graph

   ”." source : Solve Linking IDs Before Dealing with the Social-Graph.

Recommended literature for people active in the IM, Web 2.0. , Voice 2.0. world.

Employees Drive Adoption of Instant Messaging, Skype and Unified Communications in the Enterprise.

While Skype is being used as a secure p2p 256-AES encrypted delivery mechanism, we have www.facetime.com moving for with a press release on "Employees Drive Adoption of Instant Messaging, Skype and Unified Communications in the Enterprise". I would call this perfect timing. I would not want to be an IT-manager today in a network where Skype has entered as an allowed but not supported application. Time for cleanup.

Here is the press release.

Contact:  Sarah Carter, FACETIME COMMUNICATIONS EMEA
+44 (0) 7970 729068 scarter@facetime.com skype : sl_carter

Employees Drive Adoption of Instant Messaging, Skype and Unified Communications in the Enterprise

FaceTime® first to deliver security, management and compliance for Web browsing, instant messaging and UC applications under a single point of control

FOSTER CITY, Calif., Sept. 10, 2007 – Responding to the changing nature of Internet traffic, FaceTime Communications today announced the first network security appliance that provides comprehensive security and management across the broadest set of Web and real-time communications applications under a single point of control.  The Unified Security Gateway (USG) integrates management, security and compliance for Web communications, consumer-driven greynet applications such as public instant messaging (IM), Skype and P2P, and enterprise-class unified communications platforms such as Microsoft’s Office Communications Server and IBM Lotus Sametime.

The New Internet
Internet communications have changed. Today, user-initiated traffic is no longer limited to e-mail and Web browsing, but dominated by highly evasive greynets – real time communications such as IM, Skype, P2P and hundreds of other unique applications and networks. Today’s workforce is introducing these consumer networks into the enterprise to improve communications at work and to stay connected with their extended social networks.

Responding to this end-user demand, many large organizations are deploying enterprise-grade Unified Communications platforms such as Microsoft Office Communications Server and IBM Lotus Sametime.

“IM has become the launch pad from which other forms of communication or meetings are established – a Web conference or voice over IP call for example,” said David Mario Smith, research analyst for Gartner, Inc.. “The consumer IM client has become a UC client, and organizations are rapidly adopting enterprise IM and UC platforms. Today, we’re seeing a 25 percent to 30 percent penetration of enterprise IM, and we expect to see nearly 100 percent by 2010.”

According to preliminary results of FaceTime’s Annual Greynets Survey to be released this fall, organizations that deploy enterprise IM platforms continue to see significant use of consumer IM.  In fact, the penetration of IM systems in organizations from providers including AOL, Yahoo, MSN and Google, combined with enterprise IM deployments, has reached 96 percent according to Osterman Research, Inc. 

These trends create a heterogeneous network environment that must be secured and managed by IT. Real-time Internet applications pose myriad network and information security risks because they provide vectors for malware, intellectual property loss, identity theft and compliance risks.
Consumer applications, to encourage the broadest possible adoption, are particularly adept at traversing existing security infrastructures. The challenge for IT administrators is to gain visibility and control to ensure the safe and productive use of these applications.

“Employees are driving the changes to the Internet traffic that we’re seeing on our network. We need more visibility into both the real-time consumer applications like IM as well as the Internet-based applications that employees are using,” said Nick Clark, IT manager for law firm Simmons & Simmons. “These two worlds are converging as real-time applications are using the network paths of traditional Web traffic. We used to worry about the security of e-mail, Web traffic and IM as separate vectors, but now the increase in volume and variety of new applications means that we need a more holistic solution. The ability to manage and control all of these modalities as one has a big impact on our bottom line, in terms of both ease of management and total cost of ownership.”

Secure Web Gateway for Today’s Internet
The FaceTime Unified Security Gateway (USG) is a secure Web gateway appliance that enables enterprises to control real-time communications. USG integrates management, security and compliance of Web communications, consumer-driven greynet applications such as public IM, Skype and P2P and enterprise-class Unified Communications suites such as Microsoft’s Office Communications Server and IBM Lotus Sametime. From a single platform, organizations can enable and enforce safe and productive use of these applications and protect the network against inbound malware, mitigate information leakage risks and insure that corporate, regulatory and e-discovery needs are met.

The USG integrates gateway malware protection and Web filtering with FaceTime’s best-in-class IM hygiene and archiving, in a purpose-built, hardened appliance. With this single point of control, organizations can gain complete visibility of all Internet communications and reduce total cost of ownership using a simpler solution that is easily administered by the IT staff. Key capabilities of USG include:

• Centralized policy management and control – single solution for setting and enforcing policy for all elements of Web browsing, UC and IM in use in the enterprise
• Web Filtering – powerful policies to control Web access, prevent malware at the gateway and obtain complete visibility over Web communications
• Content hygiene and security – virus scanning of file attachments, worm blocking, spIM protection and keyword content filtering for both UC-generated as well as federated public IM
• Regulatory compliance archiving and workflow – guaranteed logging of all UC and public IM communications including capture and archival of file attachments, tamper-resistant storage of messages, and robust and easy-to-use review and audit capabilities
• Easy administration and management – browser-based management interface for policy configuration, compliance workflow and message retrieval for e-discovery
• Flexible reporting – improved decision-making about security issues and Internet usage through integrated real-time reporting and monitoring, and compatibility with leading third-party reporting applications

“Employees will always default to the tools they know and understand, regardless of what the IT department sanctions as official company policy,” said Frank Cabri, vice president of marketing and product management for FaceTime. “What these employees do not realize is that when using these applications on the enterprise network, their behavior can put their organizations at risk. FaceTime’s solutions provide IT with the controls to manage consumer-oriented applications as a component of its sanctioned Unified Communications strategy.”

Availability and Pricing
Unified Security Gateway will be available in September from FaceTime and its worldwide channel partners, with pricing starting at $4,995.  For more information please visit www.facetime.com.
About FaceTime Communications
FaceTime Communications enables the safe and productive use of instant messaging, Web usage and Unified Communications platforms. Ranked number one by IDC for four consecutive years, FaceTime's award-winning solutions are used by more than 900 customers – including nine of the ten largest U.S. banks – for security, management and compliance of real-time communications. FaceTime supports or has strategic partnerships with all leading public and enterprise IM network providers, including AOL, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Skype, IBM, Reuters, and Jabber. 

FaceTime is headquartered in Foster City, California. For more information visit http://www.facetime.com or call 888-349-FACE.
# # #
FaceTime, FaceTime Communications, Unified Security Gateway, FaceTime Security Labs, IMPact Index, SpywareGuide.com and the FaceTime logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of FaceTime Communications, Inc. Other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Nokia takes it all. Well, Allmost...

Read this : “ Despite its underperformance in North America, the Finnish tech giant took 48% of market share. RIM came in second.  2006 was the year of the converged device with 80 million smart phones shipped worldwide, according to analysts - and Nokia remains the unequivocal leader selling almost one in two smart mobiles.  A new report from research company IDC has found that during 2006, converged device sales rose by 42 per cent, bolstered by falling prices. Some phones are now below $200, encouraging the clever phones to spread beyond corporate users and into early adopters in the consumer market, according to the analysts.” source.

Study on clashing worlds of traditional and new media

“ The worlds of traditional and new media are already clashing, and it’s a conflict that continues to expand. However, a second type of conflict is brewing – one that could cause major rifts among traditional partners. For media companies, it’s time to pursue different and somewhat opposing business models…and navigate the media divide.

A new media world has arrived. Pioneered by teens and gadget-savvy professionals, it has quickly spread into virtually every consumer segment, and started to encroach on traditional media. The number of unique visitors to MySpace.com has now surpassed the 50 million mark – something akin to the number of U.S. households that tune into the Super Bowl.¹ Every day, consumers around the world watch about 100 million videos on YouTube – putting that number in context, the top 15 British primetime television shows combined attract about 100 million viewers, as do the top 4 U.S. shows.²

To examine the inherent tension between new and traditional media and explore future industry scenarios, we conducted a comprehensive study that included interviews with leaders of media companies and an in-depth analysis of the factors that are shaping the industry outlook.”

source

Mobile Market Status - 3GSM World Congress

I just got this from the 3GSM World Congress . Sharing it now. Really interesting study to read.

VOIP: Quality, Ease of Use, Security Chesire, Kowarsch, Gast, Zimmermann

Just picked this up  “ three presentations on VOIP implementation from the 2006 Emerging Telephony Conference.

Stuart Chesire and Benjamin Kowarsch discuss Zeroconf and Bonjour, which make Asterisk clusters work without asking users to perform complex configuration. Installations of these server clusters could make wifi VOIP in hotels many times easier to deploy.

VOIP has only recently become practical, with the comprehensive rollout of broadband to consumers. Wireless roaming is still a challenge. Matthew Gast examines why VOIP is so hard in 802.11 networks. The trick is making VOIP devices act more like cell phones, making load balancing and roaming easier.

Whenever potentially sensitive conversations are broadcast over the air, encryption is critical. Philip Zimmermann, the creator of PGP encryption, takes a look at the history of public key infrastructures and concludes that the industry needs to move away from centrally managed key servers. He presents his solution to VOIP encryption, including the ability to detect eavesdropping.”

source.

Publications of the International Engineering Consortium.

Wireless  (36 publications)

IP Centric Networks (NGN)  (44 publications)

Broadband  (49 publications)

Network Operations  (63 publications)

Content/Applications/Services  (41 publications)

Enterprise  (37 publications)

Electronic Design  (9 publications)

Optical  (7 publications)

 

http://www.iec.org/pubs/

Listing of Business Directory Categories on VoIP.

It shows you :

• Voip Providers
• Voip Consultants
• Voip Hardware
• Voip Software
• Voip Wholesale

source : www.voip365.org

 

Study on why Companies should regulate use of Skype

This report (behind the paywall Telecom Paper…) evaluates the risks of Skype and gives an example of a Skype policy and rules for installation and use of the software by companies.

source : Companies should regulate use of Skype - study

Related.

Skype Network Administrator’s Guide Skype 3.0 Beta

This guide provides information to help you understand how Skype works, how secure Skype is, and how to manage Skype in the context of an enterprise environment.

http://www.skype.com/security/guide-for-network-admins-30beta.pdf

In-depth report on Skype usage and growth by Hudson Barton. Skype Growth: Analysis and Forecast for 2007.

December 31, 2006  Skype Growth: Analysis and Forecast for 2007
An in-depth look at this essential borderless communicator; how has it grown and where is it going. Demographics and statistics galore.

Summary of Conclusions

• This is a study primarily of Skype usage worldwide. By looking closely at the "concurrent online" statistic, we are able to discern trends and demographics in its growth pattern.
  


• Overall Growth: Skype will continue to grow in 2007, adding 12 million new "real" users (to its current 21.3 million). This is a faster pace than 2006, demonstrating that growth remains exponential.
  


• Regional Differentiation: In the Asia/Pacific region, growth has lagged other regions but may start to catch up to the Americas and to Europe/Africa in 2007. The drag on growth in the non-Western world is of course related to broadband availability and computer affordability, but is also political as state-run telephone monopolies brace themselves for the onslaught of less expensive IP based communication.
  


• Enterprise Differentiation: Business usage of Skype has not yet begun to outpace consumer usage. High-end features and services that are now being added differentiate Skype from small VOIP carriers whose chief advantage is low cost long-distance calling.
  


• Consumer Differentiation: Low-cost Skype-enabled WIFI handsets that have recently come to market differentiate Skype from large VOIP and switched-line carriers. For the first time, in 2007, the consumer will use Skype for "normal" everyday telephony.
  


• Profitability: Skype will continue with price-based promotion in 2007, though less aggressively than in 2006. Price increases will not hinder growth.
  


• Skype will struggle less than its competitors in 2007.
  


• Improved and expanding broadband wireless networks are making a difference in how Skype is used and how it is perceived.
  


• Skype is becoming a sort of social and collaborative network, supporting concepts of group-ware and Web 2.0.

Read more at : Skype Growth: Analysis and Forecast for 2007

Skype, Vonage, Packet8, Gizmproject, sunrocket.com. Internet Traffic comparison on Alexaholic.

source : Alexaholic blends Alexa website traffic graphs with a lightweight ajax-enhanced interface to satisfy hard-core Alexa traffic chart junkies – aka Alexaholics. www.alexaholic.com

The 50 Most Influential People in VoIP in 2006.

The world of VoIP changes as fast as it grows. This list represents the people, companies, and entities we believe will exert significant influence on IP Telephony in 2007. right here :

http://www.voip-news.com/feature/voip-top-50-111306/

My friend from Skypejournal.com are listed too !

Experimental Study of the Skype Peer-to-Peer VoIP System.

Despite its popularity, relatively little is known about the traffic characteristics of the Skype VoIP system and how they differ from other P2P systems. We describe an experimental study of Skype VoIP traffic conducted over a five month period, where over 82 million datapoints were collected regarding the population of online clients, the number of supernodes, and their traffic characteristics. This data was collected from September 1, 2005 to January 14, 2006. Experiments on this data were done in a black-box manner, i.e., without knowing the internals or specifics of the Skype system or messages, as Skype encrypts all user traffic and signaling traffic payloads. The results indicate that although the structure of the Skype system appears to be similar to other P2P systems, particularly KaZaA, there are several significant differences in traffic. The number of active clients shows diurnal and work-week behavior, correlating with normal working hours regardless of geography. The population of supernodes in the system tends to be relatively stable; thus node churn, a significant concern in other systems, seems less problematic in Skype. The typical bandwidth load on a supernode is relatively low, even if the supernode is relaying VoIP traffic.

The paper aims to aid further understanding of a significant, successful P2P VoIP system, as well as provide experimental data that may be useful for future design and modeling of such systems. These results also imply that the nature of a VoIP P2P system like Skype differs fundamentally from earlier P2P systems that are oriented toward file-sharing, and music and video download applications, and deserves more attention from the research community.

Source : http://saikat.guha.cc/pub/iptps06-skype/ 
by Saikat Guha / Cornell University / saikat@cs.cornell.edu &
Neil Daswani, Ravi Jain / Google {daswani, ravijain}@google.com

Related info :  Jim Courtney digging through the entrails looking for insight. I was going to list www.coobol.com here with their Skype Supernode map but they dissapeared. A pitty.

 Other relevant study : Philippe Biondi's and Fabrice Desclaux's Silver needle study

.

Different ways of making a VoIP Call. Summary.

This summary could be useful info for a slideshows presentation on VoIP with target audience : basic knowledge or simply nothing. By Sunny Keer, expert and an avid user of VoIP technology :

“ Making a Call Using VoIP. Voice over Internet Protocol also known as VoIP, IP Telephony, Internet Telephony and Broadband Phone, is revolutionising the way in which we make long distance phone calls. VoIP has made it possible to provide a method of communication very similar to the standard telephone network, using an Internet connection. The increases in Internet bandwidth, when combined with the advances of audio compression and machine speed has allowed VoIP services to be capable of a high quality, sometimes even better than the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network). However, many users are also likely to accept a drop in quality for the benefit of free long distance calls that using VoIP gives you. This being the case, an even wider range of people are able and likely to use these systems. It is not surprising therefore that VoIP is increasingly being used today. With VoIP, there's not just one way to make a call. There are actually three:

 

• Analogue Telephone Adapter (ATA)
• IP Phones
• Computer-to-Computer

Instant messenger programs based on VoIP such as Skype, Yahoo! Messenger, and Gizmo Project also have the ability to be mobile, enabling you to receive and make phone calls using VoIP technology.”

This url lead me to http://www.voip-service-reviews.com/voip-articles.html

US Internet Advertising Outlook 2006 - 2010. Internet Advertising Continues to Evolve at Rapid Clip. Internet advertising spending to total advertising spending met or surpassed the growth rate of traditional media advertising spending.

“ Internet Advertising Continues to Evolve at Rapid Clip. For years, we have observed that internet advertising would become especially interesting when the contribution of Internet advertising spending to total advertising spending met or surpassed the growth rate of traditional media advertising spending. Our point was that when the contribution of the new medium (online) met the growth rate of old media (offline) it would become apparent that very real share loss had begun.” Full report in PDF here.

Niklas Zennstrom on Media, Developing Technology Gap, Privacy. Niklas Zennstrom on Skype Services, Mobile Phone Plans.

As read on www.skype-news.com  Mathaba's Louis Szondy recently interviewed Niklas Zennstrom, Skype's co-founder and chief executive, in London about the Skype revolution, privacy, security and Skype's business plans. Niklas Zennstrom who once was billed as one of the greatest threats to the music industry when he founded the file-sharing program KaZaA, now heads Skype, a company some see as the greatest threat to the traditional telecoms industry.

Major studies on P2P : P2P Growth Continues Unabated. VoiPocalypse Now: How Google, Skype, and Yahoo! Will Change Fixed Telcos Model and more..

Something I found on www.marketresearch.com. Sitting behind a paywal of course.

• P2P Growth Continues Unabated
• P2P Networks: Vendors Tackle an Emerging Shift in Partner Management
• VoiPocalypse Now: How Google, Skype, and Yahoo! Will Change Fixed Telcos Model
• Grid Computing: A Vertical Market Perspective 2006-2011
• Mobile Innovations from Asia Pacific
• Turbulence in the Global Economy: The Case for Peer-to-Peer Online Lending Exchanges
• North American Enterprise Peer-to-Peer Telephony Solutions
• 2005 Grid Computing and Storage Survey Shows Targets That Are Ripe for Vendors
• Riding the wave of legal P2P
• Digital Music: Legitimising the P2P Model The Industry's Pariah Steps out of the Twilight Zone
• Grid Computing and Storage Utility Vendors Should Sharpen Product and Service Offerings

as found on www.marketresearch.com but not for free … What did you think !

Dutch VoIP subscribers pass 1 million in Q2

Digital telephony in the Netherlands is on track to replace the traditional PSTN or ISDN connection. In the second quarter, the number of residential VoIP subscriptions sold passed the 1 million mark, to reach 1.1 million at the end of June. To defend and maintain its market leadership KPN gave full throttle to its VoIP services. A couple of months after launching its InternetPlusBellen bundled VoIP and internet service, KPN introduced ‘Slim’, a VoIP service targeted at households without a KPN broadband internet connection. In the battle to become the exclusive provider of telecom services to the customer, Orange now also offers unbundled VoIP services. Looking at the share of customers also buying a VoIP service, the rival ADSL providers are most successful in selling VoIP services, while in absolute numbers the cable operators lead the residential VoIP market. However, KPN is catching up rapidly. The role of independent VoIP providers is marginal, indicating the market is not yet re | 31 August 2006 | EUR 135.00 | More

 

Ripesense. Maybe they should make something like this for software and hardware technology too ; non-sense or shit-sense.

«ripeSense® is the worlds first intelligent sensor label that changes colour to indicate the ripeness of fruit. The ripeSense® sensor works by reacting to the aromas released by the fruit as it ripens. The sensor is initially red and graduates to orange and finally yellow. By matching the colour of the sensor with your eating preferences, you can now accurately choose fruit as ripe as you like it.»  In analogy :  I think scientists (not marketeers…) should make something like like this for software and hardware too, referring to the shittyness of the product…  Meaning : when to consume buy this product, how many global complaints have been gathered, which release is this ? how much did the previous version cost, how many units were sold ? when will there be a new release (withing how many months after this one. if it has a helpdesk and calldesk for support and all that. and most importantlty : what is the degree of difference (how many lies and misconstrued reality) between the facts and the marketing hype. Showing how long the manufacturor has been in business might also be an indication of the quality of the produce. Same goes for the distributor… Maybe this already exists for software, hardware… I don’t know.. Just thought it up. Somebdody should build it. Let’s call it the SHIT-SENSE or NON-SENSE (what does not make sense..). Actually I found something called www.epinions.com that looks a bit like that.

 

VoIP Ranking by Subscriber: Q2 2006

«VoIP is increasingly dominated by the cable companies, challenged only by eBay and a few independents.  The dark side of this new new industry is the number of key players for whom no public statistics are available. As long as some major players are not reporting subscriber totals, growth, and churn, we will not have a clear picture of VoIP. Note that we may not be aware of all VoIP providers, and therefore this is not a complete list.» source.

Benchmark report for the international carrier industry.

«Updated continually since 1989, TeleGeography has become the benchmark report for the international carrier industry. TeleGeography provides a completely unique data set on international traffic flows, accompanied by statistics on international voice pricing, costs, and market shares as well as analysis of mobile traffic and voice over IP. In addition, TeleGeography’s supplementary International Telecom Almanac features summary data on the world’s major fiber-optic systems and global Internet backbones as excerpted from our companion reports, published under the auspices of the TeleGeography Research Group.»

Source.