VoSKY, Skype Gateways Available Globally

The Skype VoSKY Exchange family of rack-mountable PBX-to-Skype gateways are now available worldwide, VoSKY says. The gateways allow businesses to make and receive free Skype-to-Skype calls with customers and partners, as well as between company offices, as an adjunct to existing business phone systems and calling services.

The co-branded Skype VoSKY Exchange 9040 and 9140 also add VoIP applications such as Click-to-Call, PBX Remote Access, Multi-site PBX Networking and Skype Trunking to existing phone systems.

Some will question whether the gateways are widely suitable for enterprise use. Well, they certainly are suitable for small and mid-sized business use. Enterprise policies might be more challenging, partly in terms of security, partly when complete call logging or recording is required.

For organizations without stringent call recording or logging requirements, the VoSKY gateways are an augmentation solution, used with existing phone service, not as a replacement. If the Skype network goes down, all calls simply are handled by the IP or TDM phone system as they normally would be.

XO Communications, Tech Data in Distribution Deal

XO Communications has signed a distribution deal with Tech Data Corporation, giving Tech Data partners IP communications services for small and medium-sized businesses.

Tech Data will offer its resellers and systems integrators XO's converged IP voice and data services, including XO SIP, which delivers converged voice and data services to businesses with IP-PBX systems over a single, high-speed connection.

XO SIP delivers converged voice and data services to businesses with IP-PBX systems over a single, high-speed connection. XO SIP features include unlimited local calling; unlimited site to site calling; long distance; dedicated Internet access; optional voice compression and online management.

Sale Ahead for EarthLink?

EarthLink Executive Vice President Mike Lunsford, who acted as interim CEO after the death of former CEO Garry Betty, is leaving the company at the end of the year. Earthlink CTO Jon Kerner also is said to be leaving, as is Vice President of Production Operations Eric Alfaro. Kip Morgan, former EarthLink Vice President for Direct Marketing, Access and Audience, also has gone elsewhere.

When such things happen, one normally expects a sale of assets, which is what many observers expected when Rolla Huff took over at EarthLink.

T-Mobile, 3 Join 3G Networks

T-Mobile and 3 are pooling their U.K. 3G transmission networks, a move expected to reduce mobile tower sites by about 5,000 and save £2 billion in capital spending.

Kevin Russell, 3's UK chief executive, said the joint venture deal includes contingencies should either company be taken over, but both expect it to be a long relationship.

The move is not unprecedented, but still is unusual. Though not dictated by regulatory requirements, the move essentially creates a wholesale entity both retail networks will use to operate their businesses. It is not a structural separation, but certainly a functional separation.

By the end of 2009 the two companies plan to have 13,000 sites, covering 98 percent of the population with a mobile broadband network capable of speeds up to 7.2 Mbps.

Wireline Substitution, Mobile Plans, Broadband

KPN seems to have found a way to take market share in the German wireless market: give customers unlimited calling for a flat fee, avoid phone subsidies or selling phones, and keep things simple. The growing number of wireless-only customers apparently is helping, as one obviously needs more minutes in the plan to cover the additional volume when all calls in and out are taken on the mobile.

For $108 a month, Base subscribers can make unlimited free calls anywhere in Germany. A comparable offer by Vodafone costs $144. The sister E-Plus brand KPN supports also has shifted to this "no frills" approach.

In the third quarter 2007 subscriptions wereup 16 percent year-over-year, to some 14.1 million. E-Plus operating profit also rose 79 percent over that period, with profit margins of 38 percent.

Of course, KPN will have to figure out how to translate that success into similar good fortune in the mobile broadband segment, where it might not be quite so easy to maintain robust margins of this sort. Still, KPN's approach to the market is an example of what a carrier can do in an environment where phones are unlocked.

As Verizon moves to "unlock" its CDMA network, and as the C block 700-MHz spectrum goes into operation, also with an "unlocked" approach to device use, one wonders how soon somebody will try this in the U.S. market as well. Cricket Communications, one might argue, already has been chasing the wireline replacement market, but without the unlocked phone component.

FCC Reimposes Market Share Cap

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has voted to impose a limit on the size cable operators can reach on a nationwide basis, limiting any single company from controlling more than 30 percent of total subscribers. The FCC in the past has maintained such a rule, but the limit was invalidated by a court decision in 2001.

Consumer groups say a strict limit on cable television system ownership is needed to prevent them from dominating television programming and Internet services and from blocking video competitors.

As a practical matter, the FCC action could affect merger deals Comcast Corp. would like to pull off, as Comcast already has about 27 percent. The rule might also affect smaller operators like Charter Communications and Cablevision , as it might rule out their acquisition by Comcast.

New Role for ENUM?

Analysts at the Yankee Group think there might be a new market developing for network elements or functions that provide the electronic numbering function that today is provided by peering federations. Such IP Routing Directories functionally provide the basic information required for interconnecting discrete VoIP networks.

Proponents of ENUM have argued that the business benefits derive from operational cost savings and service quality made possible by avoiding traditional PSTN routing infrastructure (SS7) to complete VoIP calls destined for a non-local VoIP
endpoint.

To date, business issues and volume issues have proven to be stumbling blocks. Large carriers make enough money from interconnection that any move to models that dispense with such payments are undesirable. That's the business issue.

And though native VoIP networks obviously require some sort of interconnection fabric, the fact remains that VoIP still is a small amount of total volume.

For the moment, legacy interconnection requirements remain essential. The percent of originating VoIP calls that are actually destined for an IP endpoint are sufficiently small that it might not make terrifically great sense to shift to an IPRD function of some sort.

Ideally, IP-to-IP connections are preferable. But the cost and quality issues might be a growing irritant rather than a compelling necessity for a large carrier, at the moment.

The pain of media conversion and database dips might not be creating enough pain to require an immediate shift to ENUM, in other words. Not to ignore the revenue implications for large carriers, either.