December 22, 2008 – 7:05 pm | by VoIP | 97 Views
pDespite the constant chant for eBay to sell off Skype since last year’s $1.4 billion write-down, the voice company has continued to generate a steady stream of buzz - mostly good, but with an embarrassing gasp along the way.nbsp;nbsp;/p
pSkype celebrated its fifth year of operation over the summer and now has more than 370 million registered users. The company brags that its peer-to-peer VoIP/IM/video client software is in use in nearly every country on the planet and that people have made more than 100 billion minutes worth of free Skype-to-Skype calls.nbsp;/p
pSkype announced a lot of big news this year including: the launch of a whole bunch of mobile phone clients; a deal with Digium to create a channel manager for the Asterisk IP PBX platform, which enabled Skype tonbsp;benbsp;integrated properly into an SMB; the arrival of new executives, including a new CEO, CTO and Chief Strategy Officer;nbsp;plus, a new version of the Skype client for good measure.nbsp;/p
pOn the public policy front, Skype pressed (without success) the FCC to force wireless carriers to open up networks to outside devices and called VoIP dead. Christopher Libertelli,nbsp;Skype’snbsp;North American senior director of government and regulatory affairs, has probably spent more time on Capital Hill over the past 12 months than some Congressmen. It’ll be interesting to see how friendly the incoming Obama administration is to Skype’s desires.nbsp;nbsp;/p
pThenbsp;revelation that Skype’s Chinese partner TOM Onlinenbsp;monitored text messages and user datanbsp;was embarrassingnbsp;to say the least.nbsp; Speculation also continues to boil up on a wiretapping back door for governments to conduct intercepts of Skype calls and messaging.nbsp;/p
pa href=http://www.fiercevoip.com/story/will-ebay-auction-skype/2008-09-12Will Ebay auction Skype?/abr /a href=http://www.fiercevoip.com/story/skype-voip-dead/2008-09-17Skype: VoIP is dead - FierceVoIP/abr /a href=http://www.fiercevoip.com/story/astricon-2008-working-through-digium-skype-announcement/2008-09-25AstriCon 2008: Working through the Digium/Skype Announcement …/abr /a href=http://www.fiercevoip.com/story/spotlight-skype-never-stops-moving/2008-12-10SPOTLIGHT: Skype never stops moving - FierceVoIP/abr /a href=http://www.fiercevoip.com/story/spotlight-skype-other-birthday/2008-09-09SPOTLIGHT: Skype - The other birthday - FierceVoIP/abr /a href=http://www.fiercevoip.com/story/fiercevoip-leaders-jonathan-christensen-gm-audio-and-video-skype/2008-09-11FierceVoIP Leaders: Jonathan Christensen, GM of audio and video for Skype/aa href=http://www.fiercevoip.com/story/spotlight-skype-other-birthday/2008-09-09br //aa href=http://www.fiercevoip.com/story/spotlight-skype-not-happy-fcc-policy/2008-10-13SPOTLIGHT: Skype’s Libertelli likes Levin for FCC Chairman, current policy not so much/abr /a href=http://www.fiercevoip.com/story/china-monitoring-skype-calls/2008-10-02Is China monitoring Skype calls?/abr /a href=http://www.fiercevoip.com/story/skype-responds-security-breach/2008-10-03Skype responds to security breach - FierceVoIP/abr /a href=http://www.fiercevoip.com/story/skype-back-door/2008-07-25A Skype Back Door? /abr /a href=http://www.fiercevoip.com/story/telco-skype-killer/2008-05-06The Telco Skype Killer?/abr /a href=http://www.fiercevoip.com/story/skype-s-mobilized-phone-play/2008-04-28Skype’s mobilized phone play/a/p