Section 6.3. Computer-Centric Phone Features


6.3. Computer-Centric Phone Features

Computer-centric phones have relatively few features compared to the phone-centric providers in the previous chapter. Why? Because phone features are primarily applied to the receiving party, and computer-centric phones still have trouble receiving calls in many cases.

Honestly, the feature list does lag behind even traditional phones. However, many of the features that traditional telephones and phone-centric vendors seem most proud of don't apply to the computer-centric services. Long distance? Cheap on Vonage, but free on Skype. Caller ID? Skype shows user profiles.

There are some features that attract users, of course. The highest attraction value is the power of community. If your company or a group of your friends use a computer-centric service, you're likely to sign up for that service. The easiest way to get involved with one of these softphone-based services is to sign up in pairs. You and your friend or family member plan to communicate over long distance, and these services offer you a free way to do so.

Money, of course, is the second reason to sign up for Skype or their SIP cousins: they are free to install, free to register, free to use, and free to disconnect when you're tired of them. No shipping fees (at least not for the software phones), no activation fee, and no fees of any kind from state or local governments.

6.3.1. Standard Skype Features

There aren't a lot of features, but the ones here work well. While all the computer-centric phone providers offer free calls to all service members all over the world without charging a penny for long distance, Skype has the largest community of users to call.

Here is a list of Skype's standard features:

  • Talk free to other Skype users

  • Conference call up to 5 total Skype users

  • File transfer

  • Chat

That's a short list compared to Vonage. Let's drill down a bit more.

Talking free to other Skype users means connecting to one of over 20 million people worldwide who have registered a Skype username. That's the largest community by far in the broadband phone world. AOL has more potential broadband voice users if you count all their users with the ability to use voice chat, but most AOL users aren't yet on broadband and AOL has just barely started to add broadband phone support. Skype still wins.

Remember how Vonage made a big deal about three-way conference calls? Those are handy, but many times you have a few more than three people who need to get connected to a phone meeting. Skype supports five concurrent users in one conference call (more concurrent users are planned in a future upgrade, but Skype doesn't say how many).

I was surprised that Skype thought it worth the effort to include file transfer in their phone application, and then I remembered the developers also wrote KaZaA. Since they know as much as anyone about file transfers and already wrote the file transfer application, why not throw it in there? Most people don't use this feature, but those who do really love it. Transferring files will impact your bandwidth, however, especially if you're uploading files while trying to converse. Your upstream bandwidth is almost always far less than your downstream bandwidth, so that's where you feel the impact.

Chat? They put instant messaging inside a voice application? While it seems odd, you can instant message separately from your conversation, so it's easier to make fun of coworkers while stuck in one of those painful conference calls. I just wish they came up with a better term than "chat." Chat always meant voice, but they've defined chat as text messaging inside a voice application.


Note: Meeting TipIt's considered rude to IM (chat) with a buddy on the same boring teleconference, but only if you get caught.

Figure 6-3 shows the Skype home page with their excellent graphic explanation of features. There really aren't any mysteries here, once you get past the "your computer is now your phone company" leap of faith, and one reason people accept this so easily is because of how well Skype presents themselves.

Figure 6-3. The second of seven descriptive screenshots at Skype


These screens in the official demonstration bypass the setup and initial configuration part of Skype and show how it works for the millions of users on a daily basis. It's interesting to see what the Skype folks believe is important for the sales pitch.

Notice they put "Making a call" as their second screen, making it the first function after the Skype application home page (you'll see one of those shots later). Their next screen shows a call in progress, then a conference call, then calling "regular phones," which are the traditional telephone lines and cell phones. Four of the seven example pages they show are about talking, which makes sense because Skype is a voice application with some extras, not some other type of application with voice grafted on. Skype was built from the beginning to change the voice connection landscape, and they've succeeded.

Skype works on a decentralized model, meaning there are no big telephone switches and controlling computers in regional data centers, such as those that power Vonage. The only centralized Skype services at the beginning were the login servers, which also show which other Skype users are online, and the switches controlling SkypeOut calls to traditional telephone networks around the world. Adding Voicemail and SkypeIn (both still in beta as I write this) require more centralized resources, and Skype data centers are growing as you read this.

Voicemail applications for your computer from third parties are under development, but Skype won't have their own until they release Skype Voicemail officially. Skype's beta program indicates Voicemail will be a subscription service costing 5 euros per 3 months (told you they are European). So while voicemail is a standard feature for every phone-centric broadband phone provider, it is not a standard feature for Skype (but is for SIP-based competitors).

Call forwarding isn't included because only a fraction of the total Skype users pay for the optional SkypeOut service. Rather than forwarding calls from, say, your computer to your laptop if you're at the stereotypical coffee shop, Skype rings every device you are logged in on when you get an incoming call. This way, they need only track your name and password one time, even if you're currently "on" two devices at once. It's not call forwarding, but it works out just as well if you're waiting for a Skype call while you're away from your primary computer.

There is no provision, now or in the future plans Skype expressed to me, for 911 support. Skype cannot be the single telephone link for people at this time, because their SkypeIn service isn't yet released, making it impossible for traditional telephone users to call Skype users. People using Skype must still have another telephone and should rely on that phone for 911 service.

6.3.2. Advanced Skype Features

There are no "advanced" features as far as Skype claims, but there is currently one optional ($$) feature, and some of the technology they integrate I consider advanced. But let's start with the official optional cost product.

SkypeOut is the connection between Skype and the traditional telephone network. Currently, this is a one-way mirror type of gateway, since Skype users can call out to traditional telephone users but can't receive return calls from those traditionalists.

There are two pricing tiers: a global rate for the two dozen most popular destinations, and individual country rates for the rest of the world (and Alaska and Hawaii). Since the Skype folks have a decent sense of humor and do a good job explaining themselves, let me quote them describing their most popular destinations:

Argentina (Buenos Aires), Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Canada (mobiles), Chile, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico (Mexico City, Monterrey), Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Russia (Moscow, St. Petersburg), Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States (except Alaska and Hawaii), United States (mobiles) and last but not least: Vatican.

Notice that not all of a country is covered just because some of a country is covered. Connections from a broadband phone company to the traditional telephone network have to be negotiated for each location. Countries with less-developed telephone networks can't take a single input from Skype and deliver those calls all over their country because they don't have the technical foundation to support that much extra traffic.

Skype does not include Alaska and Hawaii in the standard rate, which is about $.02 per minute. Being European, Skype lists the pricing first as 1.7 euro cents per minute, and 1,1 pence per minute (Skype has an office in London as well). Two cents a minute for long distance across the world matches the best pricing from Vonage and other phone-centric providers.

Skype installation and firewall handling beats the SIP family phones by a considerable margin. Although installation shouldn't be called an advanced feature, handling security details with the firewall can. So I consider the rest of the Skype advanced feature set as described in the following sections.

6.3.2.1 PDA support

The idea of cell phones and PDA functions mashed together thrills many people tired of filling two jacket pockets with electronics. One approach is to add PDA functions to a cell phone, such as the Treo and SmartPhone. Another approach is to add phone functions to a PDA. Skype, and a variety of SIP products, decided to go the "make your PDA talk" direction.

Owners of a Pocket PC running Microsoft Pocket PC 2003 operating system with Wi-Fi support and at least a 400MHz processor can download the Skype software and turn their PDA into a phone booth, albeit a very small one. While Skype isn't the only service with PDA software (Xten makes the softphone sold by Vonage and has a Pocket PC version at www.xten.com, and a beta service called Stanaphone also has software at http://stanaphone.com), they are the only service with 20 million active subscribers.

Pocket PC Skype users can participate in conferences but can't initiate conference calls. You must add your contact list manually to the Pocket PC at this time, but a utility for transferring the contact list will be available before too long.

You can use a Pocket PC for phone calls without a headset, but that would be rude unless you can talk into it like a regular handset (yelling into it like a walkie-talkie makes people laugh at you). Get one of the many headsets or earbuds for your Pocket PC and make both parties in the conversation happier.

6.3.2.2 Presence

The Pocket PC version of Skype adds another advanced feature, although it's not so much a feature as a communications philosophy. Presence is the technical name for services that track you wherever you go. I believe Skype adds a new look at presence, tracking individuals where they are most often during the workdayat their computerby watching their keyboard activity and providing information to others looking for you.

Figure 6-4 shows the presence options Skype provides. You can let these change based on your system activity or put up the Do Not Disturb sign yourself.

You can see in the bottom-left corner of my Skype window that I am currently online (at least when this screenshot was grabbed). There are seven status options available to indicate, or hide, your presence:

  • Offline

  • Online

  • Skype Me

  • Away

    Figure 6-4. Change your status, or presence, with Skype


  • Not Available

  • Do Not Disturb

  • Invisible

Online and Offline are pretty clear. Skype Me is the welcome mat laid out for the world to see (literally, with Skype, because people from all over the world can see your status).

Away means you are logged in to Skype, but haven't touched your computer for five minutes. Not Available comes after Away, and kicks in after 20 minutes of inactivity (those are the default settings).

You decide whether to add Do Not Disturb, which, just like hanging the sign on the hotel room door, says you're in but don't want anyone to know that. Invisible means you are online, using Skype, but everyone else sees your status as offline.

This combination of user-set status announcements and those that kick in on timing based on your computer activity is unique. Skype even tells people checking your status in their contact list how long you've been away from the keyboard. No other phone system I know, broadband or traditional, offers so many status options.

Presence means more than just a Do Not Disturb tag on the metaphorical door. Skype rings all devices where a user is logged in at the same time. If you take your Pocket PC out of the syncing cradle and walk to the coffee shop, and someone calls through Skype, your computer and your PDA will ring. You get the message, and the caller is none the wiser about where you are. All they know is that they wanted to talk, and you answered.

Although not strictly presence, Skype's support of Instant Messaging and file transfer adds to the advanced nature of communication. People working together often need to exchange files. Email attachments work, of course, but if you're speaking with someone over Skype and they need a file, you don't have to switch to another application, look up the person's email address, find the file using the email program's explore function, attach, and send.


Note: Clever TechsMy friend Phil says many tech support folks will send usernames and passwords over Skype's instant messaging but never through email, because the Skype connection is encrypted while email is not.

Contrast that process with Skype file transferdrag the file to the online contact within Skype and drop it there. The recipient then has a chance to use the Save As dialog box to store the incoming file wherever they wish. You can drag multiple files at once, and file sizes, no matter how large, aren't a problem. Files, just like voice streams, are encrypted from end to end when traveling through Skype. But they move slooooowly.

Those interested in more unusual Skype applications will enjoy Chapter 8 (hint, hint).

6.3.3. Future Skype Features

Skype needs more features. Lean and mean is one thing, missing details like voicemail and incoming calls from traditional telephones are a major problem.

6.3.3.1 Voicemail

How long after you got your first phone line did you get an answering machine? Maybe a day, maybe two?

Skype left this huge hole by not having voicemail (which they call SkypeVM or Skype Voicemail depending on the news source) from the beginning through the spring of 2005 (nearly two years). They haven't yet released SkypeVM, but there was beta software on the Skype site (it's hard to find but there) in early 2005. Perhaps by the time you read this, they'll have SkypeVM up and running. I bet they will, because now Voicemail shows up in the context menu when you right-click some contact names, and they have released subscription pricing.

Voicemail implies a centralized service because that's what the traditional telephone companies sold from the start. After all, if you buy an answering machine, even from the phone company, they get money once. If you subscribe to voicemail, the telephone companies get money every month. Telephone companies like getting your money every month.

I didn't think Skype would absorb the cost of centralized servers to grab, hold, and replay voice messages for free, and they didn't (5 euros per three-month subscription according to the pre-release information on the Skype web site). Whether Skype will also roll it into a more expansive (and expensive) offering remains unknown.

The beta information makes a point to mention that Voicemail moves over the Internet while encrypted, just like the rest of Skype's traffic. Files on your local computer are decrypted automatically when downloaded.

Enter SkypePlus, another future product announced with their typical startling lack of clarity. Hints so far promise the voicemail product along with better conference call-handling capabilities. When? Soon, they say, soon.

Some third parties have developed voicemail, or more accurately personal computer answering machines, for Skype. One of the most popular is called SAM for Skype Answering Machine (a nice personalization). So far, it's free for the downloading at www.freewebs.com/skypeansweringmachine/index.htm. If the product takes off (as it may if people get tired of waiting for the official Skype product), search the Web for "Skype Answering Machine" because the developer will have to get a real web site-hosting company without host-advertising banners. It will probably also stop being free.

Speaking of paid Skype enhancements, one of note is the Skype Forwarder, which includes an answering machine and is available at www.twilightutilities.com/SkypeForwarder.html. The current price is $19.95, but there's a free demo offer on the site. If you want to forward calls, you'll need a modem in your computer that's able to dial out so you can make that connection.


Note: Call Antiques RoadshowModems? Remember those? Since broadband became so popular, modems have seemingly disappeared. Check your garage and junk drawer to find an old one.

Personally, I believe this delay in voicemail support, and the lack of third-party solutions for a program with 100 million or so downloads points out a problem with Skype's proprietary development. On the other hand, no one's downloaded 100 million of any competitive peer-to-peer broadband phone applications, so it's hard to gripe too much about Skype's philosophy.

6.3.3.2 SkypeIn

The complement to SkypeOut, SkypeIn, is under development and active testing. No formal announcement has been made, although Skype officials have said they hope to get SkypeIn rolling out to the world by summer 2005.

Skype stuck to their peer-to-peer roots with their SkypeOut service, relying on smaller gateways to traditional telephone networks rather than buying centralized telephone switches as have the other broadband phone companies. This made it possible to expand SkypeOut more quickly, and certainly more cheaply, than some of their competitors facing large capital expenditures.

However, the other side of that decision is trouble handling incoming calls for the SkypeIn service. Telephone companies expect to interconnect with other telephone companies at big centralized switches, and Skype doesn't have those. Making SkypeIn a success will almost certainly mean Skype must change some of their business model and start paying big bucks for centralized switches like other broadband phone providers.

They may be clever enough to wiggle around that requirement, and if so, more power to them. But no one else has managed this trick. But no one else built their own peer-to-peer phone application from scratch and attracted 20 million registered users, either.

6.3.3.3 Skype for Business

If half of current Skype users feel they've used Skype for business, even if what they consider business use is what you and I may consider meager, that's a serious clue for the Skype executives. And they are, it appears, making things happen in their own way.

By summer 2005, Skype for Business should be a packaged product available for an (as yet) unknown price per month. Again, these product features require more investment and centralization than Skype has put into place early on.

The Skype for Business features disclosed by a Skype executive speaking at an Internet Telephony conference include:

  • Account management gathering multiple Skype accounts into a single business account

  • Web-based management interface for controlling and administering those accounts

  • More control over which clients ring with a new call (like a PBX searching for available phones defined in what's called a hunt groupa group of telephone lines configured so that calls automatically roll over to the next available phone line)

Skype for Business must rely on SkypeIn, which may be causing the delay in rolling this out as a new service. Businesses also demand control over details foreign to Skype currently, such as directories, authentication, calling restrictions, call logging, call tracing, and connection to internal voicemail systems. Whether Skype can include a full suite of business services this summer will be interesting to watch.

6.3.4. Services Comparison

Skype stands to one side, 20 million registered users and 100 millions downloads strong. Many times the Skype status bar lists over two million current online users.

On the other side stand the SIP providers with tens of thousands of users, no way to track them to see if how many are online at once, and no service with over a million downloads yet. Not active or registered users, but total potential downloads doesn't come to even half a million for any service I can find.

Doesn't seem fair, does it? But while it appears Skype has run roughshod over the computer-centric phone world, one little detail sticks annoyingly up. Standards.

6.3.4.1 Computer-centric features

SIP is a developing standard blessed by the main technical groups overseeing Internet development and future direction. Skype stands alone against a world of standards groups and coordinated development. It has come down to Skype versus the world for computer-centric broadband phone providers. Take a look at the comparison in Table 6-1.

Table 6-1. Computer-centric provider comparison

Feature

Skype

SIPphone

FreeWorldDialup

Dialing out

Yes

Yes

Yes

Accept incoming calls

Yes (beta now but soon)

Yes

Yes

Voicemail

Yes (beta now but soon)

Yes

Yes

Instant Messaging

Yes

Yes

No

File Transfer

Yes

No

No

Easy dialing links to other broadband phone networks

No

No

Yes

Search and display other subscribers

Yes

Yes

Yes

Linux and Mac support

Yes

Linux

Yes

PDA support

Pocket PC

No

Windows CE

Market acceptance

Huge

Minimal

Minimal


Let's drill down a bit more into each of these comparison features:


Dialing out

Each service does this, and each service charges money.


Accept incoming calls

Skype lags now, but SkypeIn will catch them up.


Voicemail

Skype Voicemail will once again catch Skype up to the level of the other services.


Instant Messaging

Skype builds IM into their basic client, and SIPphone's Gaim (the open source Gaim modeled after AOL's original AOL IM that supports numerous instant message services including AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and Jabber) software phone includes IM as well. Gaim came out of Linux operating systems first, but the Windows version is now available.


File Transfer

Skype had a head start with the KaZaA background, but the no other company has stepped up to offer file transfer.


Links to other broadband phone networks

FreeWorld Dialup pushes peering relationships between competitive broadband phone services because a rising tide raises all boats. You can call from FWD to over three dozen SIP-based services by dialing a few extra numbers.


Search and list other subscribers

Searching is easiest with Skype, but not by much. Every service allows various search methods, such as location and name.


Linux and Macintosh support

Skype and FreeWorld Dialup cover Windows, Linux, and Macintosh. SIPphone has yet to cover Mac, and supports only Linspire Linux.


PDA support

Skype supports Pocket PC, while FreeWorld Dialup provides a softphone for Windows CE.


Market acceptance

Skype leads the field by far, with more active users online than the other services have total downloads (combined).

Is there one feature you really need that only one service has? If so, your choice is simple and you should sign up for the feature you need. If not, you'll probably sign up for Skype and join the company of 20 million other registered users.

6.3.4.2 Compared to Vonage

Look at the type of features computer-centric systems leave off; I discussed them at length in Chapter 5:

  • Transferring your current phone number to Skype or other computer-centric softphone service provider

  • 911

  • Caller ID

  • Call Forwarding

  • Call Waiting

  • Assign rings to specific calling phone numbers

  • 311 for local information

  • Fax line support

On the other hand, none of the computer-centric phone services demand a $15 or $25 monthly payment just to keep the service active.

One feature, the ability to use your existing phone, might seem to be sneaking in under the wire as a regular computer-centric feature because this capability is supported by the D-Link router now sold by SIPphone. But there are also fairly inexpensive (less than $50) converters that link an analog phone to a computer's USB port. Several phone models that plug into computers look like regular phones, and some are cheaper than the converters.

It's impossible to recommend that someone rely on a computer-centric phone as their only "regular" telephone. Many people rely on their cell phone and never subscribe for a traditional telephone line from their local phone company, but that's a better option today than trusting a computer-centric service.

6.3.4.3 Passion

Skype wins this category hands down. One goal of Skype founders was to recreate the buzz and "viral marketing" of KaZaA, where a program spreads like a runny nose in an overcrowded preschool. They achieved that goal. Skype users aren't quite as fanatical as early Macintosh users, but they love Skype capabilities and Skype community.

The Skype forums are full of people thrilled with Skype. Australian Rotarian groups are signing up en masse. Love blooms, photos are file transferred, meetings happen. Conference calls full of native speakers and those trying to learn a new language create new bonds and better vocabularies.

When were you so thrilled with any telephonic device that you made a movie to help convince your family and friends to switch to your service? Pim in the Netherlands did, and in his Dutch hip-hop lyrics, I caught the phrase "free long distance" several times (www.webkeutels.com/video/skype.WMV).

This passion, above and beyond all technical advantages or service shortcomings of competitors, makes me believe Skype will win out over the SIP-based services for the consumer market. Twenty million registered users sounds like a tipping point for continued growth to me, and 100,000 new downloads per day means that registered user total continues to climb.



Talk is Cheap
Talk is Not Cheap!: Saving the High Costs of Misunderstandings at Work and Home
ISBN: 1885167334
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 102

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