EBay plans Skype IPO next year
EBay plans to spin off Skype via an initial public offering (IPO) because the Internet telephony unit doesn't mesh with the company's two other businesses - e-commerce and online payments.
EBay plans to spin off Skype via an initial public offering (IPO) because the Internet telephony unit doesn't mesh with the company's two other businesses - e-commerce and online payments.
Skype is set to launch a mobile application for the iPhone on Tuesday, a long-awaited entry to Apple's App Store, and one for BlackBerry devices in May, Skype officials have confirmed.
Skype Technologies SA announced Monday a beta version of its popular voice-over-IP service for businesses that have IP-based switches running on the Session Initiation Protocol.
Directories business Yellow and internet phone firm Skype have teamed up in a trial to give Skype users three months of free calling to businesses listed on the yellow.co.nz website.
IBM has introduced LotusLive, which it describes as a portfolio of integrated internet-hosted services for social networking and collaboration in workplaces.
Wellingtonians showed themselves to be pretty knowledgeable about Web 2.0 security issues at a vendor breakfast meeting held in the capital last week.
No members remain of the original team that turned Skype into a formidable internet phone company.
Rapidly growing telco Gotalk has signed an exclusive agreement with US-based company Safeway to bring the Blackhawk gift card network to New Zealand and Australia by Christmas.
The Blackhawk network, a part of the popular US gift card "Store-on-a-Stand" kiosk, sells many different telco gift cards as a part of its service. Gotalk's CEO Steve Picton hopes that by bringing the kiosks to Australia, and selling VoIP gift cards through them, Gotalk can eat into Skype's market share.
"Skype is a prepaid product — not much different to a phone card," Picton says. "However, not everyone wants to — or can access a credit card to pay for Skype — and other ways to pay for the service are laborious. With VoIP phone cards, you buy the card, download the software from the Web site and make calls from there.
"Where Skype is focused on paying by credit card, prepaid cards are definitely more accessible for people who prefer to use cash."
Unlike conventional phone cards, VoIP prepaid cards do assume that the user has a degree of technical understanding. However, the process of downloading the software and activating the account is explained on the card, and Picton promises that "it's just as easy to use as Skype".
Recharging the card for more call credit should pose no difficulty either. "You can of course recharge anywhere you can buy the card," Picton says. "To recharge the card there are 18,000 retail points and you can also recharge the card at Australia Post, and online using BPAY."
According to Picton, another advantage the prepaid cards have over Skype is their versatility. In addition to providing credit for VoIP calls, the prepaid cards can be used as regular phone cards. With no monthly access fee, Picton says the prepaid cards "are giving consumers greater choice with what to do with the money they spend on calls".
The Blackhawk kiosks will launch in Australia and New Zealand by Christmas. The number of kiosks that will be initially available is not confirmed, but Gotalk promises "hundreds".
No longer do you need to sit, tied to your PC and staring at the screen while making Skype internet phone calls. Many vendors are now offering cordless handsets that allow users to move freely around the house while making Skype calls. Toybox had a look at Logitech’s Cordless Internet Handset, and was impressed by its performance.
A Microsoft executive addressed the recent Skype outage by comparing VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) to early automobiles in a horse-drawn world.
The Telecommunications Users Association (TUANZ) has slammed the self-regulatory body that looks after New Zealand phone numbers after it sold thousands of numbers to foreign companies.
Skype has launched a new subscription package in New Zealand, called Skype Pro. For a monthly fee of $3.55, the package offers free calls to domestic landlines.
Users whose ISP has a strict monthly limit on bandwidth usage may be forced to turn away from the new peer-to-peer TV streaming offering planned by the founders of VoIP provider Skype.
Telecom’s retail ISP Xtra says there is no rate-limiting for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) applications, contrary to reports in the media and complaints in web and Usenet forums.
Skype will begin testing an upgrade of its free communications software that can automatically detect phone numbers in web pages and initiate calls.