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Skype, meet Jajah… Jajah, meet Skype. Are we on for full VoIP interconnectivity?VoIP is gradually becoming a factor to be reckoned with in both the consumer and business markets. Statistics show rapidly increasing figures and experts predict golden years to come. Yes, we all know that, thanks. However, the VoIP business is still facing serious difficulties and setbacks. Three issues seem to dominate: First, the various players are predominantly acting like “islands”. Most of the VoIP-companies do not allow others to connect on a zero cost basis to their users. Effectively the dimensions of free VoIP telephony are, in the users eyes, far from what they could be. Second, the POTS and mobile phone operators do their best to slow down the growth of VoIP. A major problem is that inbound numbers are needed for all VoIP operators on an internationally standardized basis. That particular reality is ages away. Most countries are, due to respective lobbying by POTS, stuck in the process of negotiating or regulating things. The countries that already have schemes in place do not follow a common international strategy. Third, the VoIP world is currently still split in 2 major groups: hardware based IP-telephony services (mostly SIP oriented) and softphone solutions (like Skype, Jajah, Gizmo). But let’s swiftly move back to point one: According to the Skype website, acquiring inbound numbers in various countries is a hard task for them. Authorities are working slowly and the picture is varies from country to country. This is very much in line with a statement the small Austrian communication agency Creatix lured out of the elusive figure behind competitor Jajah Technologies, F. Jajah Watamba: “The different issues (interconnectivity) need to be addressed as a whole. If the VoIP community stands together it will reach maturity and allow maximum benefit for all its users.” Jajah wants to bridge the former independent islands SIP, Skype and IAX, and hopefully Skype will be right there to hand the planks. Niklas Zennström of Skype and Watamba of Jajah should get a chance to discuss their common goals at the VoIP 2005 conference in Heidelberg/Germany in November. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] |