France goes after Skype

French telecomm regulators are repeating their demand that Skype register as a "communications operator" under French law.  Registration would impose a range of legal obligations on the network, including developing mechanisms to allow "emergency calls" from non-subscribers, and to provide means of intercepting and recording calls "when legally required." 

   Skype, now owned by Microsoft, has continually responded that its services do not constitute "electronic communications services" as defined under French law, and thus it is not required to register as a provider of such services.  The French regulator, ARCEP, seems to be arguing that providing voice services "implies" it is a public telephone service, and thus it must register and comply with French law.  Including, according to an ARCEP spokesman, compelling it to declare its revenues to local and national tax authorities, and subjecting Skype to paying local taxes.

French telecom and mobile operators have raised concerns that they are losing revenues as consumers switch to various VoIP services (including Skype, Viber, and What's App).  Part of their complaint is that they must bear regulatory burdens and costs (particularly taxes) that other operators have not had to face.  France was also one of the countries pushing for new international Internet governance agreements in last years ITU meetings, as a means of allowing nations a legal foundation for regulating and taxing major global internet firms.  France also recently challenged Google, claiming Google News was anti-competitive by not paying for linking to content from French news sites.  Google allegedly offered to block all French news sites before the issue was quietly resolved.

Source -  French authorities launch Skype probe,  Computer Business Review
France Wants Skype To Pay Tax: Microsoft Says "Screw You,"  Silicon Angle

edit - fixed what had been a run on sentence about France & Google.

Skype starts billing other carriers

Remember when Skype was free?  While it's still free for computer-to-computer calls, Skype started instituting fees in 2010 for calls to wired and wireless telephones, group video calling, and other advanced services.  Now a part of Microsoft, Skype is introducing direct operator billing (DOB) as a mechanism for collecting those fees from its users.  Direct Operating Billing refers to systems that simplify the purchase and billing process (charges are billed directly to a user's existing online credit account, rather than requiring the collection of credit card or other payment information for each individual charge).  Microsoft feels that making the billing process easier to navigate will lead to greater use of fee-based services -

“We expect ease of payment to attract new users, while existing users will become more profitable customers as they increase their spend with us,” indicated Neil Ward, GM for business operations in Microsoft’s Skype division.

  I'm not so sure - people chose Skype because of its free services, and the advanced services that Skype charges for are mostly small niche services.  In addition, looking at it from an economic perspective, moving to DOB simplifies billing and somewhat reduces the ancillary cost of using a particular service, suggesting a shift in perceived cost and movement along the existing basic demand curve.  Reducing perceived costs, particularly fairly small indirect costs, may well result in some increase in use - but the overall impact is likely to be minimal. Simplified billing, however, is unlikely to significantly affect the underlying inherent demand for Skype's advanced options (i.e., shifting the whole demand curve). As such, the impact on overall use is likely to be small.

Source  -  Skype intros carrier billing,  telecoms.com

Microsoft finalizes Skype deal

Post submitted by Betsey Poore (some editing by BJB)

  The deal first announced in May 2011 is not final - Microsoft has completed its acquisition of VolP service Skype.
  Skype has gone through several ownership changes since it was founded in 2003 by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis.  It was acquired by eBay in 2005, and then it was sold to Silver Lake in 2009. Skype will now become a new business division within Microsoft. Skype CEO Tony Bates will become the president of that division.
Microsoft and Skype were waiting for regulatory approvals in several markets, primarily in Europe. The EU had previously fined Microsoft for antitrust behavior in January of 2009, prompting a close look at the Skype deal. “Together, we will be able to accelerate Skype’s goal to reach 1 billion users daily,” Bates said. Skype currently has more than 663 million users, with 170 million paying for a monthly subscription.
  Now, Microsoft’s biggest challenge is to come up with a business plan that will make Skype profitable.

Source - Microsoft's Acquisition of Skype Is Now Official,  Mashable.com

Goin' Mobile - 2011 Trends Report

A report on mobile usage by Allot had some interesting teasers on the site (I'm having some difficulty downloading the full report at the moment - check back later for possibly more results - I'll toss in some 2010 numbers as I was able to get that report).

Mobile usage continues to expand globally - mobile traffic almost doubled in 2010, and with tablets and mobile sales overtaking desktops so far this year, 2011 looks to be another high-growth year.  Video streaming remains the applications leader in terms of generated bandwidth usage (37% in 2010), followed by file sharing (30% in 2010) and web browsing (26%).  Using mobile for shared communication (VoIP & IMs) accounted for only 4% of bandwidth usage with mobile devices in 2010.  Looking at trends, though, it's video streaming and VoIP/IM that are increasing their shares, while file-sharing and web browsing find their shares of mobile usage falling.

Other tidbits:

• YouTube continues its reign as top internet site for mobile users - so far in 2011, it's accounting for 22% of all mobile data usage and 52% of all video streaming.  In 2010, it accounted for 17% of all mobile bandwidth usage and 45% of all mobile video streaming.
• Skype continues as VoIP leader, accounting for 82% of mobile VoIP usage in 2011, slightly down from 87% in 2010.
• Facebook and Twitter continue to dominate social media usage.  Facebook usage in 2011 was just under triple its 2010 numbers, while Twitter growth slowed somewhat from 2010's explosive growth.  Twitter usage in the first half of 2011 was up 166% from 2010; but 2010 had seen Twitter usage grow at an annual rate of 1800%.

Source: "Mobile Trends Report, H1, 2011,"  Allot Communications
2011 and 2010 reports should be downloadable from this site.

Microsoft buys Skype for $8 billion (cash)

Following the latest strategy of buying dominant competitors, Microsoft reached a deal with Skype, paying $8 billion in cash.  The acquisition gives an instant boost to Microsoft's new Lync unified communications platform, as well as its Outlook platform, and the Xbox, Kinect, and Xbox Live consumer products.
Microsoft pledged to continue to develop and support Skype clients on non-Microsoft operating systems, stressing, in Steve Ballmer's words, that "the value proposition of communication is being able to reach everybody, whether they happen to be on your device or not."

Source: "Microsoft To Buy Skype For $8.5 Billion,"  Information Week

Microsoft to add Voice to Lync Online

From Eric Hutchinson:

JAJAH, owned by Telefonica, plans to add voice calling to Microsoft Lync Online which is Microsoft’s cloud-based communications service. The service will allow Lync Online users to call landlines and cell phones. Also, users will be able to receive calls and route them to landlines, mobile phones or computers without needing a new phone number. JAJAH’s IP Communications Platform uses patented quality management to guarantee calls made over the JAJAH Network will be high quality.

Source: "JAJAH adds voice calling to Microsoft Lync Online..." TelecommunicationNews.net