The i-Technology Media!
Register | Log in
   
 
.NET  ·  AJAX  ·  CLOUD  ·  ECLIPSE  ·  FLEX  ·  OPEN WEB  ·  iPHONE  ·  JAVA  ·  LINUX  ·  OPEN SOURCE  ·  ORACLE  ·  PBDJ  ·  SEARCH  ·  SILVERLIGHT  ·  SOA  ·  VIRTUALIZATION  ·  WEB 2.0  ·  WIRELESS  ·  XML
Comments
Drool, Britannia? Is the UK Failing the Cloud?
By Roger Strukhoff
Richard Davies wrote: The UK has a good crop of technology pioneers in cloud computing - for example ElasticHosts, FlexiScale, Flexiant, OnApp - and also some strong government initiatives such as G-Cloud. We will have to see whether this kind of technical leadership converts into swift mass-market adoption or not.
Jan. 8, 2012 11:38 AM EST
read more & respond »
Cloud Expo on Google News
Did you read today's front page stories & breaking news?

Cloud Expo & Virtualization 2011 West
Keynotes
Oracle
Opening Keynote | An Enterprise Cloud for Business-Critical Applications
Abiquo
Day 2 Keynote | The Enterprise Cloud Tightrope - Balancing for Success
Akamai
Day 3 Keynote | The DNA of an Enterprise Cloud
DIAMOND SPONSOR:
Oracle
Many Clouds, Many Choices'Cloud
PLATINUM PLUS SPONSORS:
Abiquo
Enterprise Cloud Best Practices - Town Hall - Join the discussion…
PLATINUM SPONSORS:
Intel
Progressing Toward the Federated, Automated and Client-Aware Cloud
New Relic
How to build an app with Twitter-like throughput
Rackspace
Computing in the Cloud Era
GOLD SPONSORS:
Gale Technologies
Practical Cloud Migration
IBM
Re-think IT. Re-inventing Business.
Intel/McAfee
Identity Driven Security in the Cloud
PerspecSys
Hackers Hackers Everywhere, Is My Public Cloud That Safe?
Red Hat
Unlock the Value of the Cloud
SHI
Mission Critical Applications and the Cloud - Myth or Reality?
SoftLayer
Not Your Grandpa's Cloud
Terremark
Integrating Enterprise Clouds
VMware
Upgrade to a vCloud
POWER PANELS:
Cloud Expo Silicon Valley: CTO Power Panel
Cloud Expo Silicon Valley: CEO Power Panel
Cloud Expo Silicon Valley: Cloud SuperStars Panel
Cloud Expo Silicon Valley: CloudNOW Panel
Click For 2010 West
Event Webcasts
Cloud Expo & Virtualization 2011 East
DIAMOND SPONSOR:
Dell
Dell & VMware Deliver the Enterprise Hybrid Cloud
PLATINUM PLUS SPONSORS:
Abiquo
Are Financial Services Organizations Risking Security by Avoiding Cloud Computing?
Oracle
From Consolidation to Enterprise Private PaaS
PLATINUM SPONSORS:
Intel
Driving the Transformation to Next Generation Cloud Data Centers
Rackspace
The Inevitability of an Open Cloud
GOLD SPONSORS:
CA Technologies
Follow YOUR path to Cloud Computing
Interxion
Who Keeps the Cloud in the Air?
Microsoft
Patterns for Cloud Computing
PerspecSys
War in the Clouds: Are you ready?
ServiceMesh
The Big Win: Stop Playing Small-Ball with Your Cloud Strategy
Terremark
Evaluating Enterprise Clouds
Xiotech
Cloud Storage: Myths and Realities
POWER PANELS:
Cloud Expo New York: CTO Power Panel
Cloud Expo New York: CEO Power Panel
Cloud Expo New York: CMO Power Panel
Cloud Expo New York: Wrap-Up Power Panel
Click For 2010 West
Event Webcasts
Live Google News by SYS-CON!
Top Three Links You Must Click On


Wireless News Desk
i-Technology Blog: Zero-Cost Telephony, the 6-Ton Elephant in the Telco Room
GoogleTalk Has a Better Chance Than eBay to Take Over the VoIP Market

By: Jeremy Geelan
Oct. 22, 2005 11:15 AM

Zero-Cost Telephony, the 6-Ton Elephant in the Telco Room

It's a curious side-effect of monitoring Internet technologies 24x7x365 that one loses sight occasionally of the wood for the trees. Take eBay's $4BN acquisition of Skype, for example - an acquisition that when it was announced on September 12 caused ripples of worry Web-wide that perhaps Skype calls would one day soon cease to be free. No one need have worried. In the new Web 2.0 world toward which we're hurtling, eBay stands about as much chance of charging people to make calls on Skype as Google does of charging people to search at Google.com.

And now Meg Whitman has conceded as much. But Whitman has done more than just that. She's also thrown down the gauntlet to all-comers in the telephony industry, by proclaiming that within six years all voice calls will be free, not just Skype calls but voice calls of every kind. In other words VoIP, the ultimate disruptive technology, has changed not just the physics but also the economics of telephony. "In the end, the price that anyone can provide for voice transmission on the Net will trend toward zero," she said.

Where does this leave the traditional telcos? Ever since founding Wireless Business & Technology magazine back in 2000 [below], VoIP has been the six-ton elephant in the room, that every carrier has known is there but that they've not been willing (till now) to talk about.

With her bold prediction, Whitman is "outing" the traditional companies, but she is also forcing herself to explain to the investment community, already skeptical of the huge price-tag for Skype, just how eBay is proposing to monetize the opportunity.

Whitman's play is to have, through the acquisition, what she calls the largest "ecosystem."

"What I mean by that is: the largest number of registered users, the largest number of voice minutes, the largest number of developers who develop the platform, the best product ... that users are willing and want to pay for," she explained.

In my view, GoogleTalk is far better positioned to take over the zero-cost telephony market than eBay. But that's because I have a sneaking suspicion that Sergey Brin and Larry Page may be able to take advantage of the new mandatory wiretapping laws and pioneer automated systems that scan your conversation for keywords and give you related ads - much like its existing AdSense program, but with voice content instead of written words...

How strange to think that companies like Cingular, Verizon, and Sprint may very soon simply be made irrelevant by commercial realizations like this of the experimental Network Voice Protocol originally invented 'way back in 1973 for the ARPANET. And yet how satisfying. For didn't we all experience price gauging by the wireless giants? And now what goes around comes around, and people will have a chance to dump traditional telephone companies faster than you can say  SkypeIn, SkypeOut, and Skype VoiceMail.

posted Saturday, 22-Oct-2005



Published Oct. 22, 2005— Reads 47,353 — Feedback 1
Copyright © 2005 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
Syndicated stories and blog feeds, all rights reserved by the author.
Related Stories
▪ KaZaA Founders Launch Skype for Linux
▪ VTech + Skype: Cordless Phones Make IP Telephony Talk Of The Town
▪ Skype Voicemail and Skype for Windows v1.3 Released
▪ Skype and Boingo Announce VoIP Partnership
▪ Google Jabbers On with GoogleTalk
▪ It's Official: eBay To Buy Skype For $2.6BN in Cash and Stock
▪ Macromedia Breeze Supports VOIP Technology
About Jeremy Geelan
Jeremy Geelan is President & COO of Cloud Expo, Inc. and Conference Chair of the worldwide Cloud Expo series. He appears regularly at conferences and trade shows, speaking to technology audiences both in North America and overseas. He is executive producer and presenter of Cloud Expo's "Power Panels" on SYS-CON.TV.

Add Your Feedback

In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in.

Register | Sign-in

Reader Feedback: Page 1 of 1

#1
Tom Foale commented on 24 Oct 2005

I got asked by one of the big telco's to take a look at the economic implications of Ebay's purchase of Skype. I blogged part of my answer at http://honeycombsystems.blogspot.com/2005/10/ebays-purchase-of-skype-for...
I don't believe Google has much of a chance in this market, whatever goes on with regulation in the US telephony market with wiretapping.


Subscribe to the World's Most Powerful Newsletters
Subscribe to Our Rss Feeds & Get Your SYS-CON News Live!
Click to Add our RSS Feeds to the Service of Your Choice:
Google Reader or Homepage Add to My Yahoo! Subscribe with Bloglines Subscribe in NewsGator Online
myFeedster Add to My AOL Subscribe in Rojo Add 'Hugg' to Newsburst from CNET News.com Kinja Digest View Additional SYS-CON Feeds
Publish Your Article! Please send it to editorial(at)sys-con.com!

Advertise on this site! Contact advertising(at)sys-con.com! 201 802-3021

SYS-CON Featured Whitepapers

ADS BY GOOGLE

Breaking Java News
Scott Tucker, Level 5 Debut New HPD Race Car
Simon Fuller's Business Partner, Victoria Beckham, is Crowned Queen of New York Fashion Week
Thought Leaders Defined by Sustainable Finance Commitment
Simon Fuller's Business Partner, Victoria Beckham, is Crowned Queen of New York Fashion Week
The Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC) Awards Enlightened Contract to Support JUSTIS Phase V Project
Black & Decker® Launches Three New 36 Volt Lithium-ion Cordless Outdoor Products to Kick Gas This Spring
Ford Fusion, Ford Explorer and Lincoln MKZ Rank Highest in Durability in 2012 J.D. Power and Associates' Vehicle Dependability Study
Panoak Natural Gas LP Announces Business Referral Agent Program
Spare Backup Commences Mobile Products Launch with Major UK Financial Services Organization
Recargo Acquires PlugInCars.com, News and Community Website, for EV Charging App

ADVERTISE   |   MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTIONS   |   FREE BREAKING-NEWSLETTERS!   |   SYS-CON.TV   |   BLOG-N-PLAY!   |   WEBCAST   |   EDUCATION   |   RESEARCH

.NET Developer's Journal - .NETDJ   |   ColdFusion Developer's Journal - CFDJ   |   Eclipse Developer's Journal - EDJ   |   Enterprise Open Source Magazine - EOS
Open Web Developer's Journal - OPENWEB   |   iPhone Developer's Journal - iPHONE   |   Virtualization - Virtualization   |   Java Developer's Journal - JDJ   |   Linux.SYS-CON.com
PowerBuilder Developer's Journal - PBDJ   |   SEO / SEM Journal - SJ   |   SOAWorld Magazine - SOAWM   |   IT Solutions Guide - ITSG   |   Symbian Developer's Journal - SDJ
WebLogic Developer's Journal - WLDJ   |   WebSphere Journal - WJ   |   Wireless Business & Technology - WBT   |   XML-Journal - XMLJ   |   Internet Video - iTV
Flex Developer's Journal - Flex   |   AJAXWorld Magazine - AWM   |   Silverlight Developer's Journal - SLDJ   |   PHP.SYS-CON.com   |   Web 2.0 Journal - WEB2
Apache   |   CMS   |   CRM   |   HP   |   Oracle Journal   |   Perl   |   Python   |   Red Hat   |   Ruby on Rails   |   SAP   |   SaaS

SYS-CON MEDIA:   ABOUT US   |   CONTACT US   |   COMPANY NEWS   |   CAREERS   |   SITE MAP
SYS-CON EVENTS:   |  AJAXWorld Conference & Expo  |  iPhone Developer Summit  |  Cloud Computing Conference & Expo  |  SOA World Conference & Expo  |  Virtualization Conference & Expo
INTERNATIONAL SITES:   India  |  U.K.  |  Canada  |  Germany  |  France  |  Australia  |  Italy  |  Spain  |  Netherlands  |  Brazil  |  Belgium
 Terms of Use & Our Privacy Statement     About Newsfeeds / Video Feeds
Copyright ©1994-2008 SYS-CON Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. All marks are trademarks of SYS-CON Media.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of SYS-CON Publications, Inc. is prohibited.
 
close this window