Monday, September 14, 2009

Skype - Two weeks after the buy out

Since Skype was bought 2 weeks ago, i have already noticed quite a number changes at Skype in a relatively short period of time. Not sure if these were all initiated after the purchase but still.....

First of all, friday the Skype Extras program was stopped. A mail was sent last friday (11 September) that effective 11 September (yes the same day) the extras program would be cancelled and removed from the website. Thats like a few hours warning. Not a big deal, but strange. I am assuming that they will relaunch it in another form requiring some testing or membership fee.

There are things happening in the Skype for SIP program. The website has been updated and there now is a official certification program - run by a third party testing company. But there is now also a charge for Skype for SIP PER CHANNEL. 20 euros per channel whereby each channel supports 2 calls. It goes down as you order more channels, but it sounds pretty steep to me.

I have also heard on the grape vine that Skype is on a drive to move "worthwhile" customers from pre paid to post paid.

All in All there is change in the air, and change driving towards more aggresively capturing revenue. The venture capitalist's signature is unmistakable. That can be a good thing if it turns Skype in a leading global low cost telecom provider. Of course it will have to meet the expectations along the way.......

4 comments:

ZXT said...

Skype at the moment is far from being the cheapest or best bang for the buck service in the market.

Not sure tho what improvemnet they have stored for us.

Himanshu said...

Skype will most possibly retract its latest moves after they start seeing a big drop in use and revenue.
Google voice will also probably open up SIP shortly again that will mean big competition for skype

Nick Galea said...

Yes, Google Voice would be huge competition! But as a consumer service i think it will still remain popular...

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