SKY(pe) is the limit

"Skype" - What started as simple concept of PC-to-PC call has matured itself to next generation of communication. Initially the excitement was more pertaining to the 'FREE' part but once people got addicted to it, more commercial models are evolving.

As skype celebrated its fifth birthday recently, IP based alternatives are slowly getting momentum in the industry and poised to be the future communication channel. Today VoIP is being used more for internal use by corporates or as a cost cutting measure but gradually it is becoming more affordable to extend such services to fixed line or mobile network.

Recenly, there was a moment, there were 15 million simultaneous users of Skype out of which around one third were purely using it for business purpose. Also the industry reports states that around 380,000 users are getting added per day. We are also seeing growing number of mobile Skype users which means it is not longer restricted to PC. According to the data released by TeleGeography Research, Skype accounted for eight per cent of the world's international calling minutes in 2008.

Now with version 4.0 being out, which is supposed to be have better audio quality and manage bandwidth efficiently, skype is more suitably placed to enter the enterprise market. Model was already cost effective and scalability but now reliability also getting added.

Integrating with the existing telephony network not only breaks the dependency on PC but also on the need of internet for completing the network. With broadband penetration being low on developing nations, it will beneficial to leverage the existing communication link. Of course, legal aspects needs to be sorted out.

So I feel, in days to come we will see more involvement from enterprise, more so because of the current economic conditions.