Holiday Present - Free Skype 1 month unlimited world calling

Source: Skype

Try this from Skype and you will end up subscribing to their premium packages. At least myself happily paying for their unlimited plan which allows me to make close to 10,000 min of local minutes. Best part is the quality of voice, and you can use the "CALLER ID". So my friends may not even know that I am calling from Skype.

All you need to do is to click on the above link (or here). After you sign-in you need to enter the credit card or paypal details. But not to worry, you can go and cancel two days before the month end so you won't be charged subsequently.

A little bit of hassle but a month long free calls :) Nice trade-in IMO.

Skype like application from Facebook ???

Source: eweek / strand consultants

Here is an article referring to Facebook and I must admit the article is well written. But I am not quite optimistic about Facebook VoIP making a big entry in to the VoIP market and becoming 'skype killer'.

Main reason: Privacy..

Skype is a simple VoIP application and most importantly it doesn't offer more than your Skype ID, and optionally your total number of contacts, date of birth. That's it. It doesn't share where were you born or your photographs or how is your friends.

It is simply an extension of your mobile / desk phone and offers an excellent way to reach your family, friends (vice-versa). On the other hand Facebook is a platform which enables you to share the information on your personal activities.

I've seen many people printing their Skype ID on their business cards and in their websites/blogs. But so far I've not seen them doing the same with Facebook. Why ?

If FB thinks that by simply putting a VoIP copy cat application and can get a billion dollars then I'm sure Google, Microsoft, Yahoo & even Cisco (with it's latest WebEx) can share a lesson or two to Facebook :)

+60301 Phone Number.. Finally found it's from the VoIP software pFingo, Starhub.

Recently my phone rings at quite odd times and when I look at the incoming number, it's a bit weird too. The number is +60301.
I picked up few calls and end up disconnecting as its from some marketing folks from China speaking in mandarin. So I decided not to pick this call anymore.

But lately I started receiving complaints from a overseas friend that I am not accepting calls. After couple of minutes I realized the number is from pFingo. It's a VoIP service from Starhub, a singapore telco.

The good thing is you can make calls to Singapore phone numbers at dirt cheap rates (1c) and if you are on a monthly pack it's basically free. So understand that many SME's, people on travel tend to use this service and so does the marketing folks from China/HK/Other countries(who wish to reach Singapore).

I am not sure whether is there a solution but personally I won't change my selective call picking pattern which is to pick up a call if I know the caller (stored in address book) or it's a mobile number. This is the main reason I opted for Skype Out & Google Voice which gives me Caller ID.

With Skype you can simply set up your mobile number as the ID number. Instructions are here. & Google Voice is simple. You'll get a US number and people will see that number.

Skype - Windows 7 64 bit problem (Solved)

I've been using Skype for almost 8 years and I was never frustrated this much. For the last 10 days I couldn't sign in to Skype on my laptop at all. I tried all the options and communicated in Skype forums but the solutions couldn't solve my problem.

Then finally I looked in to one simple 'engineer' troubleshooting. Backtrack my steps and try to see what'd have caused the problem. So I started disabling/uninstalling any programs I installed/updated.

Violaaa.. It did worked. The culprit is a small software called " FileBox eXtender"  which simplifies the windows 7 explorer actions by adding favorites & tools.

Somehow this caused the problem and the moment I disabled things're back to normal :)

In case if you are using Skype on Win 7 and have some problems the recommended steps are below.


1. Remove "shared.xml" file

• First go to explorer and make sure you are not hiding any files. 

For this you need to open My Computer or Control Panel. Go to Folder options and Check the button "show hidden folers and files" as shown in the screen shot right next.

• Go to your Skype install folder

In explorer go to the Skype installed folder. Which means C\users\'your user id'\appdata\roaming\skype. If your windows is not installed in C then you need to go to that specific Drive.

Delete "shared.xml" file. If you are running Skype then you need to exit Skype first. Don't worry the xml file be recreated when you start Skype

• Restart Skype

2. Change "Port" number


I don't suggest this unless Solution 1 didn't solve the problem. Open Skype and when it's signing in quickly open the "Options". You can only see "connection settings".

There if you don't see any port (problem with Skype 64bit version 5.8) then enter any random port which is higher than 30,000. Theoretically you can use any port higher than 1024 but keep it high.
Also select the "use 80 & 443 option".

Selecting the UnPn is optional and up to individual. My case I do select that..

Restart Skype.

Above solutions did solved my problems on 2 of my Win 7 laptops and the recent being with 5.8
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Skype Version: 5.8.0.156
OS: Win 7 Ultimate 64bit
Browser: IE9
Event Viewer Errors - None
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Skype Impact on my international call costs

Within few years Skype went on to become the largest international telecom player with marketshare of over 20%. It also helped a lot of folks like me who is working overseas to be in touch with family & friends back home. But I still have to make international calls for those folks without access to a PC or Internet connection.

Now I just got a mail from Skype on their unlimited calling plans and I thought of subscribing it but before that I wanted to see how much money I am spending on these days. Ofcourse that brought me to take a look in to historical spending too :)

So based on my spending finally I decided not to go for the monthly plan which costs me ~ USD20/month. My spending is around a third of it per month. But if this was available few years back I'd have jumped to it :)

Skype down again..

Source: My own experience & Skype Blog
Skype went down again. I am not sure whether they want to ensure that that're part of 'microsoft' but twice in a week is not what I've seen before.
It was down around 8PM Singapore time and quite intermittent till 10. At first I thought this is due to my ISP, singnet doing issue or my home wi-fi. But the rest of the connections are pretty good. Meanwhile saw the blog entry.

Hope the guys up there going to solve. If not I think lots of users will consider switching to alternatives. :|

Microsoft purchases Skype.

Source: Microsoft

I am quite optimistic about this deal. Mainly from three different points, say

1. Kinect/Gaming strategy
2. Mobile VoIP/Windows 7 overall strategy
3. Online market/Microsoft internet strategy

In 2009 Skype became the largest long distance call company with 8% of international market share, and in 2010 the market share increased to 12%. The numbers are staggering with 54 billion minutes and close to 550 million registered users and 50+ million paid users (Of course Skype still struggling to make profits).

What Microsoft can do with Skype is to integrate with their existing products.

* Kinect became a huge hit and Microsoft will certainly integrate Skype/Video calls with Kinect platform.

* As per Pyramid reports, windows 7 will overtake Android by 2015 and skype can be a very nice addition to smart phones. Also skype is a semi-business tool for frequent travelers and I've seen some SME's & consultants even printing their skype ID on business cards. So this will make a lot of sense to have skype onboard

* We all know how MS tried to buy Yahoo couple of years back. MS wants to put their name in internet arena and skype can help that.

Also MS is sitting on piles of free cash. The amount paid is ~ 10xPE and I'd think this is the right price. They can open new areas of revenue to make it profitable. One big issue will be to reduce the call charges. Skype is no longer competitive compared to new VoIP providers. I've done some comparison here. If they can reduce the prices or offer flat rate plans in a new countries that'll bring new revenue.

In Singapore or APAC I don't see a big impact of Skype on TELCO's right now but moving forward with greater access speeds Skype/Microsoft can pose a bigger threat jointly with Apple Facetime, Google Voice & other VoIP providers.


On a side note, now I'm pretty curious to see how Cisco will do with their Umi service :). If Cisco acquires Skype that would've made them instantly the market leader of VoIP market and they could've integrated Skype Video with their Umi box. But MS did the right thing now.

Video conferencing - Huawei & ZTE to enter the market

Source: Ovum

As per below text, Huawei & ZTE will be entering the market. In this part of the world the video conferencing or tele presence yet to take in a big way. Perhaps due to the geographical distance or the cultural reasons we don't see many people going for video conferences. Does Huawei/ZTE entrance in to the market will change this scenario? I don't think so. The impact in APAC would be minimum as Asians tend to prefer face-to-face meetings and build rapport over lunch/dinner rather than business meetings. Also the investment and mtce is not cheap. If we really want to reduce the costs down then there are options like Skype or SIP based video conference solutions.



    HELSINKI, May 5 (Reuters) - Video conferencing services developed by Huawei and ZTE will shake up the market in coming years in the same way the Chinese vendors changed the telecom gear sector, research firm Ovum said on Thursday.
Ovum forecast that business spending on video conferencing would grow annually by 6 percent through 2016 when the global market would be worth $3.8 billion.
The video conferencing equipment market is dominated by established U.S. vendors Cisco <CSCO.O> and Polycom <PLCM.O>, but Ovum said Huawei Technologies [HWT.UL] and ZTE <000063.SZ>, both small players now, are set to have a major impact on the market in the next two to four years.
"We expect them to cause quite a lot of disruption," Ovum analyst Richard Thurston said.
Huawei and ZTE together have built up a 30-percent share of the global mobile telecom gear market in a few years through aggressive pricing that pushed vendors such as Nortel and Motorola out of the business.
Ovum said some parts of the videoconferencing market were set for much higher growth: 19 percent annually for high-end offerings such as telepresence rooms costing about $300,000 each and 11.5 percent for managed services.

Skype launches video calls on iPhone

It's just three days back I've mentioned about Skype Video calls on Phones. Now they've announced on iPhone. Great job guys and eagerly waiting for Android.

Now this is not going to be a good news for Mobile Operators. In Singapore I don't think the impact would be great but in Europe and developing countries this is going to affect a lot of operators. Given the small size of Singapore the main user group of Skype would be expats/foreigners. So I'd expect most of the calls happening from home/residential rather than over mobile phone. So the primary device still a notebook/pc while mobile can be used as an emergency device or backup device.

Source: Skype

Skype credit voucher received

We all know Skype was down recently for more than 24 hours. I am quite sure it'd caused inconvenience to lot of users.

When I saw the update where Mr. Tony Bates mentioned that they will offer free credit voucher, I thought just another marketing talk and in reality this not going to be practical. (I was thinking along the lines, first you need to find how many people affected etc..see this is the problem with telco world, we always think we know a lot and doesnt accept that what we know is very little)

I didn't expect that Skype wouldn't bothered to go along the lines and simply offers the credit to all it's customers. This morning it's a sweet surprise to me. They had offered me $1 credit voucher. While I certainly agree that this is not a huge amount, can any of we guys remember that any of our TELCO's or ISP's offering rebates or discounts voluntarily? 


A big thanks to Skype for hearing your Customers.... Keep it up..

Skype videocall on Android, iPhone - Still waiting..

It's been quite a while Skype introduced video call on a mobile. This was part of the PR1.2 firmware on a Nokia N900 device during May 2010. I was hoping for a X'mas release on Android but my wish didn't realized :|

Skype introduces low bandwidth version for United Nations (UNHCR)

From Skype Blog (http://blogs.skype.com/en/2010/12/unhcr.html)
Skype developed a bespoke, low-bandwidth version of Skype for use in 120 hardship locations served by UNHCR staff members around the world. Aid workers in these locations are typically separated from their families for months at a time, sometimes with very little notice, and have limited opportunities for communication.


I saw few replies to the original post asking for beta release of the low bandwidth version to public. While I don't really need the low bandwidth version , I guess the request is for the developing world and it makes a difference if it can be bundled with mobile phones and uses mobile broadband. This can change the way people communicate in developing world like India where fixed broadband penetration is still 0.8% while mobile penetration is ~ 63%. With most of the operators in India launching/planning to launch 3G services which can give ~500/100 Kbps in downlink/uplink easily can work very well with Skype low bandwidth version. 


Anyways the engineer in me tried to understand the interesting point which is how does this low bandwidth works?. To start below is a slidepack showing how Skype works.

How Skype works

A detailed presentation can be found here (disi.unitn.it/locigno/didattica/AdNet/08-09/05_VoIP-Skype_H.pdf) 



* The required (basic minimum) bandwidth for skype call is 30Kbps downlink / 30Kbps uplink. This can be achievable with a typical dial-up modem or a good gprs connection. 
* Skype protocol does a great job with jitter so this may not be a big problem


The biggest challenge will be to ensure that the skype client in UN closed group doesn't connect to a supernode which is far far away. This can be easily overcome by putting a super node in every nation with some good internet connectivity and availability. Skype always claim that they provide service with bare minimum infrastructure and the network is self sustainable with super nodes automatically selected. For the UN scenario they might have invested in some servers. But whatever it may be end of the day this is for one good purpose so well done skype.

Skype is down.

Skype is down due to some problem with their software which killed some of the supernodes. Now the engineers are trying to configure and bring live some Meganodes.
Here is the link

I managed to login this morning (0900 hrs Singapore time), and I saw none online. Skypeout calls are not working either.

This is the first time Skype is not available for such a long duration. :|

Hope organizations who rely extensively on Skype have some form of BCM in place. It can be simple, e.g. use Google Talk or Yahoo. but it has to be prepared.

VoIP, Cheap calling using Skype, Fring, Google Out or others

I've been a loyal user of Skype since it went mainstream. Lately I realized there are few other alternatives with similar features/simplicity.

1. Google Voice started offering Google Out or calling phones (not sure what's the standard name) and it works great. For USA the calls are free and for the rest of the world, the charges are similar/cheaper than Skype.
2. Fring. I've used Fring on my E71 couple of years due to the fact that there was no Skype support. But when Skype launched the official app I removed it. But when I was checking my emails I saw a promo from Fring on their Fring out rates. I am pretty surprised that the rates are far more cheaper than Skype/Google. So I gave it a try
3. Jumblo. This is basically from the same guys who offers VoIP Stune, VoIP Buster etc. So initially didn't considered but the rates are pretty comparable to Fring and realized that this is quite popular in South Korea due to the fact that it offers free calls to Korea :)

Below is a comparison of VoIP rates of the five options I've (on top of calling cards but I like to call direct instead of going through the options of selecting language, and waiting) and really surprised that Fring offering such competitive rates. But the sad portion is Fring doesnt have a Desktop client like Skype, Google or others. You need to use it on a mobile phone which is a big drawback.

The prices are in USD (Cents/Min)

After using the options, finally I decided to go with Google Voice for my direct calls as I can have the flexibility of using a browser to make calls, or use a standalone client rather than depending on Mobile phone. I still have some credt in Fring and it may come handly when I need to make calls to destinations like UK-Mobile where the difference is considerable (18c vs 0.8c per min)


Finally need to claim my blog @ technorati.
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