Mobile operators can no longer avoid the free voice calling that comes with voice-on-the-Internet (VOIP) protocol. They might as well embrace it. And the start-up iSkoot says it has a version of mobile VOIP service that could even make wireless carriers some money.
Mark Jacobstein, CEO of iSkoot, told the audience at the eComm conference last week that mobile VOIP is here to stay. That topic will continue to be in the news this week at the Voice on the Net (VON) Spring VON.x 2008 show at the San Jose Convention Center this week.
“Operator-friendly VOIP is no longer an oxymoron, ” said Jacobstein.
When Apple launched the iPhone, AT&T certainly didn’t want anyone to make free phone calls over the Wi-Fi high-speed wireless Internet connection on the iPhone. VOIP would simply allow consumers to bypass its fee-based wireless calling network. It just results in lost minutes for the carrier, and the calls clog the thin data channels of the carriers, resulting in poor voice quality for the calls, Jacobstein said.
But iSkoot’s VOIP service with wireless calling “is peanut butter and chocolate,” he said. Basically, you load the iSkoot software onto any regular cell phone with a regular calling plan and a data service subscription. It connects to ebay’s Skype calling service, the leading VOIP service with 276 million registered users. Read the rest of this entry »
