SkypeKiller Or PR Stunt?

Some people, we know, really don’t like Skype. A few people are now building a business on it. Now there’s SkypeKiller (“Your whole network Skype ridden for free”), a French program which will remove all traces of Skype from your network. As its homepage states: With nearly 200 million downloads and 62 million regular users worldwide, … Read more

Verso Helps Block China Traffic

Verso Technologies has announced its first major deal for its Internet filtering technology — in China. Verso is best known for its high-profile promises to block Skype VoIP traffic, which have raised a few eyebrows, and very little take-up, in the U.S. and Europe. However, clearly this is exactly what the unidentified Chinese mobile carrier wants … Read more

VoIP for Dial-up?

How well does Voice over Internet work for folks who rely on dial-up? I’ve not had much luck with Skype — it comes across as crackly, jerky and fenerky (I made up the last word.) A company called NetZero is now offering a VoIP service it says works well for dial-up users: “We believe consumers should … Read more

Shutting Skype Out

Who actually pays for Skype? How about the network operators, who have to put up with all the extra traffic? And what are they doing about it? A piece from VOIP Planet, Keeping Skype @Bay, points to the arrival of products specifically designed to block Skype (and other p2p traffic) from their networks: Skype is … Read more

The Skype Revolution Hits Teaching

I don’t know if this is the first, but it’s certainly an early example of how Skype and other VOIP products are going to create a new form of business: Accessible voice services. An Online Language School Uses Skype to Teach English: Isle of Man (UK)-based school Telephonenglish.com [not the most elegant of website names, and … Read more