From the category archives:

Wireless Carriers

Skype’s SILK Codec: Working Towards Adoption as a Standard

by Jim Courtney on Thu, Mar 11, 2010 12:03 pm

With the release of Skype 4.0 for Windows beta 3 a year ago February, Skype first introduced their superwideband SILK codec. A month later at eComm 2009, Jonathan Christensen announced SILK’s availability for third party partners with royalty free licensing of the SILK codec. Since then it has been incorporated into all subsequent releases [...]

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Categories Communications Stories, Embedded Skype, Mobile Devices, Service Providers, Skype Hardware, Skype Platform, Skype on Mobile, Wireless Carriers

Proud to be Canadian! – A 2010 Winter Olympics Reprise

by Jim Courtney on Sat, Mar 6, 2010 7:03 pm

It’s almost a week since the close of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, B.C. – an area where I have spent a lot of time over the past thirty-six years, mostly on business but also on (ski) vacations. These Olympics turned out to be a defining moment not just for Canadian athletics [...]

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Categories Communications Stories, Service Providers, Wireless Carriers

SquawkBox Conference Call: Skype Over Verizon – What Are The Consequences

by Jim Courtney on Sun, Feb 21, 2010 12:02 am

Announcement of the Skype – Verizon agreement certainly has generated buzz around both the Mobile World Congress and the blogosphere. Last Wednesday morning, one day after the announcement, several bloggers and mobile ecosystem players came together on a CalliFlower-hosted SquawkBox conference call to discuss both the triggers for the agreement and the implementations.
Co-hosted by Carl [...]

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Categories Communications Stories, Embedded Skype, Mobile Devices, Skype Partner News, Skype on Mobile, To Be Categorized, Uncategorized, Wireless Carriers

Skype over Verizon: Skype Becomes a Marketing Weapon in the Carrier Arsenal – Initial Analysis

by Jim Courtney on Wed, Feb 17, 2010 9:02 am

Yesterday’s announcement that Skype will become available as a supported service on Verizon Wireless has to have sent a tsunami through the wireless operator world. To review the offering:

A Skype client will be included on nine models of BlackBerry and Android smartphones in late March; current customers with these devices will be able to download [...]

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Categories Communications News, Embedded Skype, Mobile Devices, Skype News, Skype Partner Solutions, Skype Platform, Skype for Personal, Skype on Mobile, Using Skype, Wireless Carriers

Skype over Verizon: Skype Becomes a Marketing Weapon in the Wireless Carrier Arsenal – The Prelude

by Jim Courtney on Tue, Feb 16, 2010 12:02 pm

Full disclosure: This post was prepared prior to today’s press conference using information that was publicly available prior to the conference. In the second post I’ll discuss the service as announced at CES today.
When you can advertise “Free phone calling internationally”, they will come! In the CES interview with Skype CEO Josh Silverman, Josh [...]

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Categories Communications News, Embedded Skype, Mobile Applications, Mobile Devices, Skype Channels, Skype News, Skype Partner News, Skype Platform, Skype Software, Skype on Mobile, Using Skype, Wireless Carriers

Skype for Mobile: An Interview with Skype’s Russ Shaw

by Jim Courtney on Tue, Feb 9, 2010 10:02 am

At CES 2010 last month I had the opportunity to record interviews with Skype CEO Josh Silverman as well as Russ Shaw, Vice President and General Manager of Skype Mobile and EMEA, and Matt Jordan, Enterprise Business Development Manager.
In this second interview Russ Shaw covers a wide range of questions about Skype on different [...]

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Categories Communications Stories, Embedded Skype, Mobile Applications, Mobile Devices, Skype Hardware, Skype News, Skype Partner News, Skype Platform, Skype on Mobile, Using Skype, Wireless Carriers

Reprise: Is WiFi Becoming the Unregulated Stealth Carrier of the Future?

by Jim Courtney on Mon, Feb 8, 2010 7:02 am

Over the past several months I have written three posts about WiFi’s ever-increasing role as a complement to the wireless carriers:

WiFi: The Real Threat to the Mobile Carriers
Is WiFi Becoming the Unregulated Stealth Carrier of the Future?
Traveling in a Bipolar Mobile Mode

Basically, in my recent travels I have found that WiFi access is becoming [...]

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Categories Communications Stories, Mobile Applications, Skype For Business, Skype on Mobile, Using Skype, Wireless Carriers

Coming “Real Soon Now”: Skype for iPhone over 3G

by Jim Courtney on Wed, Feb 3, 2010 11:02 am

Launch of the iPad last week and the Apple’s recent change in their developer terms of service involving the removal of restrictions for using VoIP technology over a carrier’s 3G network have had the Skype mobile team busy reviewing the opportunities.
In a Share Skype post, An update on Skype for iPhone and calling over [...]

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Categories Communications News, Mobile Applications, Mobile Devices, Skype on Mobile, Using Skype, Wireless Carriers

Traveling in a Bipolar Mobile Mode

by Jim Courtney on Wed, Dec 30, 2009 3:12 pm

The past six months, with three trips to Europe, have given me the opportunity not only to experience roaming on European 3G wireless services but also the strategies and alternatives that allow me to minimize roaming charges while traveling with both a BlackBerry and iPhone. A key to the achieving this goal lies in [...]

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Categories Communications Stories, Mobile Devices, Skype on Mobile, To Be Categorized, Using Skype, Wireless Carriers

Skype: the “Unofficial” Personal Communications Software for the 2010 Winter Olympics?

by Jim Courtney on Wed, Oct 7, 2009 7:10 am

Two announcements yesterday, when meshed together, create the setting for Skype to become, de facto, the ‘”unofficial” personal communications software provider for the 2010 Winter Olympics at Vancouver and Whistler, B.C. next February:
Skype President Josh Silverman today posted: “Good Move AT&T”:
Since launching our iPhone application six months ago, people have downloaded and installed Skype [...]

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Categories Communications Stories, Service Providers, Skype News, Skype on Mobile, Wireless Carriers

Burning Man Gets Its Own Country Code (Almost)

by Jim Courtney on Sat, Sep 5, 2009 7:09 am

This week about 50,000 people have gathered in the northern Nevada desert for the annual Burning Man ritual. You really have to visit their website to get a feel for what it is about and the principles that guide this annual one week experience.
Started in the mid-1980s, Burning Man is designed to generate a [...]

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Categories Communications Stories, Communications Technology, Conferences and Events, Wireless Carriers

Is WiFi Becoming the Unregulated Stealth Carrier of the Future?

by Jim Courtney on Sat, Jul 25, 2009 3:07 pm

On a recent trip to Spain, where I turned off my BlackBerry Bold’s and iPhone’s  mobile carrier network connection except when really required, I was able to use WiFi connections at my various hotels quite effectively to keep up with my “data” activities on these devices. (Except in a situation mentioned below I used [...]

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Categories Communications Stories, Mobile Devices, Service Providers, Skype on Mobile, Using Skype, Wireless Carriers

Is Rogers Setting A Benchmark for Net Neutrality Policies?

by Jim Courtney on Mon, Jun 29, 2009 5:06 am

It all started when I attended the June 2 Android launch on Rogers Wireless. During a scrum I had asked “Fringe” actor Joshua Jackson if he had made a call from Paris, France to his wife in Vancouver using Skype for Android (Skype Lite). Rogers Wireless CMO John Boynton interjected that Rogers allows all [...]

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Categories Communications Stories, Conferences and Events, Service Providers, Skype News, Skype on Mobile, Wireless Carriers

Canadian Telecom Summit: Focus on the Learnings

by Jim Courtney on Sat, Jun 20, 2009 8:06 am

The past Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday I attended my first Canadian Telecom Summit – where Canadian telecom carrier and vendor executives have an opportunity to provide an overview of their goals and directions encompassing both recent accomplishments and future plans. Overall many of the speakers succeeded; however, there are still a few telecom executives who want to [...]

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Categories Communications News, Mobile Applications, Mobile Devices, Service Providers, Wireless Carriers

Is “Net Neutrality” Breaking Out in North America?

by Jim Courtney on Sat, Jun 13, 2009 9:06 am

Ok, so the term “Net Neutrality” has different interpretations for different people. Convergence of voice, Internet and broadcast media has created an entirely new set of stakeholders with divergent issues:

Users: they would like to exploit the Internet for all its various features: email, web browsing, viewing videos, exchanging text messages (think IM, not SMS), voice [...]

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Categories Communications News, Service Providers, Skype on Mobile, Wireless Carriers

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