Voice over IP major players- The Skype appeal

Skype, a London based VoIP provider, is clearly a major player by any standard of measure, in the emerging voice over ip sector. With more than 40% of the North American market in her subscriber base, and over 40 million subscribers worldwide, Skype is indeed a major player in the global voip market.

Initially billed as a peer to peer communication platform, Skype is bridging the gap between its 40 million subscribers worldwide, and their non skype contacts, using her recently launced SkypeOut and SkypeIn paid plans.

SkypeOut is an innovative way for the skpe voip users to talk to family, friends and business associates anywhere in the world, who have not yet joined the skype bandwagon, at a substancially reduced rate. With about 1.6 million subscribers, SkypeOut offers long distance calling at local rates.

With SkypeIn, you can get your own, regular phone number. So if your friends who aren’t using Skype want to call you by dialing a regular number, you can still receive the call in Skype. And this is so, matter where you are in the world.

In a move to position herself in the much desired WiFi internet telephony, Skype has partnered with Boingo, a leader in the wireless sector to give her 45 million subscribers worldwide access to more than 18,000 Boingo WiFi hotspot around the world. Skype zones as this new hotspots are called, provide wireless access to Skype's on-the-move subscribers at hotels, airports, and other high traffic business locations.

Also contributing to Skype's tremendous growth is the ease of use of the software, cutting across different operating system platforms and integrating seamlessly with various systems security applications such as firewalls and virus protection program.

Austin Akalanze