Posted by arlene

Here is the true device that small to large businesses want: Gateways between Skype and Private Branch Exchanges (PBXs). Several vendors are developing Skype PBX gateway devices which will permit a user on a PBX to make Skype or SkypeOut calls, and which will allow an incoming Skype or Skypeln call to be routed to the PBX user’s phone.

These devices would connect to an open PBX Foreign eXchange Office (FXO) interface and then to the Internet in a way that is similar to a Skype ATA or Skype router. The following picture depicts a typical PBX setup.

The Skype gateway always sits between the PBX and the Internet, and provides a method for routing incoming Skype calls via the PBX directly to the phone on the user’s desk phone. Normal functionality of the PBX and the way it interacts with the existing telephone services would not change. The capability to use Skype would be added as an additional telephone feature. The following picture illustrates a Skype gateway with this type of configuration.

A Skype PBX gateway would provide a company bi-directional Skype voice-call capability which would mimic calls to and from the regular telephone network, and which would avoid quality issues, delays, and relays that would most likely be associated with Skype calls over a complex, firewalled, corporate data network. The corporate user would typically dial a single digit number (e.g. 7) to access Skype, thus employing the same familiar sequence already being used to access an ‘outside’ telephone line (i.e. by dialing 9).Then the user would be able to make free Skype-to-Skype, or inexpensive long-distance SkypeOut calls. Speed-dialing would be fully supported, and this could be used to easily access a Skype user who is acting in a standard Help Desk capacity. Additionally, a company could set up several Skype accounts,

`Company_XYZ_Suppore for example, which could provide Internet users using Skype the ability to be routed to the Help Desk for Company XYZ without incurring long-distance fees. Also, this type of gateway could be used to for inter-branch calls, conference calls, or calls to any number of locations around the world, either for free or less expensively than using traditional 800 services or long distance plans.

A Skype PBX gateway would provide these common features:

• Connect to your company PBX and take advantage of Skype, Skypeln, and SkypeOut services.
• Employees can use SkypeOut for low-rate calls.
• Customers can use regular phones to call your Skypeln number for local call service.
• A Skype user on a computer can call customer service for free.
• Integrate with PSTN switches; no need to change existing telephone systems.
• No need to change the firewall or the network.
• Independent host; no need to use another computer.
• Scalable; directly plug in another one to expand the capacity.

Potential Users

Possible users of Skype PBX gateways are:

• Small businesses
• Medium-sized businesses
• Corporations

A Skype Wish List

SkypePod?

I have suggested to all my Apple/Mac-user friends that Apple should release a Skypeenabled iPod with wireless capabilities and a headset jack, so all of us iPodders can make Skype calls when we are near a WiFi hot spot. Plug in a speakerphone and imagine how cool it would be to use an iPod in your home or business to participate in a conference call.

If you took the new iPod Nano and placed it in the form factor of the original iPod, it would be perfect for a SkypePod—or easier said, a “SkyPod” device. If Apple used the iPod Nano or iPod Shuffle electronics in the larger iPod body, there would be room for a wireless card and the additional microphone/headset components. So, Mr. Jobs, if your people read this and you develop the SkyPod, I get ten of them for free! Every Skyper I know who also uses an iPod would buy one of these in a heartbeat. So would every teenager and young adult who is a hardcore iPod user.You heard it here first … I coined the terms SkypePod, SkyPod, and SkypePodders.

SkypePod Video?

Of course, with the iPod now supporting video clips, you could add a small camera like the ones we see in cell phones. With the upcoming addition of Skype Video, Apple could add the Skype Video add-on to the SkyPod, allowing for SkyPod-to-Skype video calls. Then these little devices like a Pocket PC could make video calls as well. So add SkyPod video to our coined terms.Your teenagers and “hip” young adults and us true Skypers would love this type of device—and be able to have our iTunes to boot.

Potential Users

• Possible users of SkypePods are:
• Home users
• Businesses
• Travelers

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